Managing Human Resources, Eight Edition

The Flexible Workforce

We have seen how organizations can be structured and jobs designed to maximize flexibility. In this section, we examine two additional strategies for ensuring flexibility: contingent workers and flexible work schedules.

core workers

An organization’s full-time employees.

contingent workers

Workers hired to deal with temporary increases in an organization’s workload or to do work that is not part of its core set of capabilities.

Contingent Workers

There are two types of workers: core workers and contingent workers. A company’s core workers have full-time jobs and enjoy privileges not available to contingent workers. Many core workers expect a long-term relationship with the employer that includes a career in the organization, ...