Resolve to Revisit a Recurring Concern in 2011
Winter 2011
As we begin each New Year there is the tendency to promise to renew old commitments that may have been cast aside. It has almost become cliché to speak of resolutions revisiting failed efforts at ceasing harmful, dangerous or otherwise damaging behaviors. Yet each January, we witness the reinvigoration of the annual pledge to quit smoking; revisit our spending habits; reengage in dialogue with estranged relatives; or any of a host of promises we make to ourselves. While this ritual may lay bare the challenges we all face in maintaining discipline and underscore the failures each of us may have endured in our own struggles, it is above all, a reminder that betterment is always an option. With this thought in mind, I bring up a topic which has - year after year - been a recurrent challenge for many organizations and their human capital management programs. Proper worker classification within an enterprise organization is a concern analogous to weight loss or smoking cessation. It is something that we know is good for us and something we consistently revisit when engaging in the act of self-assessment. Yet, we find that our efforts in each of these regards somehow wind up falling away over the course of the year, only to be revisited again at the dawn of each New Year.
Like a reformed smoker whose abstinence wanes as the stresses of life wear down their resolve, or the out of shape individual whose zeal for exercise wanes as the months progress, best practices for worker classification can sometimes be scuttled in favor of expedience, convenience or a host of other concerns. Whether it is to avoid the obstacle of tenure rules, to derive savings at the expense of insurance costs or any number of other reasons, organizations are frequently tempted to bend the rules over worker classification. Counting temporary labor as project workers for example is a common example of the kinds of classification decisions made outside the guidelines for best practices in worker classification.
Just as the smoker, the overweight individual and the profligate spender are each aware of the consequences of their damaging activity – lung cancer, heart disease and debt respectively – so too the enterprise organization should understand the ramifications. Compromised security, questionable quality, lost cost savings and co-employment risks are among the consequences organizations must be aware exist. Periodically, organizations focus on rooting out the drivers of improper worker classification and return to a more cost effective, risk adverse posture.
There are times when organizations once again just need to be reminded of the consequences of reverting back to engaging in destructive behavior. That is why Volt Consulting - Managed Service Programs has dedicated its first white paper of 2011 to the topic of proper worker classification. Consider this latest paper our suggestion for organizations to adopt as a resolution in 2011 to revisit its adherence to proper worker classification. While the overall success or failure of a business is not necessarily in itself solely attributable to improper worker classification, it can definitely be a contributing factor to success or failure. And, similar to the simple solutions for physical fitness or personal finance among individuals, proper worker classification is not something that should be incredibly difficult for organizations to achieve. It simply takes the resolve to do so.