Helping Contingent Workers Feel Welcome
Posted July 19th, 2011
Researchers have found that the more temporary workers are brought on board to a company, the less happy the regular workers are. To counteract this situation, they recommend integrating the contingent workforce as much as possible into the social and cultural network of the company, not looking at them as a completely separate workforce.
Regular workers become dissatisfied for a number of reasons. One is that they often are tasked with training the temporary workers and introducing them to the corporate culture. So, when there are more temporary workers at a company, the job of the full-time employees becomes more involved, because they are then constantly engaged in the training of new people. Regular employees also can become frustrated because they see the time they spend helpin contingent workers as time that is being taken away from their own work.
Another problem arises when the temporary worker is doing the same job as the regular employee. The full-time person looks at this as a lessening of his or her own status.
This feeling is more pronounced at the lower levels of a company, where there may not be a lot of difference between the two types of workers.
Managers, however, can help make the situation better for everyone if they handle things properly. They should try to foster social exchange among all workers. The temporary workers should be part of all company functions, such as departmental lunches, holiday parties, and other gatherings, researchers said.
Forming these social connections is the key to forming an efficient and effective workforce, they added.
Research also showed that temporary workers who came to company with the knowledge that they had a chance to become a regular, full-time employee if they performed well in their temporary assignment, were more satisfied and performed better than contingent workers who did not have such an opportunity.
The researchers said that temporary workers want to work hard and fit in, especially if they see an opportunity to become a full-time worker at a company. As a result, a temp-to-hire arrangement can be a good method for companies to use to find skilled and reliable workers.
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