contingent employment definition

contingent workforce

  

Contributor(s): Mekhala Roy

A contingent workforce is a labor pool whose members are hired by an organization on an on-demand basis. A contingent workforce consists of freelancers, independent contractors and consultants who are not on the company's payroll because they are not full-time employees of the organization. Organizations can hire a contingent worker directly or from a staffing agency. Such workers are usually added on an ad-hoc basis to a company's workforce and work either onsite or remotely. They generally receive fewer (if any) benefits and less pay than full-time workers, according to the U.S. Department of Labor, and are less likely to be protected by labor and employment laws.

The contingent workforce is an important element of an organization's workforce strategy as it provides businesses with additional agility and flexibility. Over 40% of the U.S. workforce is now made up of contingent workers, according to a report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office. The rise of the gig economy is also fueling the growth of the contingent workforce.

Contingent workforce advantages

Cost savings is one of the major benefits for organizations that hire contingent workers. Organizations save on administrative costs associated with hiring and maintaining full-time employees. Companies hiring contingent workers do not have to make contributions to their Social Security, make unemployment contributions or pay payroll taxes. Organizations are also not required to offer contingent workers health insurance and provide them perks like paid time off.

Is a contingent worker an employee?

The U.S. Department of Labor defines contingent workers as independent contractors or freelancers as opposed to employees. When a company hires an employee on a permanent or temporary basis, it becomes responsible for ensuring that taxes are deducted and paid for the employee. On the other hand, when the company hires an independent contractor or contingent worker, the IC becomes responsible for all taxes, as she works for herself. The difference between the two types of employment is defined by whether the worker is classified as an employee or a freelancer.

Contingent Workers

Contingent workers are typically defined as people who are not employees of a company. Instead, these workers are freelancers who might work under a contract, on a temporary basis or provide consulting services as needed. Many companies consider salespeople as contingent employees. Instead of receiving a salary, a contingent worker receives payment or commissions for completed work. Contingent workers cannot be told how to complete a project, as they work for themselves. The company's focus with contingent workers is not how the work gets done; the focus is on the results.

Contractual Employees

All employees who are hired in states with at-will employment guidelines are contractual employees whether there is a written agreement or not. The IRS defines these employees as common-law employees. At-will employment allows an employer or employee to terminate the work relationship at any time without cause. As long as employees meet the rules of employment, and work continues to be available, their "contract" for work continues. Violations of the contract, such as disciplinary actions or company violations may result in the ending of the contract. Contractual employees might work on a permanent or temporary basis. Contractual employees have taxes withheld from their paychecks and might be eligible for benefits dependent upon company policy and employment laws.

Internet Cable vs LAN Cable: What Are They?

The Internet is a worldwide collection of networks that connects millions of business, government agencies, educational institutions, and individuals. Internet services like file sharing, Internet access, and more are all delivered to end users via various types of mediums, which usually includes network switches, routers, fiber optic links, copper cabling technologies and so on. Therefore, Internet cables can be regarded as the physical cables used in the Internet. The most common types are fiber optic cables, coaxial cable, copper cable and so on. A fiber optic cable contains one or more optical fibers inside an insulated casing, and work to deliver signal via light. It’s designed for long distance, high-performance data networking and telecommunications since it provides higher bandwidth and can transmit data over long distances. Based on different connectors, fiber cables are divided into standard fiber patch cables with connectors like LC or SC, and MTP fiber cables. The common fiber cables are widely deployed for most 10G transmissions, and MTP cables are designed for 40/100G transmissions in data centers. Besides, fiber cables are also used in outdoors. These outdoor fiber cables like armored patch cables or military grade fiber cables can be used in harsh environment such as outdoor underground cabling. Coaxial cable is one type of electrical cable. It has a center conductor and an outer conductor with an insulating spacer between them. It’s primarily used in applications like telephone trunklines, high-speed computer data busses, carrying cable television signals and so on, since it can perform good at high frequencies and provide superior EMI control. Note that, copper cable is also called LAN cables, which is also a type of Internet cables. Its detailed information will be introduced as below.

