Freelance employment should be used much more by most organisations in sectors which: Need certain specialist skills, but not on a full-time basis Have fluctuating demand patterns making employment of a full-time workforce to supply in good time prohibitively expensive Using freelance labour (say 20% part-time, 80% full-time) is much like outsourcing some processes – …
Category Archive: 16. Organisations
Mar 19
The birth of life insurance
In 1744, two Presbyterian clergymen, Alexander Webster and Robert Wallace, decided to set up a life-insurance fund that would provide pensions for the widows and orphans of dead clergymen Each of their church’s ministers would pay a small portion of his income into the fund which would invest the money If a minister died, his …
Mar 09
Steel industry productivity
Professor Mark Perry, University of Michigan, wrote about productivity in the US steel industry This is especially relevant given President Trump is threatening to protect the industry by introducing tariffs of 25% on imported steel and 10% on imported aluminium ______________________________________________________________________ The main reason for the loss of US steel jobs is a huge …
Jan 29
Clusters of SMEs are a priority
According to research conducted by Opus Energy, the top three geographical areas in the UK where SMEs (Small and Medium Sized Enterprises) have productivity issues are: West Midlands North East London To compete, SMEs there are being forced to implement a wave of changes, including: Introducing flexible working Paying employees above the average wage Offering …
Jan 15
Scrap traditional organisation structures
Alison Vekshin, a freelance journalist, says: “Companies have followed a linear top-down organisation structure, but that approach is quickly becoming outdated – business leaders now favour a more flexible structure, and have seen that workers are more productive and innovative in an autonomous work environment” The traditional linear organisation chart was designed to ‘create order …