Challenges and changes in the contractor workforce

Abstract

Globalisation and decreasing government labour market involvement have wreaked havoc with the concept of what we once thought of as 'traditional' or 'standard' employment. The increasingly dynamic nature of the workforce provides organisations with a complex new array of challenges. This paper examines the professional agency contractor workforce as an example of these challenges. We investigate the notion that the initial factors associated with the individuals move into contracting continue to exert considerable influence in sustaining the individual's ability to successfully remain working this way. The research findings support this notion and the results are discussed in terms of the management implications for organisations wishing to retain, maintain and sustain a workforce of professionals employed as contractors.A key feature within a world of work characterised by escalating change is the increasing number of individuals falling outside the standard view of a worker as a male, in a full-time stable job of an indefinite duration (Connelly and Gallagher 2004;Hall 2006). Within this trend, the professional contract whitecollar workforce has been identified as a significant area of growth (see for example Ashford, George and Blatt 2007;Davidov 2004). This paper presents results from one part of a much broader research project investigating the contracted professional workforce (see McKeown 2003McKeown , 2005.By synthesising common themes from studies of the broader non-standard workforce, we explore how the push and pull factors associated with the initial move into contracting assist in retaining and sustaining individuals as contractors as well as the impact these factors have for the ongoing relationship with the organisations engaging their services. We investigate the relationship

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