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PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES (U.S. CAPITOL BUILDING) |
Temporary work has lasting benefits
By JODY GREENSTONE MILLER There was a bright spot in the dreary unemployment reports of recent months: a spike in the number of workers in temporary jobs. The White House sees that spike as proof that the economy is still malfunctioning. But the truth is that this surge in temporary workers is not only good news for the economy, it’s the future of the 21st-century labor market. If Washington wants to jump-start job growth for the 3.5 million white-collar workers who have lost jobs in this recession, it should start by scrapping the outdated legal and regulatory hurdles to temporary work. I know something about this, because I run a business that places talented individuals into temporary consulting and interim executive assignments. Amid the worst recession in decades, our business is up 70%. Yet there would be much more growth in this sector if Americans—from the White House down to the corporate personnel department—stopped treating temporary work as inferior or odd. Today, demand for high-end temporary business talent is not focused on cost-cutting projects, as some people might suspect. Instead, firms use temporary executives to drive innovation. In uncertain times, firms are simply more comfortable deploying talent on a flexible basis. Temporary work also boosts economic efficiency because not all executive roles require permanent staff. For example, one pharmaceutical company took on a temporary marketing executive to help launch a new drug. The old way of doing this was to make a new permanent hire (or hire a small team), who would have been underutilized after the launch. The availability of temporary staff who can deliver quickly means firms can rethink how work is organized. Which brings us to another case for temporary work: Top business talent increasingly wants to work this way. In one situation, a vice-president-level executive we placed was developing his own new business. He valued the way a part-time role allowed him to support his family while he worked on his own project. Given the contribution that temporary work makes to the economy, it’s time Washington embraced it. Here are three things the federal government could do immediately to make it easier for firms and executives to work this way: First, the Obama administration should create a two-year “safe harbor” rule for independent professionals doing temporary work, so that businesses can hire workers without the fear that they will be saddled with liabilities if the workers are reclassified later as full employees. Second, Washington should apply any hiring incentives to temporary jobs. There is much talk of a new jobs-tax subsidy to encourage hiring, but as it currently stands, it would exclude temporary work. Third, the government should let independent workers buy into the congressional health plan. A huge barrier to temporary employment for professionals who prefer to work this way is their inability to access group health coverage. As we reboot the great American jobs machine, it’s time to put aside outdated assumptions and accept that a portfolio of multiple assignments is what more and more companies and executives want. This new relationship between talent and businesses isn’t a failure that should be stigmatized. Rather, it’s the latest sign of our economy’s endless capacity for renewal and innovation. Ms. Miller is the founder and CEO of the Business Talent Group. She served as a special assistant to President Clinton from 1993 to 1995. What’s your opinion? Write to letters.classroom@wsj.com.
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