Half of the UK workforce wants to go contracting, Ruth Badger says

A recent study by the Newbury, Berkshire-based Vodafone UK shows that nearly half the extant UK workforce wants to become contractors. And they want to make the change by 2011.

Ruth Badger Says Go For It

In a report in its ''Working Nation'' series, Vodafone UK found that more than half of the large national sampling interviewed wanted to work for themselves if they could, and they planned to try to make the change in the next 3 years, by 2011.

Ruth Badger, star of ''The Apprentice'' and judge on the new Vodafone/Sky One show ''The Big Idea,'' announced the results. Badger supported the idea that self-employment should be considered by all. ''I truly believe starting up on your own is the future. However, starting a business and being successful in business are two different things,” Badger warns.

According to the study: ''In 10 to 15 years, there will be a lot more home working, a lot more working on the move, a lot more short-term contracts where you do a project and then move on, rather than simply being within a company and within a job set.”

According to the study, there is likely to be 10 million people self-employed by 2011 as opposed to about 2 million today. Moreover, even today, 6% of the UK adult workforce is in the process of setting up their own company.

Employees Aren't Happy

The Vodafone study also found that most permanent employees were permanently unhappy. Only 23%, according to the study, considered themselves happy in their current job and had no wish to change. The rest would consider staying with their current employer, provided that there were changes to their work and compensation.

Further, nearly two-thirds (63%) of permanent employees prefer the working style that we associate with contracting: the idea of becoming ‘serial careerists’, gaining experience in a broader range of disciplines by changing job and workplace more frequently. This is of course precisely what contracting allows.

A Flexible, Collaborative Approach

The study, in fact, supported the idea that a 'contract' approach is best to retain employee loyalty. ''One of the keys to success would appear to be a flexible, collaborative approach, with a more adaptable ‘working contract’ between employer and employee. Certainly, this type of relationship is being encouraged by employment experts and policy-makers alike.''

Length of time worked at a given job was also viewed, by most of the workers in the study, as no indication at all of loyalty to the employer. Rather, achievement and dedication to the work was cited as the most significant way of displaying loyalty to the company. Interesting: contractors routinely note that they have a much greater desire to achieve and care much more deeply about the quality of the work done than do the permanent employees who work alongside them.

We see study after study that supports the growth of contracting. Who knows: maybe someday the Government will hear about this amazing trend too. For now, there is no government support for the contracting industry although lip-service is regularly paid to the need for a 'flexible workforce.'