Employees working for free - pros + cons

[DuaneJackson]

At the moment I am in the horrible position of having to turn down paying work simply because I have no more time (hence me pulling an all nighter tonight)

A few people have offered to work for free for a short period to gain some experience. I wouldn't let them lose on client work but there is plenty of in-house/favours that they can work on to cut their teeth on and for me to judge their ability.

The way I see it is that we don't risk spending money on people that may turn out to be of no use and may actually find someone that is good and worth employing with a salary.

Thoughts?

[Alpha]

Duane

Pro's
Low cost labour sources for a short period of time.

As you have said gives you an opportunity to find out if someone is worth employing.

May provide relevant 'on the job' training for a prospective employee.

May be helpful in doing all the non value added work that you may have possibly allowing you to concentrate on generating revenue.

Con's
Doing work for free may be counterproductive in a very short space of time where motivation will reduce rapidly. (Would you state from the outset that they would be employed if they are found to be suitable?)

Depending on the quality of person you may actually spend more of your time in explaining and supervising hence increasing the costs substantially (opportunity cost). Therefore it may be better to at least go through an interview process and take on an employee with a 6 month trial period with a low start salary increasing depending on progress.


My general advice would be if there is a role that requires filling, employ someone to do it!!

[bwglaw]

At the moment I am in the horrible position of having to turn down paying work simply because I have no more time (hence me pulling an all nighter tonight)

A few people have offered to work for free for a short period to gain some experience. I wouldn't let them lose on client work but there is plenty of in-house/favours that they can work on to cut their teeth on and for me to judge their ability.

The way I see it is that we don't risk spending money on people that may turn out to be of no use and may actually find someone that is good and worth employing with a salary.

Thoughts?

Giving you the worse case scenario that has happened to us:

We took on about deaf 5 people to develop a project, which was to publish a bi-monthly magazine for deaf and hard of hearing people. All of them had their own area of work and wanted to develop for their portfolios. We agreed to take them on as volunteers.

All of them left and the last one was a Web Designer. He prodiced a simple website for us as a volunteer. Without notice to us he pulled down the website!

A dispute arose upon which we claimed the website belonged to us. If the web designer is an 'employee' then the designs belong to us. If he is a freelance then the designs belong to him.

Sometime later we recieved an Employment Tribunal claim that he was claiming the National Minimum Wage and unfair dismissal even though he was a volunteer!!!!

I briefed Counsel and submitted evidence in time for the hearing. The volunteer withdrew his claim 2 days before the hearing! Tribunal wouldnt even award us costs so in total we lost about £5000.

From this day on, we do not take on volunteers simply because too much liability.

[answermba]

Alan's advice also applies to my situation. Thanks.

[maxine]

It's also a bit difficult to b****** (I mean tell people off) if they are working for free :)

[Jezclayton]

I think the above posts have already answered your question.

Let's face it. If it was that easy every company in the UK would demand that all new employees work for free during their trial period, after which they may or may not be offered a job.

To trial someone for a day with just expenses paid is reasonable. If you let them work on their own initiative you may even find out their capabilities. To train them in the task in hand and utilise their services free of charge for a longer period is exploitation.

I have often taken people (particularly prospective apprentices) on trial, but have always paid them a fair wage, even if it is only for one day.

In your situation, I would most definitely employ someone.

[asonda]

Do you personally know these people? If you do then a day or two may not hurt.

Otherwise I'd say you need to employ them or give them some form of incentive.

Motiviation would be abig factor and I have known somebody go up the wall because they weren't being appreciated for free work they were doing in their free time.

It's a toughy, to be on the safe side, minimum wage for a few hours per week to help you out must be the way to go?

[Cybamart]

Pros -

- *The biggest pro* If someone is actually volunteering then they are not financially motivated and actually WANT to be doing the work

- You get to work with people who may actually be an asset to the company and whom you would not otherwise have had the chance of encountering

- Will add a positive input from the point of view of society; it is a vicious circle when starting off careerwise - if you don't have experience, you can't get a job; if you haven't had a job, you can't get experience - unless you volunteer to gain work experience.

- You get free labour

- You have more time and as such can potentially stop turning down so much work

- Companies who offer work-experience are often seen very favourably

- Although essentially working for free, the volunteers would be hoping to get a reference from their work so would be more than likely keen to please

Cons

- If the volunteers are totally inexperienced then they may require some training

- Would still need to go through the reference process which may take up more of your time

- If the volunteers are mostly doing totally non-skilled tasks then their motivation may wane

It is a hard decision to make but you can only try it out and see how it goes; it may prove invaluable and you will never know unless you give it a trial. References are still crucial if you do not know the volunteers but overall I feel the pros outweigh the cons; these people have non-financial motivation and may prove a great asset to your company whilst giving them invaluable experience and a potential reference.

[Jezclayton]

Call me cynical or whatever, but I can't imagine many people would be willing to give up valuable free time (especially when we're talking days here) to offer the benefit of their experience to a profit making organisation. It's not as if you offer your services for free, so why should they?

Outside friends etc., I suspect most volunteers would be looking to gain experience, either to beef up their c.v. or demonstrate work experience towards a professional qualification for instance. The implication of this is that you become a teacher and stand to lose more than you gain.

As a heating engineer, I am always being approached by students, both young and old, looking to gain experience in gas work purely for the purposes of putting together the portfolio required for their qualification. They seem to think that I should be willing to provide on the job training but, not expect anything in return since they are offering their time for free. It's just a clever con, since they should be paying me, just as they pay for the various training courses they enroll on.

If you do decide to try the volunteer route, don't forget to ensure you have adequate Employer's Liability insurance etc. The fact that they're volunteers does not make you any less liable for their well being.

[Comspec]

Folks, you do realise that you are discussing a question the OP posted in October 2005? Things have moved along quite a bit since then :p

[Chippie]

Folks, you do realise that you are discussing a question the OP posted in October 2005? Things have moved along quite a bit since then :p

:D:D Good spot!! :D:D

[maxine]

ha ha - no, I hadnt noticed so thanks for pointing that out. Hope there isnt some chap somewhere still working for free

[atlascs]

Please can we have a way of highlighting out of date posts, I've lost another five minutes of my life that I'll never get back!

[Cybamart]

Folks, you do realise that you are discussing a question the OP posted in October 2005? Things have moved along quite a bit since then :p


Well THAT was a wasted 1:36am brainstorming session!!!!!!!!!

[Jezclayton]

Excellent :D

[An Oasis]

Still an interesting thread and the more contributions to it the better informed albeit via other people experiences.

I have to say that whilst a few years ago we used to take on work experience... sadly no longer, you pays yer money and you gets what you pay for. In a nutshell it is not worth the hassle.