Independent Contractors.
Should they be a part of your inclusion strategy?
Like many young girls I remember being seduced by the wonderous world of acting and dreaming about glamourous clothes and handsome young men sweeping me off my feet. For a moment there I was wrapped up in this romantic Cinderella like delusion.
The bubble burst, when my part in the school play was to dress up as a dishevelled poverty-stricken woman with blacked out teeth. My character was Mrs Puttman. I had all of one line, and I had to hang around for hours to deliver it.
The timing of John English’s hit, Hollywood Seven, which was a story about the demise of a young girls dream as she struggled to be an actress completely, erased any lingering fantasy.
This memory came flooding back when I was preparing some information for a client on the societal impact of insecure work. I realised that the acting profession was a career made up mostly of independent contractors and their experiences are similar to those entering the gig economy.
Both segments are highly competitive, and incomes are not guaranteed. They are often on high alert for work opportunities whether they are employed or not and also have to manage the costs of running a business.
Getting work to pay the bills is a priority and often less focus is spent on securing their future. For many, superannuation becomes a lower order priority and they can find it difficult to re direct money to developing new skills.
Although there are similarities there are also differences. Unlike actors, who all come together and then disperse, independent contractors often work alongside permanent employees either physically or virtually.
This creates a different dynamic. As contractors are not part of the team they are often excluded from formal or informal team building activities. They are often left behind to finish the work or hold the fort. As a consequence, many feel isolated and excluded which is not considered conducive to a healthy or productive workforce.
As many independent contractors are always working or seeking work they often don’t have the opportunity to upskill themselves. Unlike permanent employees they are often excluded from training and development programs.
Although in theory the expectation is that upskilling is a given, in reality this does not always occur. The need to seek employment and manage finances is often higher order priorities than the cost and time to upskill.
Over time an unintended consequence of employing independent contractors may be to create a group of second-class workers within the white collar-workforce. In the pursuit of creating flexible workplaces we may inadvertently help to deskill and isolate a segment of the workforce.
New ways of working are an ongoing experiment. There are always unintended consequences and assumptions that must be reviewed and challenged as the experiments continue.
The assumption that most independent contractors enjoy this job classification and upskill themselves needs to be reviewed because there are potential unintended consequences of presuming this assumption is correct.
Most humans have fundamental needs. They want their security needs met, they want to feel included and be valued for the work they do irrespective of job category or how they are paid. Independent contractors are no different.
The good news is inclusion strategies are high on the agenda for many organisations. It is not difficult to extend the principle of inclusion to independent contractors. It’s a matter of continuing to experiment with options that maximise a healthy and productive workforce.
