Helms (2006) identifies many different types of contingent workers – seasonal employees, temporary workers (or temps), part-time workers, interns, and independent contract workers. Each of these types of workers helps employers to organize their workforce more flexibly and cost-effectively. The modern companies operate in a way that forces them to make staff adjustments due to various projects, and these changes have to adhere to a low-cost budget. As a result, the number of contingent workers in the United States, as well as all around the world, has grown along with the need for these kinds of workers.
Given the different levels of pay and benefits among full-time and part-time employees, how may an organization create a sense of internal equity?
Also, the contingent workers should be compensated according to the KPIs that reflect the effectiveness of their work. Benefits could be paid every day or weekly to maintain the reinforcement. It is possible to establish different KPIs for full-time employees and provide rewards for the achievements of another type.
How might the employment of contingent employees affect an organization’s business, its HRM responsibilities, its overall costs, and its organizational culture?
Under the circumstances of the growth of the contingent workforce in an organization, the responsibilities of HR managers would begin to involve working specifically with temporary employees, the company would have to adjust its policies as to transparency of the employee relationships and satisfaction, safety and security policies and rules, it would have to invest more in the training and mentorship programs because new workers need to be educated about their duties (Foley et al., 2014).
Moreover, employee safety would become a serious issue because the collection of data would be complicated by the constant employee turnover (Foley et al., 2014). Logically, the switch of the majority of the company staff from stable full-time workers to temporary employees would most likely produce a significant impact on the organizational culture. To be more precise, the culture, as well as the overall workplace climate, would change and begin to lack integrity, loyalty, and stability. This could disrupt the attitude of the workers to their duties and kill the organizational mission and purpose (if it is anything apart from selfish moneymaking).
In your educated opinion, should the compensation of contingent workers be the same (on a pro-rated basis) as regular, full-time employees doing the same work? Discuss, bringing in both the strengths and challenges this approach presents.
Wilkin (2013) reports that job satisfaction of the contingent workers is much lower than that of the full-time employees. Job satisfaction is, in many cases, directly connected to the professional performance of the workers. That way, to achieve the performance of higher quality, improve job satisfaction, and also raise the workers’ motivation, the compensation of the contingent workers should be different from that of the full-time employees. In particular, the system of rewards for the contingent workers needs to involve monetary bonuses for better performance to stimulate thoroughness and integrity to their duties and eliminate possible unethical practices. This approach would ensure better loyalty among the contingent workers; however, it may cause dissatisfaction with the full-time employees due to the presence of rewards and benefits that they do not have that could be perceived as unfair treatment.
How would you, as the CEO of the company, create a sense of engagement with the infusion of contingent workers in a workplace that historically consisted of regular, full-time employees?
In my opinion, contingent workers are mainly treated as workers with fewer rights due to their temporary status in the organizations. As a result, these workers begin to get the idea that their jobs are unimportant and their responsibilities are not serious. In turn, this perception produces adverse effects on their job performance. As a CEO I would make sure to extend the HR practices to the sector of the contingent workers and offer them rights and responsibilities equal to those of the full-time employees. I would also invest in the good quality training of these workers and motivational strategies (bonuses, perks, rewards, appraisal) so that the projects in which they are involved show higher results.
References
Foley, M., Ruser, J., Shor, G., Shuford, H., & Sygnatur, E. (2014). Contingent workers: Workers’ compensation data analysis strategies and limitations. American Journal of Industrial Medicine, 57(7), 764-775.
Helms, M. M. (2006). Encyclopedia of Management. New York, NY: Cengage Learning.
Wilkin, C. (2013). I can’t get no job satisfaction: Meta-analysis comparing permanent and contingent workers. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 34(1), 47-64.