Synopses & Reviews
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. SLooking 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.
Synopsis
Patricia Leighton is Emeritus Professor of Employment Law at the University of Glamorgan, UK and specializes in European Employment Law. She is also a Visiting Professor at the College of Europe, Bruges, Belgium and at the University of Hertfordshire. She has researched and written widely on employment law, especially on employment contracts, flexible working and equal opportunities at work and has undertaken many research projects for UK government departments, the European Commission, the International Labour Office and various public and private sector employment bodies, including the CIPD. Her books on employment matters cover flexible working, employment contracts and health and safety and she contributes to leading journals such as the Industrial Law Journal and Employee Relations and to major international conferences such as convened by the International Industrial Relations Associations, the International Human Resource Management Association and the International Federation for the Academic Study of Management. She is a member of the editorial advisory board of Personnel Today.
After a career in customer service and marketing with an Australian telco, Rob ran his own consulting business working primarily with large businesses and government agencies in training and development. His involvement with the School of Management dates from 1994 and he has been full-time since 2000. As an academic his teaching is primarily in marketing and human resource development. He is a member of the Australian Psychological Society, an associate fellow of the Australian Marketing Institute, and a Certified Practicing Marketer.
Table of Contents
Introducing the topic; Context and evidence: the rise of the non-employee; Matching strategic and employment needs; Recruiting and preparing for non-employees; People management and non-employees; Regulating the use of non-employees; Contracts and the use of non-employees; Employment relations and related issues; Health and safety; Reflections and futures.