Does the Rise in the Casual Employee Hinder Production?

Posted by stevezog on July 28, 2010 under Uncategorized | Be the First to Comment

Things are good. People are working and consumer confidence is as high as it’s ever been but is everyone working to their full potential?

While unemployment is the envy of the rest of the world at just under 5%, the statistics don’t show the ever-increasing number of “casual” employees. These casual employees obviously save businesses money, but do they hurt bottom lines?

Casual employees are defined as employees that aren’t entitled to paid leave. Many, if not most hourly workers could be considered casual. The two industries with the largest portion are retail and labour. About 44% of sales workforce is casual while 41% of labourers are as well.

Companies save money when hiring these people because they don’t pay for benefits or other entitlements, but is this penny-wise and pound-foolish?

One of the biggest problems in business today is customer service. Casual employees are more likely to provide poor customer service because they know they are expendable. If they don’t work they don’t get paid and they have little incentive because they aren’t empowered or held to any long term goals.

The rise in the casual employee has helped businesses save money, but cost cutting only goes so far. Truly enlightened businesses may want to look to get away from the casual employee to improve their production, service and bottom line.

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