Advanced Organisational Behaviour Assessment 1: Individual Digital Poster

Advantages and disadvantages of the organisations

Advantages

An employer may hire a contingent worker where an unexpected surge in demand for services or a requirement for specialised knowledge continues up to the end of the project or the contract (Retkowsky et al., 2023).

Because there are fewer administrative tasks associated with experienced contingent workers, it can be faster to hire them compared with a traditional full-time worker.

Employers can also draw on a pool of more highly trained labour because of the availability of more highly trained labour on contingent worker assignments.

Disadvantages

There could be counterparty risks at the second or third tier which may not surface in a traditional employee-employer arrangement (Signoretti et al., 2021).

Co-employment risk often arises when businesses hire other workers to work on their behalf, a factor that may create security or liability issues.

The corporation misses out on the opportunity to train contingent employees internally because they take away the skills that the employees learned during the job.

Strategies for managing contingent workers

True engagement and support should be fostered between HR and Procurement concerning the types of cross-functional initiatives that facilitate improved visibility, accessibility, and control (Knight et al., 2022). This engagement between the two and even further across departments can be fostered by having a point of contact for any questions or issues they might encounter during onboarding.

A Vendor Management System (VMS) solution improves the efficiency of programs, supports compliance, saves money, and increases the visibility of employer programs (Cappelli, 2023). This overcomes challenges in compliance; a study by Oxford Economics and Fieldgrass showed that only 53% of executives are informed on compliance procedures related to contingent workers (Galer, 2020).

Besides assisting the easier practice of tasks such as performance, compliance, and payments, a centralised program can prevent unequal hiring and management practices (Dorigatti and Pedersini, 2021). This type of management bridges the gap between procurement or hiring temporary employees and human resources, that is, regular employment engagements.

Legal and ethical considerations for employing contingent workers

In the 2018 Dynamex Operations West, Inc. v. In The Superior Court of Los Angeles County court case, a precedent is established wherein the organisation hiring contingent workers is responsible for classifying them as independent of the employees under a contractual wage order (Marks, 2018). This requires consideration to avoid being involved in counterparty risks i.e. a contractor fulfilling a job's duties while finishing working for another job on the same day. In the US, the Affordable Care Act of 2010 led to an increase in the contingent workforce of 0.5-1 million workers due to health insurance (Dillender et al., 2016).

Ethically, The Responsible Contracting Project Toolkit can be used to maintain diligence in contracting contingent workers (RCP, 2021). Customising this with international guidelines will further strengthen ethical consideration, by aligning with the models and resources given by the International Chamber of Commerce, The UN Guiding Principles or the OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Business Conduct (Joseph and Kyriakakis, 2023).

Future trends in the contingent workforce landscape

• Upskilling: More employees and organisations cannot be considered experts for very long with the swift introduction and adoption of technology like generative AI. According to Wiley’s Closing the Skills Gap report, skill gaps affect more than 7 in 10 HR professionals (Leonhardt, 2023).
• Skills-based hiring: 70% of companies believe that skills-based hiring makes it easier than reviewing resumes, according to a 2023 survey by TestGorilla (TestGorilla, 2023).
• Compliance focus: Rules like California's AB5 and the European Union's platform worker regulation, which have compelled businesses to extend benefits or to reclassify contingent workers as employees, may generate a more than proportionate increase in costs (Rhinehart et al., 2021).
• Remote and hybrid work: Cost savings from reduced physical infrastructure in remote work may be offset by the initial investments in such technology and management techniques for enabling seamless remote work McKinsey.
• Sustainability and ESG: While sustainable practices are costlier during implementation, the gains can be slowly recouped through higher productivity and savings (Doherty et al., 2023).

Conclusion

External developments are changing workforce dynamics, requiring organisations to adapt traditional working practices to meet evolving market needs. As AI expands and more businesses hire contingent workers, HR assignment help can explore the challenges of managing redundancies, complying with ESG standards, and meeting employment regulations.

