Shifting the Employment Paradigm – Or, “I do not want to be an Employee”

The largest tax increases in history are inundating every business organization in America.  With President Obama’s re-election more taxes and problems are developing as anti-business, big government, politicians and are going to keep on attacking the golden goose of business until everyone is beholden to the Federal Government.  This is a cold, hard, ugly truth.  Maybe, it is time for business to strike back by shifting the paradigm.  Small business owners complain that even with current order demands, lay-offs must occur.  Medium size and large business organizations echo the same problem with ever increasing magnitude.  Business owners, decision makers, stakeholders, lend a moment of your time.

The formula for knowledge has always been education plus experience multiplied over time.  [(Ed + Ex) = K]  Returning to these roots is paramount to getting business back on track in a hostile government situation.  Every day consultants are hired and invited into business organizations for a synopsis and opinion.  Taking this thought one step further, consider those currently labeled as traditional “employees” and rebranding them as contracted knowledge consultants is simply an extension of a thought that can return American Business back to its roots.  Before WWII’s industrial capitulation to the Federal Government, what workers knew, how hard they worked, and their willingness to sign-on for the long haul were paramount to a successful organization.

These days are not that far gone, nor are they not able to return.  Employees cost big money.  The taxes, the benefits, the tools, the resource drain, all form a dubious risk, with little return, and a constant headache of hiring more people to now watch, manage, and interact with the employee.  What happens if this paradigm shifts?  Instead, of hiring employees, Human Resources begins to arrange human capital who freely associate with your business brand as they grow their own business brand as independent contractors, knowledge vendors, or knowledge working consultants.

Consider the secretary, administration assistant, or executive assistant.  Their skills are unique, the knowledge possessed valuable, and their methods for working in a storm invaluable.  Co-opting them into knowledge vendors does two things:  raises their status and allows innovation into an arena stifled by paperwork and business processes.

Call centers; replace the phone reps with knowledge consultants.  The task shifts from simply answering the phone to having a personal interest in remaining affiliated with a brand.  Consider the change in attitude apparent to the customer from the first interaction.  What are the possibilities of a customer service rep abusing a customer when the rep is now a vendor, affiliated with your brand, knowing their personal brand is both reflected in their take home pay and future contracts are dependent upon current actions?

Long has responsibility and accountability been missing from the manufacturing employee and the construction employee regardless of union membership.  How many times would manufacturing employees destroy company property and waste production time and construction employees work intentionally slow to delay projects and increase costs if they knew their reputation and future contracts are dependent upon current actions and knowledge and, therefore, have a personal stake in the business outcome.

This model eliminates much of the middle management landscape as their roles have diametrically changed.  Those remaining as traditional employees in this organizational model would possibly be restricted to a small core of individuals oriented as service delivery officers knowledgeable for their expertise areas on the corporate level, i.e. IT/IS, HR, CFO, Operations, etc., wholly customizable to organizational needs, security concerns, and future goals.  Their role has changed from management of numbers and data to leaders of people.  This new organizational model places business owners and service delivery officers into partnership with the knowledge contractor.

This idea means the average employee right now will need assistance in understanding contracts, and human resources will need to ramp up to fill a new market of vendor management and contract negotiations, central to their role in human capital development, and both of these skills sets are trainable and easily conquered.

Instead of laying-off an employee, present to the employee the opportunity of becoming a knowledge consultant affiliated with your organization, explain the plan, co-opt their ideas into this rough outline, and grow your organization.  The best ideas will come from your current employees desiring to become knowledge contractors for a customized solution to your organization.  Your company and individual consultants singularly contract these negotiations.  Over time patterns in contract negotiations, will emerge bringing efficiency and additional cost savings.  By working with employees, honestly communicating, and searching for answers outside the box, dynamic change will come back to America and business will see a better day.

This concept is not new; benchmark current commission sales reps and current vendor contracts.  The training is available through public sources online.  Many organizations stand at the ready to assist in a transition to this model and are local to your organization.  Additional assistance and information is available.  Please contact me using email.

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Dave Salisbury is pursuing is PhD in Management as an Organizational Psychologist.  He possesses a dual Masters in Adult Education and Training and an MBA in Global Management specializing in Human Resource Management.  He is available at mdavesal@gmail.com.

© 2012 M. Dave Salisbury

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