As employees contemplate the future of their careers, part-time jobs are becoming an increasingly popular option. But are the managers of those positions ready for not only the influx of workers, but their heightened expectations, too?
The number of people working part-time increased by half a million in July, according to the latest U.S. jobs report by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. And while there are many possible drivers for that kind of trend, nationwide layoffs, subsequent hiring freezes and high turnover rates may be some of the most prominent reasons behind the uptick. To retain this new talent, managers and employers in the part-time and hourly sectors need to be prepared for the new demands they'll be met with.
"These labor-intensive industries like retail, for example, have always had the predominant number of jobs out there," says Sanish Mondkar, CEO and founder of workforce management technology company Legion. "And these are pretty big industries that have historically relied on cheap labor, [but now] there are employees potentially coming in from other industries with expectations."
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And it's in employers' best interest to listen. A study from Lighthouse Research and Advisory found that as many as 7% of frontline workers — including hourly and part-time workers — have quit their jobs in the last year to focus on gig work, contract roles and entrepreneurship. In 2021, 700,000 people resigned from their retail positions, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the recovery has been slow. If employers want to take advantage of this current influx of labor, they're going to have to make some changes.
"This labor shortage is not going to go away," Mondkar says. "The only answer is to be more efficient when labor is deployed. Ask yourself, 'How many people do I really need? How can I keep my employees for longer so that I don't have to incur the cost of worker replacement?' If you focus on those types of things, you will be a thriving business going forward. And you have to do it now, because we are seeing the labor shortage in action."
Workers making industry shifts will struggle to accept jobs without the kind of benefits and privileges they're used to, according to Mondkar. In addition, new talent that doesn't have extensive work experience, yet is also entering the workforce with similar expectations around flexibility and a good workplace culture, needs to be considered.
Even workers coming from different hourly structures have expectations that may clash with what the majority of part-time employers are offering. For example, food delivery and ride share drivers looking to do work in a position that's more stable may be used to earned wage access and schedule flexibility — benefits that not every workplace is going to have.
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"Those are the types of things that retail jobs and food service jobs today are competing with — good jobs with good advantages," Mondkar says. "And all of those things could cause a dramatic difference in your experience at work."
Employers working in hourly and part-time sectors will have to find a balance between what has been traditionally done and what could be improved or updated, whether that's using more tech, such as launching scheduling apps and digital communications, or prioritizing benefits and flexibility such as schedule selection and instant pay. Otherwise, they will not only continue to see attrition rates rise, but their recruiting strategies will be impacted as well.
"It has to change for the better," Mondkar says. "To fundamentally shape or reshape these jobs, employers will just get better at listening to their workforce because that is the only way they will ultimately be able to improve the quality of these jobs."