LAN (Local Area Network) is a network that works over a small distance, typically within one building or campus. LAN can be small, linking as few as three computers, but also can connect hundreds of computers used by thousands of people. LAN cable refers to the cables for carrying data in computer networking. There are two main types of LAN cable. One is the standard straight through cable, usually known as Ethernet patch cable, which is used for connecting computers to routers or switches. Note that, common Ethernet cable comes in STP and UTP patch cable with a variety of grades as the following table shows. STP cable has an outside layer or “shield” of conductive material around the internal conductors, which is designed to reduce EMI effects. It’s widely used in environments where there is a high chance of electronic interference, like airports or factories. UTP cable doesn’t have shielding to reduce interference. It relies on the cancellation affect caused by the twisting of the wire pairs to handle EMI. It performs not as good as STP in EMI reducing. It’s often used for domestic and office Ethernet connections. The other type is a crossover cable, which is used for connecting two computers directly without routers, switches or hubs. As for straight through vs crossover cable, they use different wiring standards in the connectors of the two ends. The two connectors of straight through type use the same wiring standards, either T568A or T568B. While connectors of crossover adopt different standards, one connector uses T568A and the other one uses T568B.

Disadvantages of contingent worker

Disadvantages: Employer

Disadvantages  of contingent to the employer of using temporary workers fall primarily into two categories: workforce insufficiency and legal implications. A downside to using contingent workers involves the potential for lack of talent at critical times. Such lack of critical talent can result either from a lack of availability of known talent, or from the inability to locate talent for a specific project, even though such talent does exist. In the category of legalities, abuses of contingent worker status have resulted in national labor laws, and labor laws in some states, that incorporate stringent definitions of what legally constitutes a contingent worker. In some instances, even using a third-party employer such as a temporary agency has not protected employers from a legal determination that workers classified as contingent by the company qualified as employees of the company and were subject to the same benefits as other company employees.

Disadvantages: Worker

The disadvantages of contingent  for the worker also vary with the particular circumstance. The most consistent disadvantage across all levels of contingent workforce is that work may not materialize, or even exist, when the contingent worker needs income. Additionally, with some contingent work, such as retail seasonal work or some types of temporary assignment, a disadvantage involves the reality that overall compensation rates fall short of those for direct-hire employees performing similar work. Finally, contingent workers either receive few or no fringe benefits, or must implement and administer such benefits funds themselves.

What does contingent sentence mean?

con·tin·gent. Use contingent in a sentence. adjective. The definition of contingent is something that depends on something else happening, or something that is possible or by chance. An example of contingent is the sale of one home going through after the buyer's house is sold; a contingent sale.
An event which may or may not happen; that which is unforeseen, undetermined, or dependent on something future; a contingency. contingent(Noun) That which falls to one in a division or apportionment among a number; a suitable share; proportion; contingent(Noun) (military) a quota of troops.Contingency means something that could happen or come up depending on other occurrences. An example of a contingency is the unexpected need for a bandage on a hike. The definition of a contingency is something that depends on something else in order to happen.

A future event or circumstance whose occurrence is not certain.

contingency fee

A fee charged for a lawyer’s services in an action that is paid only if the client wins his or her lawsuit or receives a payment from an out-of-court settlement. Usually, the fee is a percentage of the amount recovered. Further-more, whatever the result of the action, the client will pay the court costs and the other out-of-pocket expenses (postage, subpoena fees, and so on) incurred by the lawyer during the course of the action. Although contingency fees are frequently charged for a lawyer’s services in a civil action, it is unethical to charge this way for services in a criminal action. Also called contingent fee. See also attorney’s fees and champerty.

definition of contingent

What is a simple definition of a network?

Computer Network Types

A computer network is a group of computers linked to each other that enables the computer to communicate with another computer and share their resources, data, and applications.

