The blended workforce has nothing to do with the smoothie of the day. In this instance, the blended workforce I am addressing here is the blend of full-time employees along the side of freelance employees. Open the pot, stir in some full timers and add a few contract or freelance employees and you have yourself a growing company.Central Communications has long had the ability to have workers who are required to come into one of our offices for their work day. We also have some operators who work remotely. All of our employees are just that, employees.
That freelance model doesn’t generally work for us with our operators, but there are some functions we do farm out to free lancers. We do that mainly for situations where we need certain tasks performed on a regular basis, but the amount of work that is performed doesn’t necessarily justify a full-time employee.
Some companies produce goods and services based upon contracts. Contracts usually have a beginning and end date. When the companies who are hired to fulfill those services need employees, they usually hire a core group of employees, and the rest of the people who work for them do so under contract. It’s good for the company as it saves money on overhead, and it’s good for the people who like to work on a contract basis. Contract workers can often handle a few different jobs, or they use contract work to supplement the income they make from their own businesses. It can be a win-win for everyone involved.
Forbes magazine had a post on top workplace trends for 2017 and one of them was the Blended Workforce.
“The blended workforce is on the rise. In the past five years, the gig economy has become a major trend impacting the global workforce and has created a new kind of diversity, with full-time permanent employees working side-by-side with freelancers. A study exploring the gig economy found that 93% of companies already identify the blended workforce as they’re seeing freelance workers teaming up with employees to work on projects together. In addition, the top reason why outperforming employers are benefiting from the blended workforce is “more flexible teaming”. At the SHRM 2016 Annual Conference in Washington DC, Henry Jackson, the President of SHRM, noted that the “rise of freelance workers” was one of the top five biggest employment trends. Multiple studies from Intuit to The Freelancer’s Union predict that at least 40% of the workforce will be freelancers in the next few years. As more companies hire on-demand to solve key problems and cut costs by removing healthcare coverage, and other employee benefits, more freelancers, and full-time workers will need to work together. With many freelancers working at remote offices, the ability to manage without borders is going to become a critical skill globally.”
Could your workforce use this approach? Are your people missing important phone calls? Would it be productive for you to have a method to track in bound calls and take charge of positive followup.
Central Communications would love to be a part of your blended work force.
