I want the reader to know that this is not about why we should have diversity in the workforce or how it should be done. Instead I want to discuss how the move to a more contingent or flexible or temporary workforce that now comprises about 30% of US workers will affect effort to diversify. There are those that speculate that this trend towards a temporary workforce, which has been rising since the 1950s is only going to continue and likely increase for several reasons:
- Companies need the flexibility to quickly down grade their full time employees (FTEs) in low demand times and upgrade when demand picks up again
- Millennials and Gen X/Ys, depending on who defines them, but let’s say those born 1975 onward, are demanding a more flexible work life and see only unlimited career paths over the course of a lifetime
It’s nice that #2 meshes well with #1 for it could serve business needs while allowing work to change when workers reach life stages such as when they get new certifications, start families, or take semi-retirement. Once the time-/ place-sensitive Boomers leave the workplace, or at least step down from their power positions, I think we will see the law and corporations be more open to portable and flexible benefits, work scheduling and toleration of career paths that can diverge for various reasons. All of this has been speculated before but what I do not see discussed is how all this plays out for a diverse workforce. Perhaps it’s because the outcome might even make the effort a redundant one.
Let’s think about that for a moment. A larger and larger part of the contingent workforce is off shore that is creeping up the corporate ladder to C-level. I has blogged previously about this on this site and since then Business Week recently devoted a feature article on this. Contingency workers are diverse simply because it is a pool that come from near shore and off shore with people educated in different ways through different countries and different parts of this country. With current US law these people are an expense item and not FTEs and we all know the business case for using contingency help. Consequently contingent workers do not count towards a diverse workforce. For a Federal government contract holder a company has to make an effort to be diverse in their full time worker population even if 30% of their work is outsourced or lose their contracts.
Of course there are other reasons to be diverse besides retainiing Federal contracts. It is good business for your workforce to reflect the population of your customer base. The business press feels strongly that without a diverse workforce a business will not be able to compete globally and the consensus is that is happening right now. But we are also in a world where benefits and healthcare are not transportable so temporary work will be second-class and not highly desirable in the US until that happens, especially for those with families. As the temporary pool of workers becomes more important for competing in the global marketplace, the tax and savings benefit will go away as this sector of the total corporate talent pool will become more and more integrated. “Alumni” will not only mean those that have left a full time job but also those who had temporary jobs in a company and are “on tap” for future jobs – that is, always in good standing. I think we can all see this being made easier through an IT Solution, especially with social networks inside and outside the company.
In a world where a contingent workforce is now treated as a vital part of the company’s talent pool and is tracked as “on the bench” or off, then it is possible that as far as diversity goes it will follow its due course. The world offers a global talent marketplace. The barriers to tapping that global workforce will continue to fall. Portable benefits, quality communications in different time zones, workforce management best practices and other barriers I think will go away more quickly than most businesses realize. Many of those capabilities are already in place but laws and old thinking will keep it from coming into full bloom in the near future. Those companies that do it first will have the competitive advantage.
Do you think Diversity will naturally follow a trend towards a global but flexible workforce?
Dorothy Beach has been in research for her entire career first as a scientist then as a field consumer researcher and more recently in recruiting in some of the largest companies in the US. Her blog, FrontEndRecruiting.ning.com was created to showcase the latest trends (such as social media used for recruiting), tools and techniques used by recruiters for the initial phase of the recruiting cycle - company research and name generation. She can be found on LinkedIn and accepts all invitations to her extensive network using beach2000@gmail.com. Follow her on Twitter@dorothybeach where she will point you to those who are on top of their recruiting social media game.
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