A computer network can be categorized by their size. A computer network is mainly of four types:

• LAN(Local Area Network)
• PAN(Personal Area Network)
• MAN(Metropolitan Area Network)
• WAN(Wide Area Network)

LAN(Local Area Network)

• Local Area Network is a group of computers connected to each other in a small area such as building, office.
• LAN is used for connecting two or more personal computers through a communication medium such as twisted pair, coaxial cable, etc.
• It is less costly as it is built with inexpensive hardware such as hubs, network adapters, and ethernet cables.
• The data is transferred at an extremely faster rate in Local Area Network.
• Local Area Network provides higher security.

• PAN(Personal Area Network)

  • Personal Area Network is a network arranged within an individual person, typically within a range of 10 meters.
  • Personal Area Network is used for connecting the computer devices of personal use is known as Personal Area Network.
  • Thomas Zimmerman was the first research scientist to bring the idea of the Personal Area Network.
  • Personal Area Network covers an area of 30 feet.
  • Personal computer devices that are used to develop the personal area network are the laptop, mobile phones, media player and play stations.

Do you need a router if you have a modem?

That's like asking which is better a plate or a cup.

They are not interchangeable devices, they each have their own unique purpose. What makes it confusing is because you can get a modem-router combo.

A modem is a device that takes the cable medium (coax cable, phone, fiber, etc) from the IPS and converts it to ethernet (not just converting the cable but the entire data structure).

A router allows you to create a local network and share resources. It gives you private address to provide a much needed first layer of security, and then it routes traffic between your local network and the outside network (the internet from your ISP).

A modem-router is a box that has both built into one box. Typically this is a mediocre modem combined with a mediocre router. A $50 modem + a $75 router will be far superior to a $100 modem-router combo.

You need a modem if your ISP provides internet service over an analog carrier, such as cable TV or telephone lines. You don't need one if your connection is via optical fibre - you'd need an optical interface for your computer or router.
You need a router if you have a complex network, or multiple paths to the internet. Otherwise, strictly speaking, you just need a switch.
But for most home users using IPv4, they will only be allocated one address by an ISP. If they have more than one computer or networked device, they will most likely need a home router which uses DHCP to create local addresses for all devices in a private address space such as 192.168/16, and NAT to allow these devices to share a single public internet address. This router often includes a wifi access point integrated into the same box.

Personally, I have a modem to connect my PC to cable TV service, and use software on my PC to implement NAT, DHCP and DNS to connect a local network on a second interface. So in effect my PC is  acting as a router.

Do you have to have Internet to have WiFi?

You buy a wireless router and power it up. By default, most home wireless routers are manufactured with WiFi enabled.

The WiFi network name (SSID) and pass phrase should either be on the router’s label or in the user guide.

There should also be a password that will allow you to log on to the router’s settings and change them, including changing the WiFi name and encryption details. Changing WiFi settings is best done from a PC connected by Ethernet. If you change WiFi settings over a WiFi connection and make a mistake, you may not be able to use the WiFi until the error is corrected.

The ports on the router that normally provide the connection to the Internet are left unused.

Wi-Fi is just a wireless network connection, Internet is not required to set up a Wi-Fi LAN, so yes, you can get Wi-Fi without Internet

The only device you need is a Wireless Access Point (WAP)

First, you need to set up the WAP with an SSID (network name) and maybe security (Like WPA), WAPs come with a preset SSID, so if you’re fine with the name it comes with, you can probably skip that step

From there, you just need to connect to it, go into your network settings and set a static IP

So for device one, you would type something like this

IP: 192.168.1.1

Netmask: 255.255.255.0

For device 2, you would type something like this

IP: 192.168.1.2

Netmask: 255.255.255.0

What is WLAN connection?

A wireless local area network (WLAN) is a wireless distribution method for two or more devices that use high-frequency radio waves and often include an access point to the Internet. A WLAN allows users to move around the coverage area, often a home or small office, while maintaining a network connection.

A wireless local area network (WLAN) is a wireless distribution method for two or more devices that use high-frequency radio waves and often include an access point to the Internet. A WLAN allows users to move around the coverage area, often a home or small office, while maintaining a network connection.

A WLAN is sometimes call a local area wireless network (LAWN).

