The State of Contract Talent Management and the Role of HR

21 January, 2009

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The term “contingent work” was first coined by Audrey Freedman, at a 1985 conference on employment security, to describe the management technique of employing workers only when there was an immediate and direct demand for their services.

Cary L. Cooper and Ronald J. Burke in their book, The New World of Work,3 write:

“In one sense, the term ‘contingent’ has been associated with employment arrangements which operate on a ‘conditional’ or ‘as-needed’ basis.”

To focus on the transitory nature of the employment relationship and to identify a common underlying characteristic with which to classify workers, the Bureau of Labor Statistics in their Monthly Labor Review (1989) article, titled “On the definition of ‘contingent work’,” developed the following conceptual definition of contingent work:

“Contingent work is any job in which an individual does not have an explicit or implicit contract for long-term employment.”

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