It’s probably safe to say the main force right now driving the shift away from full-time, permanent employment towards virtual work is the employers themselves. Here are some of the reasons I see why we can expect companies to rely more on virtual workers in the future.
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It’ll cost them less. Like contract workers today, virtual workers aren’t paid benefits, so even when they demand a higher rate it can still be more cost-effective to use them for a project than an existing employee. And of course, a virtual worker doesn’t demand the overhead of office space, parking, or free coffee to do their job.
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They’ll have more flexibility. Since virtual workers aren’t employees, there’s no expectation they’ll be around past the end of a project or as a business enters its quiet season. This gives a company the flexibility to grow or shrink its labour force as it needs to in order to match market demand, without the risk of lawsuits or other kinds of retribution from laid-off employees.
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They’ll gain access to better talent. One of the effects of making full-time employment less desirable is that the most talented and in-demand workers will be less inclined to stick with it. Virtual work offers a better lifestyle for many and will, I believe, increasingly be the norm for those who are good enough at what they do to be able to choose it. How long will it be until those looking for regular employment are also those with the least-marketable skills?
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They won’t have a choice. Maybe. This isn’t true yet, but the incoming generation of workers, the so-called Generation Y, has seen the state of employment today and many are deciding they want nothing to do with it—they’re running their own businesses instead. Even those that aren’t are vowing to rewrite the rules of the workplace and have already started to win concessions from employers. Companies that want to stay relevant may soon have no option but to adapt to the more flexible, more independent work arrangements young workers are demanding.
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