Emerging trends in HRM in the global context

CONTINGENT WORK FORCE

The world of business changes every day with new trends and activities. The enterprise executives and leaders that are hampered down by vintage philosophies are finding that these new trends in the business world are passing them by, and, in order overcome the situation and survive in the market position and also to thrive in this new corporate paradigm, they must entirely adopt in to the evolution of this new real time culture.

Around the world, the traditional whimsy of labor, work and talent are being changed and internal enterprise activities are reshaping their talent management activities.  A very attractive part of modern day work day workforce is the contingent workers. Contingent workers are individuals who are typically hired for shorter periods of time. 

They perform specific tasks that often require special job skills and are employed when an organization is experiencing significant deviations in its workflow. When an organization makes its strategic decision to employ a sizable portion of its workforce from the contingency ranks, several HRM issues come to the forefront. These include being able to have these virtual employees available when needed, providing scheduling options that meet their needs and making decisions about whether or not benefits will be offered to the contingent work force.

Non of the organizations can make the transition to a contingent workforce without sufficient planning. As such, when these strategic decisions are being made, HRM must be an active partner in these discussions. After its entire HRM department’s responsibility to locate and bring into the organization these temporary workers. As temporary workers are brought in, HRM will also have the responsibility of quickly adapting them to the organization. HRM will also have to give some thought to how it will attract quality temporaries. This is sometimes done on consultancy basis. Consultancy work is often a short time basis and to re-invent the organization’s operation such a workforce of consultancy is vital.

Pros and Cons of contingent workers.

PROS

Cost saving

Cost savings opportunities are available when working with the contingent workforce. Contingent laborers are usually hired on an as-needed basis, this means corporations won't have to pay temps during downtime like they would permanent employees. If managed properly, a company can decided how much funds go into a particular task by carefully picking the amount of temps working on a project.

CONS

Issues related to the confidentiality of the company

The main detrimental factor to consider is confidentiality. No such guarantee could be given that the hired contingent worker will not move on to a competitor once their time with you is over. When a contingent worker has specialized skills that can only be used in certain industries, the chances of them joining a competitor seems likely. Though it is common for a temp worker to sign a confidentiality agreement, there is still risk of certain knowledge not being left within the organization. 

Reference / Bibliography

• https://www.businessknowhow.com/manage/hire-temp.htm (accessed at 4.30 PM on 31/10/2017)
• SAP Fieldglass (2017), The state of contingent workforce Management 2016- 2017 : Adapting to a new world of work
• Armstrong M (2014) Armstrong’s handbook of human resource management practice, 13th edn, UK by Ashford Colour press Ltd
• Dessler G. (2013 Human resource management, 13th edn, USA, New Jersey, Pearson Education, Inc

Picture credit

• Hiring trends: The rice of contingent workers
• radiantskies