Breaking
News 5/19/11
Many Jobs on the Prairie, but No Place to Live
"All they're asking is minimum education, good work habits, pass the drug test, show up for work on time and follow directions," he says.
When
the New Temp Happens to Be the Boss
WSJ
MANAGEMENT
FEBRUARY 28, 2011 By JOE
LIGHT
Companies
have used temporary administrative assistants and customer-service
representatives for years. But soon, more employees may find temps in
an unlikely position—as their bosses.
More
than 9% of companies say they use temporary workers in management
functions to a "high" or "very high extent,"
according to a recently released survey by the Institute for
Corporate Productivity, a Seattle-based research organization.
In
addition, more than 17% of companies say they frequently use temps in
high-skill areas, like engineering and science. To be sure, the bulk
of temp positions still seem to be in lower-level roles, but "in
the coming years, we're going to see a sea change in who the typical
contingent worker is," said Lorrie Lykins, director of research
services for the institute.
In
some cases, companies are looking for people to shepherd
reorganizations, layoffs or other transitions. "It can be less
painful to have a contingent manager do that," Ms. Lykins said.
Promising signs
William Rodgers
III, a professor at Rutgers University and former chief economist of
the Labor Department, was encouraged by the data. "It's a
signal that the acceleration we're seeing in other parts of the
economy is starting to shift over to the job market," he said.
"We're starting to get some momentum."
Temporary
jobs,
in particular, are a good place to gain a toehold in the work force,
experts said. Of the 222,000 private sector jobs added in February,
15,500 were temporary, according to Jodi Chavez, senior vice
president for Accounting Principles, a division of Adecco, a human
resources firm.
When the
economy starts to bounce back, temporary staffing firms are among the
first to hire, said Chavez. Many companies are still "a little
gun-shy" to sign on full-time employees, she added.
A
temporary post can be "almost like a job
interview,"
said Andrew Steinerman, an analyst who covers the temporary staffing
industry for JPMorgan. "Once you're on assignment, you have a
chance to prove yourself for a full time job. It's a good way to get
your foot in the door."
Temporary
staffing has been increasing since the recession ended. Some
observers are predicting that in the next few years temp workers will
be a larger part of the labor force than ever before.
Temporary
employment: The 21st century mail room
Posted
by: Matt
Rivera
Much
has been made of the increased
use of temporary or contract labor in
post-Recession America. This comes as a surprise to many who were
looking for a quick return to low unemployment and universal
prosperity.
To
those of us working in and around the workforce solutions industry,
it’s much less of a surprise. We’ve noted this change for a
while, and the results of our latest Annual
Workforce Trends Survey support
the use of temporaries as a more permanent part of the workforce.
However, it
makes me wonder if this is more than just an increase in the numbers
of temporary workers. Is it a real change in the way companies and
job seekers think of temporary jobs? Is temporary work becoming the
mail room of the 21st century?
By this, I
mean that for many baby boomers, it was common to start low in an
organization — for example, the mail room — and work your way up
the corporate ladder. It was a way to demonstrate work ethic and
build tenure with the company.
Today, with
fewer jobs available, especially at the lower levels, and Generation
Y seeking faster upward mobility, perhaps what we are seeing is
companies and prospective employees using temporary assignments to
start workers a few rungs up the ladder (or a few floors above the
mail room). It makes sense for both, as companies struggle to find
and keep talent and unemployed workers consider lower-level, but not
rock-bottom, positions to stay employed. Perhaps a temporary
assignment nicely fits the “try before you buy” needs of the
manager and the “get your foot in the door” needs of the worker.
So if you are
a job seeker and haven’t fully embraced the possibilities of
temporary work, perhaps you should see it as the door to the
metaphorical mail room — the show-what-you-can-do room.
If you are an
employer and are looking for that next diamond in the rough, maybe
instead of looking in the mail room, you should pay more attention to
the temporaries you have working for you today. Odds are, more than a
few of them are thinking the same thing you are: ”This is
working out really well. Maybe you (I) could do more here.”
