If you are following my blog, you will not be surprised that my eyes and ears are tuned toward evidence that HR is becoming more agile. I found it in an article posted on MSN Careers by Matt Ferguson, CEO of CareerBuilder. Ferguson shared 7 trends to watch in the New Year drawn from CareerBuilder’s annual jobs forecast. Among the trends that will shape the staffing market in 2014 are four that denote the changing composition of the workforce.
Overall, Ferguson advises us to expect a reduction in full-time, permanent hiring in favor of contract, temporary, and part-time workers that give companies a flexible workforce. Thomas Fisher, Dean of the College of Design at the University of Minnesota, pointed out a similar trend in The Public Sector Digest in 2012. In “The Contingent Workforce and Public Decision Making,” Fisher quotes some noteworthy statistics:
Imagine—nearly half the workforce will contract their skills to multiple organizations when and where those organizations need them, when they can afford them. That’s what I call “agile staffing,” a development I can validate from my clients’ experience and my own.
While alternative work options like flextime, telecommuting, compressed work schedules, part-time work arrangements, and job sharing have been around for a while, companies are getting more creative. One of my clients, a public-sector entity, is piloting a program called The Agile Organization that fits somewhere between full-time and contract employment. Essentially, this organization is hiring employees in specific departments and positions for specific roles, projects, and terms—and they are including some benefits in the package. This definitely is not the old, standard hourly contractor model! Although the worker is not ‘guaranteed’ work when the term expires, both s/he and the organization benefit from the experience.
I love the agile workforce model and use it myself. Recently, a client requested a quick turn-around project requiring very specific skills I don’t maintain in my formal organization. I reached into my network of independent consultants, identified a handful of qualified resources, and assembled a team to deliver the work. It was a win-win-win: My client got exactly what they needed, my colleagues had the opportunity to do exactly the kind of work they love doing, and my firm was able to deliver great value and solve the client’s problem through individuals that neither they nor I could reasonably employ full-time!
Agile staffing’s advantages are obvious for employers. For workers, who may mourn the long-term permanent employment that was the norm in the old economy, there is a clear upside: They will have greater flexibility in terms of how, when, and where they work. Their careers will include many professional relationships and potentially multiple roles or specialties, promising a more exciting and fulfilling work life. The downside is that not all “contingent” workers will make that choice themselves. Companies driven by practical, economic factors will make that decision for them.
But that can’t be where it ends. In my opinion, employers that utilize a flexible workforce have an obligation beyond hiring workers with the skills they want, when they need them: They must help those workers maintain and enhance their skills, as well as develop the additional skills required to ensure steady employment—the skills to market and promote themselves and to build strong relationships.
What do you think? Whose responsibility is it to prepare, support, enrich, and cultivate the contingent workforce? What model would you recommend?