Contents

• Subcontracting and non-standard workers
• Benefits of training nonstandard workforce
• Do nonstandard workers commit to the cause of the principal organization?
• Is training nonstandard workers cost effective?
• Conclusion
• References

Description

This paper deals with the issue as to whether HRD needs to expand to encompass the non-standard workers and their contributions however insignificant to the optimal functioning of the organization. Traditionally organizations have focused on improving productivity and efficiency of their full time or standard workers and ignored non-standard workers like part time workers or casual workers. Although, full time workers contribute to an organization’s success in a bigger way, non-standard workers do contribute to an organization’s productivity albeit to a lesser extent. The current trend in HRD in bigger organizations is to outsource peripheral activities to smaller companies that hire manpower to carry out the operations of the client. The argument of the organizations to support this view point is that full time staff would be able to concentrate on core activities better. They seem to have a valid point here, since the organizations wish to concentrate on activities that have major influence on the functioning of the organization than on activities that support the cause but not of critical importance. We see this trend of outsourcing or subcontracting certain operations to the vendors and even working with contracted staff that are not on direct payroll of the company but on the payroll of the contractor. A major outcome of this trend has been the emergence of mobile workforce catering not just to one employer but to a number of employers causing erosion of employee and employer demarcation (Dorothy Cobble & Leah Vosco, 2000). According to John Buchanan, Deputy Director of the Australian Centre for Industrial Relations Research and Training Sydney University, the fulltime or normal workforce can no longer be considered as the majority form of employment as it is down to almost 50% and still declining (Eleanor Hall, 2001). So it becomes important from the organizational view point that even the non-standard workers like contracted employees, employees of retailers, part time workers are also taken in the scope of the HRD management so that their skills, efficiency and commitment to the goals of the organization can be harnessed.