Rebounding with contract employees
I heard a great presentation by Edward Hernandez in Denver last week which was quite interesting. He was talking about one of my hot topics at the moment, employee engagement. I thought I’d share with you an additional observation which I believe is much more important than it first seems:
As the economy rebounds, companies will be reluctant to hire full-time employees. Fairly obvious, right? But this has broad implications.
First, why would this statement be true?
- Companies have recent painful memories of how hard it is to shed permanent employees.
- They will be unsure about the magnitude and longevity of the rebound. Is it for real this time? What happens if it’s slower than currently projected?
- Full-time employees come with the expectation of stability in job assignment. There’s more flexibility with hiring contractors to address short-term pain points.
There’s some very interesting implications from this statement for anyone who’s in the job market:
- Be open to the possibility of part-time and/or contract work, possibly for the rest of your career.
- Tap the available resources to learn how to manage yourself as an independent contract business. Fortunately, there’s plenty available.
- Market yourself as an excellent contract worker – this may well place you ahead of others who are only looking for full-time positions. Change your résumé/CV, put up a website, and start describing yourself as a business.
- Start tracking what’s going on in your market – what’s happening with strategic moves at various possible employers, where pain points are emerging, and map that to short-term projects that you could engage with.
It’s tough to find a job right now, so anything you can do to increase your odds will be time well spent!
Related articles:
» You Can’t Change Others — How to Use Influence to Your Advantage
» Do you need a MasterMind group?
Tags: career, Career Coaching, job hunt, marketing
.