References

Benassi, C., & Kornelakis, A. (2020). How Do Employers Choose between Types of Contingent Work? Costs, Control, and Institutional Toying. ILR Review, 74(3), 715–738. https://doi.org/10.1177/0019793920944910

Cappelli, P. (2023). The Rise of a New Industry and the Liquid Workforce. In Our Least Important Asset: Why the Relentless Focus on Finance and Accounting Is Bad for Business and Employees (pp. 75–116). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197629802.003.0005

Dillender, M. O., Heinrich, C. J., & Houseman, S. N. (2016). Effects of the Affordable Care Act on Part-Time Employment: Early Evidence. Journal of Human Resources, 57(4). https://doi.org/10.17848/wp16-258

Doherty, R., Kampel, C., Koivuniemi, A., Pérez, L., & Rehm, W. (2023). Unlocking the triple play: How integrating ESG priorities into growth strategies delivers sustainable profitable growth and outperforms peers | mckinsey. Www.mckinsey.com. https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/strategy-and-corporate-finance/our-insights/the-triple-play-growth-profit-and-sustainability

Dorigatti, L., & Pedersini, R. (2021). Industrial relations and inequality: the many conditions of a crucial relationship. Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, 27(1), 11–27. https://doi.org/10.1177/10242589211007400

Galer, S. (2020, April 21). For External Services Providers, The World Just Became A Lot Flatter. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/sap/2020/04/21/for-external-services-providers-the-world-just-became-a-lot-flatter/

Joseph, S., & Kyriakakis, J. (2023). From soft law to hard law in business and human rights and the challenge of corporate power. Leiden Journal of International Law, 36(2), 1–27. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0922156522000826

Knight, L., Tate, W., Carnovale, S., Di Mauro, C., Bals, L., Caniato, F., Gualandris, J., Johnsen, T., Matopoulos, A., Meehan, J., Miemczyk, J., Patrucco, A. S., Schoenherr, T., Selviaridis, K., Touboulic, A., & Wagner, S. M. (2022). Future business and the role of purchasing and supply management: Opportunities for “business-not-as-usual” PSM research. Journal of Purchasing and Supply Management, 28(1). Sciencedirect. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pursup.2022.100753

Leonhardt, M. (2023, January 24). There’s a big skills gap at work right now. These are the top 10 skills employers are looking for. Yahoo Finance. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/big-skills-gap-now-top-164232338.html

Marks, T. (2018, May 30). The California Supreme Court Deals A Blow To Independent Contractors. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/tonymarks/2018/05/29/the-california-supreme-court-deals-a-blow-to-independent-contractors/

McKinsey. (2021, May 14). How working from home can work for support functions | McKinsey. Www.mckinsey.com. https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/operations/our-insights/virtually-possible-getting-remote-work-right-for-g-and-a-functions

RCP. (2021). The RCP Toolkit. Responsible Contracting Project. https://www.responsiblecontracting.org/toolkit

Retkowsky, J., Nijs, S., Akkermans, J., Jansen, P., & Khapova, S. N. (2022). Toward a sustainable career perspective on contingent work: a critical review and a research agenda. Career Development International, 28(1), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1108/cdi-06-2022-0181

Retkowsky, J., Sanne Nijs, Jos Akkermans, Khapova, S. N., & Jansen, P. (2023). Seeking stability in unstable employment: An explorative study of temporary agency workers’ career self-management. Journal of Vocational Behaviour, 143. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2023.103877

Rhinehart, L., McNicholas, C., Poydock, M., & Mangundayao, I. (2021, June 16). Misclassification, the ABC test, and employee status: The California experience and its relevance to current policy debates. Economic Policy Institute. https://www.epi.org/publication/misclassification-the-abc-test-and-employee-status-the-california-experience-and-its-relevance-to-current-policy-debates/

Signoretti, A., Pederiva, L., & Zaninotto, E. (2021). Trading‐off flexibility: Contingent workers or human resource practices? A configurational approach. Human Resource Management Journal, 32(1). https://doi.org/10.1111/1748-8583.12394

Sulbout, J., Pichault, F., Jemine, G., & Naedenoen, F. (2021). Are skilled contingent workers neglected? Evidence from a cross-sector multiple case study on organizational career management practices. European Management Journal, 40(3). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.emj.2021.07.005

TestGorilla. (2023). The State of Skills-Based Hiring 2024 – TestGorilla. Www.testgorilla.com. https://www.testgorilla.com/skills-based-hiring/state-of-skills-based-hiring-2024/