A recent conference organised by the Australasian Talent Conference, Contingent – the new perm, puts an interesting spin on the need to develop more effective and efficient organisations. Its focus is contingent (or short-term) workers, rather than the permanent (or core) workforce.
Australia is in an unusual position among advanced market economies. It has shortages in specific skills that appear ongoing, and an increasingly mobile workforce. For that reason, most of the focus for management has been on talent management through the attraction, retention and development of core permanent staff. Research in this field continues to show that this — as opposed to a focus on filling the workplace with part-timers and fixed contact employees — is critical in attracting top-quality employees who will engage and commit to an organisation’s goals.
The evidence also shows that Australian permanent workers are in the top group in the world when it comes to the amount of unpaid hours they work, with many working over 50 hours a week, even if their contract stipulates the standard 37 hours. This is part of an ongoing commitment by both the employer and the employee to the work and workplace.
For employers who make a clear statement that they do not intend to develop a relationship with employees, and who simply terminate staff when the environment gets unpredictable, there may be short-term gains on the balance sheet. However, there will be long-term pain in terms of productivity. A workplace filled with non-committed workers going through the motions until something better comes along (or before they are axed) does not make for high engagement. In these days of social networking – take as an example the Naked Office website, which allows people to post their opinion of organisations at which they’ve worked – organisations working by this philosophy are likely to develop reputations as ‘churn and burn’ employers and unlikely to attract high-quality, committed workers.
This conference commenced on the same day as the release of a report titled *Men Get Flexible! Mainstreaming Flexible Work in Australian Business. Produced by Westpac and supporting sponsors Stockland, Origin and Allens, it has highlighted the need for more flexible work arrangement for core male employees.
More flexible work arrangements can generate positive outcomes for men, women, families and organisations. By understanding employees’ needs and increasing men’s engagement in flexible work, organisations are helping to move flexible work from an afterthought into mainstream workplace planning.
While the conference organisers have denied promoting contingent workforce over permanent, the conference flyer clearly demonstrates a focus on cost-cutting measures associated with a contingent workforce. What is implicit from this is that encouraging investment in the development of the workforce is unlikely.
It is clear the workplace has changed. More and more, as the full-time male breadwinner becomes less the dominant standard, people are seeking flexibility and variable work hours to suit their lifestyles. Most organisations have developed a mix of full (core) and part-time/casual and contract employees. This allows staff to work the patterns they want and is likely to enhance workplace commitment among permanent staff. At the same time, part-time, casual and contract workers provide flexibility when demand varies. They can also offer expertise: the conference emphasises that contingent staff are a way to bring specific skills into an organisation as and when required.
A key consideration for employers is the question of where an organisation’s corporate knowledge is stored if the workplace is inhabited by people simply passing through. While such a core-periphery model of employment may not be perfect, at the centre of it is a focus on the key asset of all organisations: its people. This is very much the key to productivity in a knowledge- and service-based global economy.
Dale Bloom
Analyst
There are many systems of management, but I don’t believe anything above the most basic levels of management can be achieved with a casual or short term workforce.
There are few long term positives for a company with a casual or short term workforce, and probably even less long term positives for the workforce. Eventually a company can have such minimal regard for its casual workforce, it doesn’t even recognise they exist.
I personally know of an ongoing dispute in one company where the permanent supervisors would go home, and leave casual workers at the workplace carrying out work. This breaks the primary rule in supervision “The supervisor is always the last to leave”, but the company does not believe the casual workers need to be supervised by a permanent supervisor.
So that company does not recognise that its casual workers exists, or believes its casual workers have any rights, or believes its casual workers need any supervision.
Craig Minns
Self-employed
Simply summarised as "men shouldn't work so hard because they make the women look bad"
Not convincing.
The cost of running a part-time and casualised workforce seem likely to exceed the benefits. Especially if you're asking the committed workforce to step aside.
Pure silliness.
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I've never understood why employers expect part time workers to be so devoted to their companies. For a start many people who work part time are looking for full time work so it is inevitable they;re going to dump the part time job for the full time job.
Whenever I've had a part time job I have never earned enough to live on. Much of the time I was expected to be available whenever the boss wanted me, which was hard if I had more than one part time job or I had arranged something else thinking I was not on the roster that day. I have been frowned upon because was unable to do overtime when asked at the last minute because I had to get home to children. So needless to say I felt no obligation to be terribly productive or devoted to these organisations and I am always desperately seeking for the job with better conditions and more security!
Helen James
Project Officer
Fairly biased article. I work in an organisation with many permanent part time workers, many women with children. It's a genuinely flexible place but so are the employees who work their share of unpaid over time, volunteer work and so on. I work 3 days a week, picking up the slack from home at night and am doing 5 days worth of work crammed in to those 3 days. Absolutely great value worker. I would suggest this is more about work place culture.
In order for some one to be working those 50 hours if that person has a family then some one else is going to be needing to leave work to collect the kids, keep the household running, cook dinner and so on to support that worker.
I would also suggest if your core work force is constantly working 50 hour weeks as a norm, unpaid, you are looking at a business recipe for disaster on so many levels.