Does zero hours equal zero satisfaction?

Jo Faragher

A recent report from the CIPD has highlighted something that many HR or hiring managers knew to be true but that politicians have been keen to ignore: that working on a zero-hours contract doesn’t necessarily mean you’re miserable, living on the breadline and struggling to feed your family. Rather, you’re just on a more flexible deal than someone on a permanent contract.

The CIPD found that the proportion of zero-hours contract employees who were either satisfied or very satisfied with their job was 65%, higher than the 63% of all employees who responded to the survey. They are also more likely to say they are happy with their work-life balance, and less likely to feel under excessive pressure at work.

This, of course, doesn’t fit with the picture politicians liked to paint of zero-hours workers in the run-up to this year’s election, with each party trying to outdo the other on damning the controversial contracts and pledging to either ban them altogether or significantly reduce their use. As CIPD chief executive Peter Cheese points out, the workers themselves aren’t really bothered what type of contract they’re on, as long as they have the work.

The report does highlight that there should be more of an emphasis on ensuring workers on temporary or short-hours contracts are eligible for training and development, and this is a fair point. Deliberately demonizing certain types of contracts or consciously creating teams of zero-hours workers who stand apart from the rest of the workforce arguably does more harm than good – they key is to treat everyone as equitably as possible.

With more pressures emerging for employers in the coming months – higher pay bills thanks to the new living wage for one – they will appreciate having enough flexibility to scale up the workforce during busy times without having to engage in an expensive and long term contract. And while there are certainly some exceptions that exploit workers by not guaranteeing enough work or chopping and changing shifts at short notice, many employers use zero hours arrangements to offer flexibility on both sides.

Better to target deeper issues of employee disengagement, as the CIPD says, than simply blame the contract itself.