Contractors - the way of the future - Business Support is the way to go

Contractors are happier and paid better than their Permanent competitors according to The Lure of Autonomy: A Global Study of Professional Workers report which surveyed more than 2000 contractors worldwide (including 197 from Australia) in 2005. One thing it discovered was that contractors aren't that interested in job security, holidays and superannuation etc. They were also slightly older than their full-time buddies, had more experience and were obviously paid more due to casual rates or contractors rates. Let's face it, if you are a contractor you can pretty much charge what you want to. The majority were male also. This may be accounted for by the fact that most contractors in the building, electrical and plumbing trades, just to name a few, are primarily dominated by men. They were also generally content in their job, liked the boss and the industry they were working in.

Of all the countries surveyed, we Aussies held the record for the biggest gap in experience between the contractors and the full-time workers. How's this; on average contractors had 20 years experience compared to only thirteen on average for the full-time workers. (I know who I'd employ).

It seems that the main struggle for contractors is finding new jobs or assignments. They have to try to sell themselves while they're on another job; not an easy thing to do. It's probably a toss up as to which is the bigger problem, as they're other big challenge is not having a regular income. Now, that's something I can relate to - in my line of work you have your quiet weeks and the next week you can be swamped. It makes balancing the bank statement, paying the bills and putting food on the table a real circus balancing act. (pun intended)

The research undertaken in 2005 should make employers and employees alike stand up and pay attention! It suggests that employers need to 'take notice' of this growing trend, but in my honest opinion and from my experience in the workforce over the last 27 years or so, I believe the employers are causing the trend. More and more you hear of companies putting full-time staff off and not replacing them; palming the work out to whoever is left to take the overload. And it is overload, because before long, the employee has gone off on stress leave or similar, and the employer still too tight to be able to employ a full-timer, employs a casual or contractor. In short, the company doesn't have to pay the casual or the contractor as much as they don't get paid holiday pay etc. It's purely a cost cutting strategy and it's caused a worldwide trend.

It appears that employers are now trying to meet the needs of their contractors. I'm guessing this is because they realise how important a commodity they are! Casuals or contractors aren't going to hang around a job for long if the conditions aren't to their liking. Why would they? They can just move on the next assignment. Companies are obviously realising this, and also realising that they spend precious man hours and money training these people and then they walk if they don't get what they want. Contractors are getting the upper-hand every time. They can also almost ask whatever rate they want provided it's less than employing a full-timer - they're on easy street.

This is a huge phenomenon that we are seeing in the worldwide workforce and it's not about to stop any time soon. I'm guessing it's only going to keep growing. I mean, why wouldn't it? Why would employers suddenly do an about-face and suddenly take on full-timers? In reality, they would be mad if they did.

How's this for a startling fact? - The ABS statistics the number of contractors is growing at a rate of 20% per annum, and if it keeps growing at that annual rate the majority of Australian workers will be casuals or contractors by 2015. This blows me away!

So if you are thinking of moving into contracting, it would seem you are not the only one! Apparently the work is out there; just be sure to market yourself correctly - think ahead - and keep those skills up to date.

Have you thought about this at all? Do you have plans to move into contracting or casual work? What changes would that mean for your household?

(ref source: The Lure of Autonomy: A Global Study of Professional Workers report)