Work / Life Balance: The Ultimate Accolade

Work / Life Balance: The Ultimate Accolade

As revealed in our annual customer satisfaction survey, our customers revealed their top motivations for becoming a contractor, with the majority choosing this path as it offers a greater work-life balance.

 

As growth in the professional contractor sector is steadily on the rise with more and more people choosing to provide their services as independent professional contractors, our survey reveals the top motivational factors for choosing this career path.

1.Achieve a greater work / life balance

When you’re a professional contractor, you have the flexibility to make your own hours and create the work-life balance you desire (and deserve!). 38% of our contractors testify that their career choices stem from a desire to have greater freedom, flexibility, control, and purpose. The search for just the right balance can be just as much a journey of self-discovery as a career path.

2.Flexibility to work your own hours

As a contractor you have the freedom to set your own working schedule. Permanent employees have required hours that must be fulfilled and a strictly-defined daily routine. A contractor on the other hand can be free to choose their working hours, and free to choose where to work, and in which field. An explosion of intuitive technology, combined with an immersive 24/7 culture, has enabled flexible working hours to soar to new heights, as 27% of our respondents echoed.

3.Pursue the Projects That Ignite Your Passion

One in four of our contractors overall agree: doing something you love is more important than making money. When you break down the reasons so many agree, it’s a no-brainer: more passion means more productivity; you feel a personal connection to your work, inspiring you to devise more ideas, and potential, better solutions; you’ll be pushed to work more hours in a day; and of course, as one article puts it, our working careers will consume most of our lives, so we might as well do something we enjoy.

4.To Continue to Grow and Learn new Skillsets

The freedom to work when and where one pleases also provides the freedom to learn. Different jobs require different responsibilities and skillsets! Acquiring these skills through personal pursuits, and/or diverse work experience, gives contractors a competitive advantage by coming in to many work relationships. Overall, contractors develop a broader skill set than permanent workers as they move between different industry sectors.Whilst diversity is also key as echoed in the survey sentiment, contractors are in it to do the work they love which most likely doesn’t include dealing with the needs of a back office. Our team of experts at Contracting PLUS can help eliminate the clutter of the back office to keep you focused on the things that keep your passions aflame!

5.To Meet New People

The independent lifestyle provides a unique opportunity to meet people you may never have in a typical work environment. After all, the key to a successful start as an independent business is networking whether via your own LinkedIn postings or via Contracting PLUS’ Contractors Group and other social networking, joining professional organisations, or attending networking events, you’ll be ahead of the game in terms of marketing yourself and getting leads.If you would like to participate in further networking events and or like to host your own industry-specific event, please contact us and we will endeavour to support you.

Whilst extrinsic motivators such as financial incentives featured in our survey responses, for many Contractors their priority was secondary to those mentioned above and adversely would not have impacted upon work productivity. Sentiment echoed throughout the survey highlighted the ultimate motivational factor was to achieve a balance with work and family life.

In recognising the importance of the independent Contractor as a valuable and vital cog in the workings of the Irish Economy, Contracting PLUS offers a range of services to support the independent contractor, from accounting and tax solutions to business support and advice.

Contracting PLUS – Making Contracting Simple

 

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