Contract labor and reality.

I’d like to talk a little bit about non-employee project labor – consultants or contractors. I was am IT consultant and contractor for many years before I hired in house at a former customer. Larger projects or undertakings that require certain expertise require services typically from outside. What I specifically want to address today is how to bring them into the fold. In many organizations, they are kept at arms length, treated well by some, very differently.

Unless they specifically need to be different (like in the case of management consultants, where differentiation is the point), project contractors should be, for most intents and purposes, treated as employees. Yes – they are not employees and there are key differences (frequently hourly vs a salaried employee, works for another company, your company’s legal staff is worried about their eventual lawsuit claiming to be an employee and suing for back pay or benefits), but motivationally, they are an employee and a stakeholder in your operation or project. They are human. And they need your support and respect.

So – translated to actions, this means making sure they have what they need and is on par with others and is reasonable.

Time to get computer equipment – frequently they are given leftovers – equipment that may be older or slower. If they’re on more than a few week assignment, get them new equipment like the rest of the team (or at least as possible). Their productivity is valuable – that’s why you are paying them. Having to work with junk makes them less productive. It also is a signal that you don’t value them. Conversely, if you let them know they are getting what everyone else is getting, they know they are valued.

For long term seating, seat them with the team if possible – you are trying to build a cohesive group – physical separation makes that harder. Same size desks, phone and any necessities. For projects or short term seating deploy your group in a room if you cannot deploy them in regular workspace – and have employees and contractors alike share the space. Again, this goes to creating that team.

If you cannot, explain the separation (we don’t have the budget for the office moves we would need to perform) and work to schedule interaction in other space. Make sure they have what they need. It is even more important with virtual teams – but for all, make sure they have the tools – software like Skype, Trello – whatever your team uses to connect and share work and accountability. Remote access where needed.

Team meal, company party or other event – invite them along – again – part of your team. Inclusion and friendship are powerful motivators – and also part of being a good human. Bring everyone along.

Determine if your environment is contractor hostile. I’ve been part of project teams where contractors were relegated to an unused floor, away from the main team of employees, because employees didn’t want to move, even though the project was over a year long. This segregation puts up a wall and can develop a sense of not belonging. That’s hostile, even if it doesn’t feel intended. But sometimes it is intended.

How hostile can it get? I once managed a contract team at a Midwest hospital for a few weeks while the original project manager was on leave (during a Y2K project). I got to the site and 30 of our contractors were placed in a narrow little room with two chairs. On the door was a nameplate with “SSC” on it. Turns out that stood for “Scum Sucking Contractors”. I immediately escalated with our customers management and my management, made them relocate us to more suitable space and remove that sign from the original room. The manager responsible was admonished – but in my opinion should have been fired. If you find policies or attitudes that are hostile, correct them.

Another instance is a contract programmer who joined my team, traveling from India. He was to spend 6 months in a very small manufacturing/port city on the gulf coast of Texas. People did not live there - although there were some hotels across a bay, there were no apartments to rent closer than about 40 miles away. He was supposed to have an international drivers license but when he arrived, he did not. One could argue he did not hold qualification for the job then, however, his skillset was very hard to find at the time.

His company had a policy that said they would only pay living expenses when he was traveling and expected him to find permanent lodging that he would pay for out of pocket. So he started searching for a hotel that was inexpensive. He came to me with the cheapest he could find - $30 a night. I did a little research and the first review said "Giant Hole in Door!". That room would still cost him close to $1000 a month. The nearest reasonable place had a rate of about $66 - more than double that and close to what his company was paying him a month. 

I went to my management and his, explaining his situation - he had no way to travel 40 miles to an apartment (in fact there was no way for him to travel from the plant to a hotel across the bay - he had hoped to buy a bicycle but the single lane bridge across the water had no sidewalk and was not safe for bike use). I got my company to pony up half of his expenses and his company the other half. His safety and livelihood was dependent upon it. I got push back from both of them, but I impressed on them that they would never subject their regular travelers (such as themselves) to dangerous or hardship conditions. So - we put him up in the $66 a night hotel and paid for a Jitney service to take him to and from the plant. He still paid all of his own food and other expenses. 

In another project we had a problem - traveling on Friday nights during the winter frequently meant that travelers were not getting home until late Saturday. When this was first brought up we started discussing how tough this was on married folks - little time to see family and soon realized the single people in the group had it even tougher - they had to do everything for themselves - no support structure - they had to do laundry, pay bills, see family. Getting home Saturday night and traveling again Sunday at noon was literally killing them. So, we adjusted project schedules for the traveling team to do 4 10 hour days of work, travel on Thursdays (which were frequently more likely to get on a flight as flights changed) and fly out earlier on Sundays to ensure they were ready on Monday morning. At first this seemed like a "4 day week" to some of our customer's management who felt this was too much of a concession to the staff (one guy said "we're deploying computers, not people!" - which isn't true - we were deploying both). We walked them through the hardship, helped them step into the consultant's shoes and got our schedule changed.

It comes down to basic dignity and respect. A person is not a lesser person for being a contractor or consultant – frequently they have been brought in for specific expertise and purpose. But regardless, they are human. We all are.

And these rules of thumb truly apply to people in any situation, employees and contractors alike. Yes, we frequently work under less than ideal conditions - we need to do whatever we can to make exceptions to smooth the road. 

And it is vital people are treated well in any situation. Let them know you care about them, treat them with respect and most people will put their best foot forward for you. They will accomplish and achieve. But even those that cannot deserve no less. And you will know, in quiet moments of reflection and in the face of adversity too - that you put your best foot forward for them. That's leadership.