The Denver Post recently came out with an article written by Douglas Brown that stated (Death of full-time jobs fosters “gigonomics” trend). People hunting for employment have become fully engaged with adapting with an economy that has become stingy with full-time jobs. Many people have discovered that they can make a living by working two, three or even four part time jobs to make ends meet. Economists and others who wrestle with employment issues have dubbed the trend “gigonomics”.

There is no question more people are working part-time jobs today than when the recession started in December 2007. According to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are now 4.4 million more workers toiling at part-time jobs for economic reasons than there were 18 months ago. In all, the bureau counts 9 million people falling into this category.

For most people falling into this category find it can be very stressful, but for others it has opened up new doors, flexibility, opportunities and experiences that they never would have had if not for “gigonomics”.

I have been predicting the “gigonomics” employment practice for over 6 months and believe that once “gigonomics” has arrived in the work place, it will never go away. But, it doesn’t have to be stressful. Some companies have taken all the good from the “gigonomics” concept, added sound structure and organization to foster this growth into the future work place.

Some employee leasing companies have developed an employment concept that offers companies the benefits of utilizing professional, mature, experienced workers on a full-part time basis. Companies gain the advantage by increase in production out-put, reductions in incidents and accidents while at the same time reducing labor and overhead costs. This concept is simple, condensing the average work week hours to 20, not 40, eliminates the majority of non productive hours. This does not work for all vocations, but many can fall into this category. Studies by independent organizations reflect these results over an average 8 hour work day:

1. According to the study by the American Management Association, workers spend a day dealing with email. – 1.47 hours
2. Bathroom & water, general brakes, 4 a day x 5 min ea. – .20 hours
3. General conversations/gossip with co-workers – .25 hours
4. Smokers, ? pack a day smoke brakes, 5 min each – .50 hours
5. Talking on phone and cell phone with unsolicited vendors, family and friends – .30 hours
6. Average non-billable hours per employee per day at 77% billable – 1.84 hours

TOTAL NON PRODUCTIVITY HOURS DAY – 4.56 hours

This math indicates that the majority of employees are billing their clients for non productive work to maintain their billability. Program Managers should do the math on their employees to establish their own conclusion.

It also indicates that some positions could be modified to a partial work week and still produces the same results. Marketing, Sales, Estimating, and Consulting just to name a few.

To the best of my knowledge the 40 hour work week was arbitrarily selected years ago as an average work week, with no real means to back it up. So we ask, is the 40 hour work week really necessary for all professions?

Traditionally part-time employees are labeled just what the name means, part time. But, this is changing also. More and more company employees falling into this category are being labeled full-part time, meaning they have the same job, with the same company consistently week after week. Employees gain stability by finding an additional full-part job with another non-competitive company to complete their work week. The employee gets the benefits of working full time and has no need to look for “full time positions”, but is leased out to two different companies in the same week. Most employee leasing companies offer a full benifit package for full-part time workers that they employ.

The companies get the benefits of their professional experience, improved productive and at the same time reducing their burdened overhead cost and increasing their revenue margins, and still consider these employees as theirs while consistently working full-part time.

Our world is changing faster that we can adapt. Markets have expanded globally and competition is greater than it has ever been. Drastic measures have to be made just to stay in business. But, is downsizing the answer? Is reducing cost the only answer? While both will help reduce overhead, they will also contribute to less revenue and will only hurt companies in the long run, including compounding the problems of the economy. Totally eliminating positions is not the answer, but modifying them could be. There is another way without all the doom and gloom of layoffs.

The world is what we make of it and we need to make it right! The same goes for companies. Change can be either bad or good, but change we must.

Edward Ballog

By: Edward Ballog

Is the recession over yet?! Not quite you might think. Well, the recession might come to an end soon, but that does not mean things get better right away. The financial uncertainty will stay for a while and at least at the time of this writing we’re heading towards the last quarter of the year. New hires are mainly for part-time and shopping related job, but the majority of the unemployed will have only small chances to find a new gig.

Being afraid of losing your job or if you already have lost your job – it turns out this is a major health hazard. Some studies show that formerly healthy people suddenly become seriously ill in one way or the other within a certain period of time when such an event hit. We’re not talking a cold kind illness or so, but rather something more serious (flu and up so to speak). While this news certainly does not lift your spirit, it might however help to become more motivated to stay healthy and to add a little more caution to your lifestyle.

Be good to yourself in a good way. A healthy lifestyle is always good, but even a little more will never hurt. Make sure to get enough sleep and do not let the worries takeover. Not getting enough sleep is linked to many illnesses that might even turn into a long-term health related situation. Add more physical exercise to your daily routine. Walks, longer than an hour, do work wonders for your health. Add some deep-breathing exercises on top of that and positive energy will fill your body and mind for sure.

Now combine this with a healthy diet that contains a lot of Vitamin D, Omega-3s, and fiber. Also, stick to a schedule if you are unemployed. Staying in bed all morning only makes things worse – especially once you find a job. Getting out of this routine is so difficult, it might affect your performance at the new job dramatically. Let the alarm clock be part of your day and get out of bed by 6.30 AM/7.00 AM.

You will be surprised how these things can help you to turn things around. You will become more healthy and stronger due to the exercise. You will gain self-esteem and be more self-confident. Employers like confident people. Confident People get the job done. Be one of them!

By: Christoph Puetz

As I’ve said before, unlike the rest of the country, I believe Colorado is not in a recession and is unlikely to be in one. Our unemployment numbers are among the lowest in the nation. We are losing jobs at a much slower rate than the rest of the country and are still creating jobs in a variety of sectors.

