FREE AGENTS, FLEXIBLE & BLENDED WORKFORCE MODELS, GEN Y - The New World of Work!

The blended workforce is nothing new. Companies have always relied on both employees and contingent, or free agent, workers, and oftentimes have them working side-by-side. Traditionally, however, companies recognized and managed talent as a function focused on employees, those traditional “full-time, W-2 workers” who put in a forty-hour work week and collect benefits. Companies would augment their employees with flexible workers — contingents, temporary staff, contractors, and others who would provide support to fill in gaps that didn’t require hiring a traditional employee. From the employee perspective, the focus was even simpler. When looking for employment, a worker typically sought a full-time job. A contract assignment or temporary position might fill a gap, but usually only until something more permanent came along.


Today, that view has changed. According to the Staffing Industry Analysts 2011 Contingent Buyers Survey, one dollar of every eight earned is paid to an independent worker. Unlike many temporary trends, the recent rise of the free agent and contingent workforce has multiple contributing factors.

---Globalization opens more opportunity for workers

First, there is the globalization of business. Companies are not only operating across boundaries of nations and regions, but they have access to workers around the world, which means more options for workers themselves, and more opportunities for companies to access the skills they need, when they need them—all of which make a flexible work style a viable career choice.

---Scarcity of skills places premium on critical talent

Along with globalization, general trends in the talent marketplace are also having an effect. While unemployment figures would suggest a large availability of talent, that figure is significantly lower for highly educated workers, and salary averages reflect that scarcity. Rather than simply focusing on temporary talent needs, companies may have to engage contingent workers or contractors for skilled, strategically important roles. Otherwise, they could endure a long, expensive search for full-time employees to perform the same work that a free agent could provide, and they may still never find the talent they need.

---Changing demographics add to the free agent mix

Changing demographics are also important. A large and highly skilled section of the population is reaching retirement age. Many of those workers don’t want, or can’t afford, full retirement, but they also don’t want the commitment of full-time employment — they want to apply their skills, receive the best compensation available, and have the freedom to choose where and how they work. For them, a free agent approach is preferable.

Another end of the spectrum is the emerging new generation of young, skilled workers. They have options that their parents likely did not have. They can work virtually. They can apply their skills to a particular project, and then find themselves in demand for another project by a different company almost instantly. They are growing up with the idea that non-traditional work is a viable option that delivers a consistent income.

Together, the influences of multiple factors, from changing demographics to globalization and skills shortages, point to the rise of the free agent and the need for a blended workforce model as something more than a short-term trend. It is a permanent market reality.