{"id":2836,"date":"2015-11-13T06:37:53","date_gmt":"2015-11-13T06:37:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/devbloglavaprotocols.nityo.in\/7-best-practices-for-managing-contingent-workers\/"},"modified":"2015-11-13T06:37:53","modified_gmt":"2015-11-13T06:37:53","slug":"7-best-practices-for-managing-contingent-workers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lavaprotocols.com\/the-cloud-blog\/7-best-practices-for-managing-contingent-workers\/","title":{"rendered":"7 Best Practices for Managing Contingent Workers"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

By 2020, more than 40% of the workforce will be made up of part-timers<\/a>. Here\u2019s what you need to know to keep up with the turning tide.<\/strong><\/h1>\n

According to a recently released study<\/span>\u00a0from Emergent Research and Intuit, by the time we hit the year 2020, contingent workers \u2013 i.e. individuals classified as freelancers, temps, part-time workers, and independent contractors who work on \u201con demand\u201d projects rather than as full time employees \u2013 will surpass 40 percent of the workforce.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s contingent worker isn\u2019t necessarily someone who can\u2019t get a full time job, and so shifts into freelance or contract work as a backup plan. Quite often, a contingent worker is both highly skilled and eminently employable \u2013 but for a variety of reasons, finds it enjoyable, practical or more profitable to fly solo. <\/span><\/p>\n

Or, it may indeed be the case that a contingent worker cannot find a suitable full-time job in their local labour market because there\u2019s a surplus of supply, or because their industry is going through transition in how it conducts business from a more programme-based model to one that is more project-focused (the legal field is among the best examples of this structural shift). <\/span><\/p>\n

Still, even if working \u201con demand\u201d is their Plan B, the fact remains that many of today\u2019s contingent workers are trained, skilled, experienced, knowledgeable, and ready to make an immediate contribution at a high level. \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Overcoming Obstacles<\/strong><\/h2>\n

However, despite the significant size and influence of the contingent workforce, many organisations are still grappling and grasping to how the model works. The effort and intent is there, but the execution and results are a work in progress.<\/span><\/p>\n

To overcome these obstacles and maximize the relationship for everyone involved, here are 7 best practices for managing contingent (external) workers:<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Use Advanced Resource Management Tools <\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Mountains of spreadsheets and emails<\/a> don\u2019t cut it for managing internal employees \u2013 let alone for external workers, who need to connect and disconnect to projects rapidly and successfully. Organisations need advanced resource management tools to build high-performance teams composed of both internal and external workers, and to access real-time insights into individual and group workloads and tasks. Using these tools to easily and quickly re-allocate resources within and across projects is also vital for achieving milestones, meeting deadlines, and achieving business objectives.<\/span><\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Put Collaboration in the Context of Work<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      \u201cCollaboration for the sake of collaboration,\u201d and aimless discussions that chase emergent activity streams are where project performance and productivity goes to die. Redefine collaboration by using technology that automatically connects informal, unstructured conversations to structured work items and objects. Enable internal and external workers to easily use discussions to link relevant items \u2013 ultimately creating realistic and contextual conversations around projects, tasks, files and so on.<\/span><\/p>\n

        \n
      1. Centralize Communications<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

        It\u2019s challenging enough for internal teams to find documents, meeting minutes, notes, emails, and other important or critical pieces of information. But when external workers are added to the mix, project progress can grind to a screeching, panic-inducing halt. Avoid this trauma by centralizing communications with a cloud-based work management platform \u2013 one that is accessible by smartphones as well as computers and laptops, so that all workers can efficiently stay in the loop and extend the work journey between devices. <\/span><\/p>\n

          \n
        1. Enable Visibility & Transparency<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

          External workers, just like their internal counterparts, should never have to guess how their contribution fits into the bigger picture. Enabling 360-degree visibility and transparency helps everyone know where they fit into the bigger picture and, just as importantly, how changes or progress (or lack thereof) in certain stages of a project may impact their own tasks. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

            \n
          1. Streamline Workflows \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

            External workers don\u2019t just <\/span>want<\/span><\/i> to hit the ground running and make an immediate contribution \u2013 they <\/span>have <\/span><\/i>to, because they\u2019re not compensated in the same way as internal employees (i.e. they\u2019re usually paid on an hourly basis, or flat-fee for a defined scope of work). As such, it\u2019s very important to streamline workflows by using customized business rules and automated actions. Excess administration for external workers isn\u2019t just an annoyance: it can rapidly erase the business value they get from the relationship.<\/span><\/p>\n

              \n
            1. Automate Time Tracking, Invoicing and Payment<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

              While internal employees may not always be thrilled with their level of compensation, they (usually) don\u2019t lie awake in bed at night wondering if they\u2019ll be paid every two weeks. External workers face a different reality, and unless they\u2019re working through a 3<\/span>rd<\/span> party agency, they have to function as their own accounts receivable department. It\u2019s both important and appreciated to automate time tracking, invoicing and payment, so that external employees can enjoy the same comfort and confidence as their internal counterparts. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

                \n
              1. Foster a Culture of Inclusion<\/strong> \u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

                Embrace external workers as legitimate and valued team members \u2013 because that\u2019s exactly what they are! Not only will this inspire them to exceed expectations, but it will allow the organization to benefit from their wealth of knowledge capital, which can be mined to drive improvements and innovations.<\/span><\/p>\n

                The Bottom Line<\/strong><\/h3>\n

                The work landscape is changing as more skilled contingent workers arrive on the scene. For some organizations, integrating these skilled external workers with their internal teams, processes and workflows will continue to be a difficult obstacle to overcome. But for other organizations \u2013 those that adjust existing processes, embrace new paradigms, and use the right enterprise-grade work management solution \u2013 it will be a productive and profitable opportunity to optimize.<\/span><\/p>\n

                Following these practices will help establish your organization among the latter, and send it far ahead of the pack.<\/span><\/p>\n

                Lava Protocols is an authorised partner of Clarizen<\/strong><\/p>\n

                Source:\u00a0Clarizen.com<\/span><\/p>\n

                \u00a0<\/p>\n

                <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

                According to a recently released study from Emergent Research and Intuit, by the time we hit the year 2020 contingent workers \u2013 i.e. individuals classified<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2837,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[80],"class_list":["post-2836","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-clarizen"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.lavaprotocols.com\/the-cloud-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/3H21KUXVT4-e1447396590569.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavaprotocols.com\/the-cloud-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2836","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavaprotocols.com\/the-cloud-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavaprotocols.com\/the-cloud-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavaprotocols.com\/the-cloud-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavaprotocols.com\/the-cloud-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2836"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavaprotocols.com\/the-cloud-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2836\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavaprotocols.com\/the-cloud-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavaprotocols.com\/the-cloud-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavaprotocols.com\/the-cloud-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavaprotocols.com\/the-cloud-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}