The new wave of worker

By Sara Templeton

A new type of employee is on hand at Australia's biggest telecommunications company, Telstra, and could be more likely to permeate other companies, even industries.

Called flexi-workers, this new breed of worker is different to casual or part-time workers in a number of ways, and gives businesses a handy fall-back measure when things get busy.

The idea behind flexible workers, sometimes called supplementaries, is that they are full-time employees, with all the skills and know-how of other workers, yet only ever called in when they're needed, such as during hectic periods of the year or during an emergency.

When the full-time workforce can't cope with an abundance of tasks, Telstra will call up flexi workers to fill the void.

At Telstra, the flexi workers are usually given 24 hours notice before they are required for tasks, which could range from off-site maintenance, to call centre gap-plugging or computer systems administration.

With more and more Australian's preferring to work part-time and casually, the new type of employment could well catch on, at least in larger companies and corporations.

At Telstra, flexi workers receive pay equal to that of their permanent co-workers, and while many parties, such as unions and employee rights groups say its too early to say whether such a position would be commonplace, they agree that for specific trades they would be useful.

Call centres and administrative-based work are the streams best suited to the supplementary worker, and while Telstra is the only company hiring such workers, the employment climate in Australia may well suit this new employment method.

While workers are only given 24 hours notice before they are needed to plug a hole in the workforce, the benefits of being a flexi worker are great. Those with active lifestyles or, dare we say it, busy social lives would fit into such a position easily, while gaining all the benefits of the permanent worker.

The future of flexi work is still up in the air, but such an innovative new style of work could become the norm in a five or ten years. Now all we need is for Web Wombat to trial the flexi worker. Hmm...