In the early 1990s, WLANs were very expensive and were only used when wired connections were strategically impossible. By the late 1990s, most WLAN solutions and proprietary protocols were replaced by IEEE 802.11 standards in various versions (versions "a" through "n"). WLAN prices also began to decrease significantly.

WLAN should not be confused with the Wi-Fi Alliance's Wi-Fi trademark. Wi-Fi is not a technical term, but is described as a superset of the IEEE 802.11 standard and is sometimes used interchangeably with that standard. However, not every Wi-Fi device actually receives Wi-Fi Alliance certification, although Wi-Fi is used by more than 700 million people through about 750,000 Internet connection hot spots.

Every component that connects to a WLAN is considered a station and falls into one of two categories: access points (APs) and clients. APs transmit and receive radio frequency signals with devices able to receive transmitted signals; they normally function as routers. Clients may include a variety of devices such as desktop computers, workstations, laptop computers, IP phones and other cell phones and Smartphones. All stations able to communicate with each other are called basic service sets (BSSs), of which there are two types: independent and infrastructure. Independent BSSs (IBSS) exist when two clients communicate without using APs, but cannot connect to any other BSS. Such WLANs are called a peer-to-peer or an ad-hoc WLANs. The second BSS is called an infrastructure BSS. It may communicate with other stations but only in other BSSs and it must use APs.

managed service provider

A managed service provider (MSP) is a company that remotely manages a customer's IT infrastructure and/or end-user systems, typically on a proactive basis and under a subscription model. Today, the terms "cloud service provider" and "managed service provider" are sometimes used as synonyms when the provider's service is supported by a service level agreement (SLA) and is delivered over the internet.

The evolution of MSPs began in the 1990s with the emergence of application service providers (ASPs), which offered remote application hosting services. ASPs helped pave the way for cloud computing and companies that would provide remote support for customers' IT infrastructure. MSPs, for the most part, initially focused on the remote management and monitoring (RMM) of servers and networks. Over time, MSPs have expanded the scope of their services in a bid to differentiate themselves from other providers.

While some MSPs may specialize in specific segments of information technology such as data storage, others may focus on specific vertical markets, such as legal, financial services, healthcare and manufacturing. Managed security services providers (MSSPs), for instance, offer specialized services such as remote firewall administration and other security-as-a-service offerings. Managed print services (MPS) providers, meanwhile, offload the task of maintaining printers and supplying consumables.

Pricing model for managed service providers

In per-device pricing, the MSP charges the customer a flat fee for each device under management. In per-user pricing, meanwhile, the MSP charges a flat fee for each user, accommodating users who use multiple devices. In all-inclusive pricing, also referred to as the all-you-can-eat model, the MSP charges a flat fee for all the IT infrastructure support and management services the MSP plans to offer.

In each of those pricing approaches, the customer pays the flat fee on a regularly scheduled basis, often monthly. Such pricing methods let MSPs sell services under a subscription model. This approach provides the MSP with a monthly recurring revenue (MRR) stream, in contrast to IT projects that tend to be one-time transactions.

MRR is one aspect of managed services work that differs from other business models in the IT solutions provider and channel partner space. Solutions providers pursuing the break/fix model, for example, usually price their services on a time and materials (T&M) basis, billing an hourly rate for repairing a customer's IT equipment and charging for parts or replacement gear.

How do I connect to WLAN?

Before connecting to a WLAN network, you must know at least  the following details:

• The name of the network (a.k.a. SSID) you are connecting to
• The possible password of the network

Note that a typical distance to connect to a WLAN network is 10 to 30 meters. A concrete or tile wall between your device and the WLAN access point (WLAN device) could easily block the connection.

Sailfish OS supports the following encryption methods:

• WEP
• WPA/WPA2 PSK (WPA/WPA2-Personal).
• WPA-EAP (WPA/WPA2-Enterprise).

