Contractors and Adult Education

 My classmate Anna wanted to know more about the work we provide in terms of the contractor community. I’m glad I got her thinking! 

Being a contractor is unique in many way in our industry. One thing that is very unique is the turnover. 

Some of the turnover is intentional. Some of these contractors don’t want to be tied down, and enjoy running from project to project and making money through the different project seasons. 

Others, like to have a more stable dynamic. I am working with an organization now that has never used contractors to help with work. It was just their history to self-perform all of their work. 

So we, as an organization, are transitioning to a stable of work similar to what your organization is doing in terms of adding contractors into the workforce. Part of my focus for this course is to perform a study of contractors and how they interact and what their expectations are for the organizations they join. 

I’m learning a lot about Person-Environment fit and all of the subsidiaries of that framework, Person-Organization (P-O fit), Person-Group (P-G fit), Person-Supervisor (P-S fit), Person-Vocation (P-V fit), Person-Job (P-J fit) and how all of these can be used to influence how contractors are onboarded, if they stay, etc. I get the feeling that a lot of work in these veins have been done for “employee” status, but not as much in terms of contractor mentality which could be more transient by nature.