Misclassification

Some leaders make running a business look easy. They’ve got great behavioral skills and subsequently are trusted by clients and staff. They seem to know the ins and outs of what’s happening in every department. But it’s not always this easy.

It began with an engagement manager questioning why an independent contractor on his team did not attend a meeting. The IC clarified that his contract neither specifies hours nor includes daily meetings and stated he would not comply with a demand that he attend going forward. He was willing to walk away or be fired.

The pandemic has caused massive changes to how companies utilize talent. With talent being key to organizational success and independent contractors being critical to the talent portfolio, now is the time to identify prominent emerging trends and consider how they impact the risks of utilizing ICs.

Being a contingent worker can be dangerous. And I am not being facetious here.  It took an HBO segment to write this post.

The U.S. workforce is changing. With the proliferation of companies like Uber, Lyft, TaskRabbit, and UpWork utilizing new on-demand economy business models, the contingent workforce in the U.S. has been steadily growing. The U.S. Government Accountability Office estimated in 2015 that more than 40% of the U.S.

This post was co-authored by Terri Gallagher.

Today, the American independent workforce holds a vital place in the country's economic landscape. There are more than 40 million people working as independents, and together, this population contributes more than 1 trillion annual to the economy.

Over the past eight years or so, I have frequently written for Staffing Industry Analysts, and have spoken at a number of their events. While there is a collection of interesting areas that frequently draw an audience, perhaps no topic more quickly draws attention – and controversy – than that of worker classification.

No wonder hiring managers are so confused. They just want to get their work done, products out the door and technology developed. Today, the non-employee labor space is plagued by everything from acronym soup to lingo stemming from urban myths.