Workers want to take control of their lives

Research shows the more control a casual worker or contractor has over their job, the greater their job satisfaction.

New research shows that the more control a casual worker or contractor has over their job, the greater their job satisfaction.

The Australia Casual Workforce Report by Care Support Network and McCrindle surveyed 1007 Australian casual and contract workers and found 87 per cent consider work-life balance to be extremely or very important, a figure that rises to 91 per cent for healthcare workers.

Those who have control over their work-life balance have a 90 per cent satisfaction rate while those without control have a 26 per cent satisfaction rate.

Choosing who people work with also has a correlation with job satisfaction. Those who have control over who they work with have an 85 per cent satisfaction rate while the figure dips below 39 per cent for those who don’t have control.

Care workers have an even greater desire for control and satisfaction, with 24 per cent of respondents saying they experienced anxiety around unfamiliar clients and different environments in the past month, as opposed to 14 per cent of casual workers in other industries.

The report also shows that most workers employed in a casual or contract role are choosing this option for their own lifestyle rather than being forced into it by their employer.

Care Support Network co-founder and chief executive Rob Evers says it isn’t surprising that healthcare, community and social assistance workers are likeliest to choose to work casually because of the flexibility these jobs afford.

“Healthcare workers choose to work casually as they generally have multiple jobs across several providers in order to increase their weekly earnings,” he says.

“But the rise of the sharing economy, particularly in the home-care sector, now allows casual and contract workers control over who they work for, when they work, and with Care Support network they can choose their own hourly rate.”

TEMPS ARE THE FUTURE

Almost a quarter of Australian employers say they employ temporary or contract staff on a regular ongoing basis, with another 44 per cent employing them for special projects or during especially busy periods.

According to the 2017 Hays Salary Guide, based on a survey of more than 2950 organisations representing more than three million employees, 23 per cent of employers expect to increase their use of temporary and contract staff in the next year.

Information technology departments are the likeliest to employ temporary staff, with 37 per cent of employers planning to increase their use of temporaries and contractors.

The use of temporary and contract staff will rise in 32 per cent of project management and purchasing/procurement departments, marketing (30 per cent), engineering (28 per cent), operational management (25 per cent) and human resources (23 per cent).

“Temporary and contract employees fill staffing or knowledge gaps, assist with projects, bring particular expertise that is difficult to find or not required daily, and offer flexibility since they can be released at short notice without financial penalty,” Hays managing director Nick Deligiannis says.

“If we look at the skills in demand, it is professionals who can undertake non-routine work who are seeing the highest job growth. This is likely to continue, with automation and artificial intelligence already beginning to take over manual and repetitive tasks — just think of automated self-service checkouts in retail stores or assembly lines in manufacturing plants.