An interesting article http://www.forbes.com/sites/scotthartley/2015/06/30/future-digital-jobs-blue-collar/ made me think about how technology may impact the recruitment / labour hire business.
There are two different employment categories that employers or companies are looking for when they want to take on workers, and they are:
- They need them for the foreseeable future and therefore require a “permanent” employee or
- They require an additional, or some additional, workers for the short term and therefore would like them to be a “casual” employee.
In the first instance I can see how the new digital technology can assist in pairing workers to companies that need their services, but before a hiring decision is made that person will always, in my mind, need to be screened and reference checked by a person and this will include a face to face interview where a skilled and seasoned interviewer can get a feel for the prospective employee.
In the second instance where someone requires a casual for a limited period of time I cannot see how the digital technology could replace say a labour hire company because all of the above still needs to be done to ensure the best possible worker is supplied. If not, then this could cost an employer money rather than save them money.
A lot of companies (if not all) that use the services of a labour hire company do so because they do not want to be the employer of the casual worker. It suits them to contract out the employer risks and costs (workers compensation, payroll tax, super & public liability etc).
I cannot see how technology can, at this stage, find a temporary employee (that has the right skills, experience and qualifications) and then employ them totally independent from the business that is asking for the worker.
I am seeing that for a business that requires a short term temp- let’s say a receptionist for their office while their permanent person goes on holidays – that the company needs a temp from an agency that they have a working relationship with and it’s all done with a phone call.
The important thing is that the person wanting the temp does not want to have to hire that temp directly and thereby create an employment relationship with them. So even if technology is used to match worker to the business requiring the work, someone will have to employ that worker other than the company that wants the worker. The only way it could possibly work is if all of the workers were to set themselves up as independent contractors and have all of the necessary insurances set up and ready to go.