Connecting to a WLAN network

• Tap on 'Settings' 
  
• Tap on ‘WLAN’.  A new page appears. The lower part of the page shows 'Saved networks', i.e. previously used WLAN networks, if any. Note that all of these networks may not be available at your current location.
• If the switch light in front of 'WLAN' (near top left corner) is not lit, tap 'WLAN' to turn it on.

a) Selecting a previously used network

• If one of the 'Saved networks' is available and if the switch light in front of it is lit (meaning: network enabled, please seek for it), then Sailfish will automatically connect to that network (to the strongest of them, if several).
  - This can also be done by tapping the WLAN icon in Top Menu (Sailfish 3).
• The connected network gets a different colour. Word 'Connected' appears underneath the name of the network.
• If none of the 'Saved networks' is enabled and available, or if there are no saved networks, then proceed to chapter b) below.

b) Searching for new networks

• Pull down the menu and take ‘Connect to Internet’ 
• You will see all available WLAN networks your Sailfish device finds.
• It is also possible to manually configure a new network with 'Add network' (only for users with good command of WLAN technologies)
• Choose the network you want to connect to by tapping it. Insert a password if requested. Slide the display upwards and tap 'Connect', or tap the double arrowhead key at the bottom right corner.
• The connected network gets a different colour. Word 'Connected' appears underneath the name of the network.

Challenges of managed service providers

Service-level agreements I managed service providers

An MSP often provides its service offering under a service-level agreement, a contractual arrangement between the MSP and its customer that spells out the performance and quality metrics that will govern the relationship.

An SLA may be linked to an MSP's pricing formula. For example, an MSP may offer a range of SLAs to customers, with the customer paying a higher fee for higher levels of service in a tiered pricing structure.

Challenges of managed service providers

Regardless of pricing model, a key challenge for MSP business management is to set pricing low enough to entice customers to buy their services but high enough to maintain an adequate profit margin.

In addition to pricing, MSPs pay close attention to operating costs and the cost of maintaining skilled employees. Labor is typically an MSP's greatest expense. To keep labor costs in check and improve efficiency, most MSPs employ remote monitoring and management (RMM) software to keep tabs on clients' IT functions. RMM software lets MSPs remotely troubleshoot and remediate issues with servers and endpoint devices. With RMM, MSPs can manage numerous customers' IT systems simultaneously. MSPs may also use automated scripts to handle routine systems administration functions, such as checking hard disks for errors, without human intervention.

Another challenge MSPs face is the mainstream adoption of cloud computing. As more of their customers' IT infrastructure components migrate to the cloud, MSPs have had to find ways to manage hybrid cloud environments. MSPs also seek to provide their own cloud computing services or resell other cloud providers' capabilities, with cloud-based backup and disaster recovery (DR) a common entry point.

In addition, just becoming an MSP can prove challenging. The prospect of MRR has attracted many traditional solutions provider companies, such as VARs, to the MSP business model. However, would-be MSPs have struggled to establish themselves in the market. The MSP line of business calls for companies to adopt different performance metrics, technology infrastructure components and sales compensation programs, to name a few challenges. As a result, many MSPs derive revenue from business lines other than managed services, such as IT project work, break/fix business and on-site support. Pure-play MSPs are relatively rare in the IT services industry.

What MSPs are used for

Small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are typical MSP customers. Many smaller companies have limited in-house IT capabilities, so they may view an MSP's service offering as a way to obtain IT expertise. Larger enterprises may also contract with MSPs, however. For example, government agencies, facing budget pressure and hiring limitations, may contract with an MSP to supplement in-house IT staff.

What is managed website hosting?

Understanding Managed Web Hosting

If you’re a business with a web presence and you’re looking into web hosting, you’ve probably come across the terms “dedicated web hosting” and “managed web hosting.” We’ve previously discussed dedicated web hosting, so in this post, we’re discussing managed web hosting.

What Is Managed Web Hosting?

Managed web hosting is when a hosting service provider leases you a dedicated server but manages the server themselves. The provider controls your server, conducts software and hardware maintenance, provides security, monitors activity, and takes care of backup services.

Though both managed web hosting and dedicated web hosting involve a dedicated server, with dedicated web hosting you manage the server yourself. This is not the case for managed web hosting, where the hosting provider takes care of server management with proactive support and notification of required updates.

