Out of the Shadows: Managing self-employed, agency and outsourced workers - Softcover

Syrett, Michel; Leighton, Patricia; Hecker, Robert; Holland, Peter

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0750665246 ISBN 13: 9780750665247

Publisher: Routledge, 2006

Synopsis

Over half of all people working on behalf of any given organization are typically not their own employees. Some are freelance contractors working in their own right. A significant proportion is employed to provide these services by another firm, under agency or outsourcing service agreements. The services they perform under these agreements are often vital in supporting the organization's customer relationships, reputation and brand identity.

Yet, remarkably, little attention has been paid to how these 'non-employees' are managed, motivated and meaningfully engaged. Management protocol generally sees them as outside the organization's remit or control. The law paints them as victims.

This ground-breaking book challenges both these assumptions. Through a combination of pioneering legal analysis and rigorous case-study research, it demonstrates that non-employees are often the organization's most important hidden resource.

Patricia Leighton and her collaborators highlight the limited good practice that is available, based on examples in large corporations, public sector organizations and smaller firms in a variety of countries. More importantly she clearly sets out the issues and imperatives employers should address, supported by new management concepts and models of effective practice developed specifically for the book.

Far from being victims, she argues, non-employees often choose flexible working patterns for their own intrinsic ends and have ambitions, career aspirations and workplace needs that can be responded to and exploited by forward-looking employers.

"Looking at the role they now play, these people are no longer marginal, atypical or peripheral as they are still termed and regarded by both legal and management practitioners. They are, however, still in the shadows in terms of the literature available on how best to develop and motivate them. This book aims to rectify this."

* Highlights and examines the implications of relevant case-law

* Incorporates recent research and regulation from across Europe

* Illustrates how core HR functions can build flexible working patterns into an international or cross-boundary workforce development strategy

About this title

Book Description

First book to address the law and management practice in relation to intermediary workers

From the Back Cover

"Patricia Leighton has put her finger on an important fact: Non-employees have skills to offer that are
intimately bound up with the way they work. We ought to value them more - and this book goes a long way
towards showing how this should be done." - John Raywood, Specialist HR Manager, GlaxoSmithKline

"Outsourcing functions, the contracting out of services, the use of temporary labour or consultants is
common place in organizations, but these new employment relationships are so often taken for granted.
Through contemporaneous case studies and extensive additional research the authors explore the 'nuts
and bolts' of these relationships. An essential reference point for all those involved in both strategic and
day-to-day HRM decisions. - Philip Hollowday, HR Operations Manager, Cereal Partners UK

"This book fills a key vaccum in a timely way. While such arrangements have many advantages for
employers, as Patricia Leighton and her co-authors point out, there are also key risks which need to be
managed, some of which such as corporate reputation, many organizations have yet to come to grips with.
For HRM, this presents both challenges and opportunities. The authors draw on their research to provide
an overview of some of the key issues which HR professionals need to consider and illustrate their case
with a wide variety of case studies and practical examples which bring the issues and their solutions
vividly to life." - Linda Holbeche, Director of Consultancy and Leadership, The Work Foundation

"Human resource management has become a risk reduction business. There is nowhere where this
applies more than in the case of temps, self-employed people and outsourced workers. Patricia Leighton
argues very effectively that good management is about fitting individuals into organizations and
understanding the balance between people performance and management." - Nick Stevens, Chief Executive, RSA

Looking at the role agency and outsourced workers play, they are no longer marginal, atypical or
peripheral in the workplace, as they are still often regarded by both legal and management practitioners.
They are, however, still in the shadows in terms of the literature available on how best to develop and
motivate them. This book aims to rectify this.

About this edition

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0750665246
• ISBN 13: 9780750665247
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 296