Question

(IN YOUR WORDS )

What are contingent workers? Name the different types of contingent workers?

Answer 1

Contingent Worker

A contingent worker is the one that holds a non-permanent or a temporary job with an organization or a company. In other words, a contingent worker is an employee who does not have a specific contract made with a company or an organization that explicitly defines long term employment. It is considered as a short term need rather than a long-term employment. These employees work only till the time the company needs them.

These workers are provided services at organizations and companies on a non-permanent basis. These workers are often termed as temporary workers, freelancers, contractors.

Types of Contingent Workers

Following are the common contingent workers categories:

1. Temporary workers (Temps.)- These employees generally work temporary employment agencies which places these workers for short-term employment/assignments in companies. These employees earn less than the usual full-time employees earn, also they do not receive any benefits or perks of working in a company which a full-time employee gets.

2. Part-time employees- These employees are those who work for less than 34 hours a week. These employees may get fewer or no benefits from the company they are employed in. This results in cost saving by the company. Also, these employees can be scheduled to meet particular peak needs of the company. For example, a clothing store requires more staff during holidays and weekends than during week day time hours. Hence, a part-time employee can be scheduled to meet this peak requirement and work accordingly in the shifts.

3. Contract workers- These are the workers who directly gets in touch with the employer and negotiates a relation directly with the employer regarding a particular piece of work or project or for a specific time period. These workers are considered to be self employed and generally decide their own working hours. These employees are however much more productive and efficient than the in-house employees, as they are concerned about their own work and tends to shift as soon as the work/project/time period ends.

4. College interns- College interns are students who work for companies or organizations for no salary or for very less stipend to gain work experience. These interns can be full time or part time, but they work for a short period of time only. Interns are considered as contingent workers because they provide the company with staffing flexibility. However, sometimes depending upon the work of the intern, the company my offer the intern a full-time employment opportunity at the end of internship.

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