By the time the recession reduces its grip on the nation, we will be well into a recovery based on alternative energy, bioscience, health care, oil and technology. These are Colorado’s prime industries, and they are slated for large transfusions of federal money in the near future.

And executive jobs are still out there. The company I co-own works in executive transition consulting, and the rate at which our clients are cycling through our process has gotten shorter in the last five months, not longer.

This means that for those who know how to search for them executive jobs are plentiful. But these jobs are rarely being given to headhunters and they for sure aren’t advertised. It takes effective and proactive networking to find the top jobs in Colorado.

Here are some tips:

*It takes work* Good networking does not consist of simply going to large, party-type networking events. The chances of finding someone at these kinds of events who wants to hire you are very slim and entirely dependent on serendipity. Effective and proactive networking activities include becoming deeply and visibly involved in professional associations, charities, non-profits and other venues. It means giving back to the community. This is especially true in Colorado, where values such as integrity, generosity and giving still mean something.

*Help others out, rather than getting others to help you* The executives who are looking a little frantic and green around the gills are those who still think that networking consists of meeting people and demanding their help. True networking consists of helping others out, introducing others, and passing on jobs for which you are not qualified. It also means passing on names of those who will help others, both professionally and socially.

*Network at all levels and help every level of individual* I’ve met some executives over the years who were unadulterated title snobs. They only wanted to speak with other executives at their level or above, and would even be rude to “lower level” people, as they called them. This is incredibly stupid. Don’t judge people. You never know to whom you are speaking, or what that individual might be able to do for you.

*Build relationships instead of going for the jugular* Persistence pays off. So does the building of a relationship. Many believe that networking consists of meeting at a networking event and meeting for coffee. Some people have the belief that, after one quick coffee, someone should trust them so much that they will simply open up their “inner-circle” Rolodex. For a skilled and experienced networker, this is networking suicide. My contact list is cherished. I’m not going to open up my friends and business colleagues to people I barely know. Most of us who are well-connected guard that list closer than our wallets. If someone steals my wallet, they just get money. If they steal my contacts, they get my relationships. Relationships are far more valuable than all the money I could have in the bank. If someone gets insistent about being introduced to sensitive people too soon, he or she will never get into my inner-circle Rolodex. If they’re being pushy with me they’ll be pushy with my relationships, as well.

*Get out of “Executive Think.”* The people who run the Big Three automakers truly didn’t see anything wrong with flying to Washington, D.C., on their private corporate jets and saying that their multi-million dollar salaries were “OK.” These people – all evidence to the contrary – aren’t stupid. They are just operating in Executive Think. Executive Think can be dangerous enough when you’re employed, but it is deadly when you’re unemployed. People practicing Executive Think are the spiritual brothers and sisters of Marie Antoinette who, when told that the people were rioting because they were out of bread said “Well, then, let them eat cake!” She didn’t understand that there was no flour available to make either, and assumed that they’d simply run out of bread. While Executive Think will not (yet, anyway) cause one to lose one’s head in a basket as Marie Antoinette did, it can keep one unemployed for a very, very long time. It wouldn’t hurt to perform a reality check on yourself and your family. That way, when you’re networking, you won’t say things as congenitally stupid as Ford CEO Alan Mulally did at last month’s auto bailout hearings.

One final note: Many executives panic in these times and believe they need to leave Colorado. They don’t. Things have been far worse in Colorado than they are now. In 28 years, I’ve never seen anyone need to leave Colorado. In fact, I strongly advise against either leaving Colorado or taking a cut in title or salary. Neither is necessary. What is necessary is to learn the effective ways to get employed here. Colorado is incredibly strong and living here is incredibly wonderful. Instead of panicking, learn what you need to so you can stay and enjoy the best lifestyle in America…or anywhere else.

By: John Heckers

While the locum tenens industry is no doubt a major one, with several medical staffing agencies listed in BusinessWeek’s investing resource guide, exact figures about the industry are hard to come by. A lack of clear industry definition, no central, accountable reporting agency and a dynamic healthcare industry make exact figures hard to pin down, but one thing is certain: the locum tenens medical staffing industry is worth billions of dollars, and its value, most likely, is only going to increase.

One of the main reasons why the industry is so hard to track is due to the many professions that fall under the term ‘locum tenens’. Because the term means temporary placeholder, or substitute, many professions can have such temporary professionals: teachers, lawyers, clergy, etc.

Even in the more clearly defined locum tenens medical staffing and medical recruiting industry, there are many medical professionals that work temporarily or as fill-ins: there are locum tenens anesthesiologists, cardiologists, dermatologists, surgeons, neurologists, etc. As of 2005, the industry of temporary medical professionals working at facilities in the United States was estimated to value $14 billion annually, a number that was supposed to grow at an annual rate of 15 to 25 percent.

However, these figures are contradicted by estimates from 2009 showing the healthcare recruiting industry valued at $8.8 billion annually, down from $11.4 in 2008. The decline in healthcare recruiting was matched by declines in other staffing industries (such as clerical staffing) with all these declines largely due to the most recent recession.

With the recession now ended and hiring picking back up, the value of the temporary medical staffing and recruiting industry should be rebounding as well. And this rebound should be fairly robust as a secondary cause of the most recent industry downturn was a loss in the number of patients seen by medical facilities as more and more people lost their health insurance; with the recent federal healthcare overhaul taking effect, millions of people who would have been otherwise uninsured will now have insurance. This means that the healthcare industry in general should continue to grow, helped along by an aging U.S. population.

This increase in the amount of business in the healthcare industry should mean an increase in the temporary medical staffing industry as well. Improvements in hospital revenue and an increasingly stable business climate following the recession should only accelerate this trend, meaning possibly a return to the healthy growth days of 2005 in the medical recruiting industry.

By: Howard Applegate