March 30, 2023 — That's hours, not years. According to the Department of Labor, the number of people working part-time rose by some 1.2 million just between December 2022 and the end of January 2023. Roughly 16.3 percent of all employed Americans were working less than full-time at the last count. Also, note that this trend is likely to persist since many part-timers are working limited hours by choice rather than due to employer convenience or changes in business volume. The reasons cited in the government surveys run a full spectrum from people who are part-time students and employees (a lot of those) to a wide variety of family and personal factors that make less than 35 hours a week a desirable arrangement*.
Why is that a risk concern? In a very real sense, part-time employees are still full-time risks. If they are hurt on the job, they don't get less than full workers' comp coverage; if they are involved in, for instance, an accident driving a company vehicle, you still get the entire liability megillah. But, if you are not thorough, they may get less than the full benefit of safety training, operational instructions for heavy equipment, or even a full issue of safety gear.
Part-timers have a way of being less visible than the rest of your employee roster. Their hours may not coincide with your monthly safety meetings, accident review sessions, or fire/disaster drills. They may not be fully plugged into the employee grapevine that distributes so much vital information, however informally. A supervisor may not give them as much overseeing as they need.
Even part-time employees are part of your company's brand. They represent your organization whenever they interact with the public. How you work to make them part of your company's safety culture speaks volumes about how much you value your people and your larger company culture. A strong culture embraces all your people.
If you have part-timers, and most of us do these days, are you making the extra effort to bring them effectively into the safety and accident prevention fold? Is >35 hours work = 40 hours of risk on your checklist? If not, think about it.
*The DoL survey does not give us participation data by age, so your part-timers could be kids, who have never had proper workplace safety training, or retirees returning to the workforce with nonobvious physical limitations. Doesn't that make you feel warm all over?
Author
Dr. Gary Anderberg
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