Unlike virtual or shared hosting, which involves multiple users on a single server, managed web hosting offers a server for your exclusive use. Managed web hosting is similar to virtual or shared hosting in that the web hosting company works to manage the server. The difference is that with managed web hosting, the IT staff doing the managing need to understand a bit about your business and how it uses the server.

What Does “Managed” Mean?

With “managed web hosting,” the hosting service provider sets up the server and takes care of day-to-day operations, twenty-four hours a day. They troubleshoot technical problems, deal with software updates, handle security, and more. A great deal goes into management and upkeep of a server, and managed web hosting takes care of this.

Important Considerations

As you might expect, managed web hosting is typically more costly than dedicated web hosting. When you pay for managed web hosting, you pay for 24/7 IT support from the web hosting provider.

Your IT department will be a major factor in the decision about whether or not your business uses managed web hosting. Server management is a 24/7 job that involves many different areas of expertise, including architecture, configuration management, monitoring, backup technologies, security, and more. It’s worth mentioning security twice because it’s a big part of the reason server management is a 24/7 job. Is your IT staff proactive and reactive enough to protect your server all the time?

Even if your IT staff has the expertise to manage a server, it’s also important to consider their capacity. Is your staff big enough to do their regular jobs and add round-the-clock server management to their mandate?

What is Server Management?

We’ll explain to you, What is Server Management? Like many other terms in the server management and managed services industry, server management is vaguely used and can mean different things when used by different server management service providers.

Some companies may offer a set of managed support services in their server management plan, but a different company may offer a completely different set of services. Although there are some guidelines and definitions that still hold true for any managed service provider.

This article will guide you through what server management is, who needs it and why you should use it. After our intro, you should have a solid understanding of the basics.

Broad definition of server management

Server management can be defined as the tasks and services that are done on a server in order to manage it. This usually entails:

• Monitoring of the server and apps running on the server. Checking their status, uptime, and monitoring for any new or recurring issues.
• Updating the server and software installed on the server. Although most server management companies offer this as part of their services, some still don’t. Nevertheless, it’s still considered as part of the ‘server management’ process.
• Setup and configuration. The actual server setup and configuration of software and services running on the server. Again, this may not be a part of the server management plan offered by some companies, but it most often is.
• Other. This is where the issue in defining what server management actually is arises. Every provider offers totally different services, although they are still considered as part of the server management process, they are not the same among several different providers and thus cannot be considered as the “default” definition of server management.

What are the server monitoring tools?

As production workloads move to the cloud, companies are grappling with covering increasingly complex data center components too numerous to be effectively managed with existing staff. IT departments are aggressively working to find more efficient processes to manage their server assets.

Tight budgets and distributed data centers increase the number of unmanaged and unmonitored assets within an organization. This can lead to performance issues, abandoned servers and heightened security risks. Managing these assets in-house is expensive; suffering a data breach on an unmanaged server can be catastrophic.

CompuCom’s Managed Server Services manages the ever-evolving components of your data center so that all of your assets are monitored and maintained, your environment stays healthy, and your users stay happy and productive.

How CompuCom Can Help You

By allowing CompuCom to monitor, manage and repair your servers, you can repurpose resources including your staff, time and money to more business aligned functions. With CompuCom, you get:

• Our highly trained and certified IT pros, who bring an impressive level of expertise to a company, enabling you to scale your resource coverage while containing costs.
• Managed services that provide efficiencies of scale for servers, from traditional infrastructure to virtual to cloud. This results in simplified visibility across server environments while reducing management and operational costs.
• Active server monitoring and management that allows you to reallocate staff and resources for more vital services directly related to business tasks.
• 24x7 monitoring that offers assurance to end users of increased system uptime, as any problems are discovered early and resolved more quickly.

Managed Server Services

As production workloads move to the cloud, companies are grappling with covering increasingly complex data center components too numerous to be effectively managed with existing staff. IT departments are aggressively working to find more efficient processes to manage their server assets.

Tight budgets and distributed data centers increase the number of unmanaged and unmonitored assets within an organization. This can lead to performance issues, abandoned servers and heightened security risks. Managing these assets in-house is expensive; suffering a data breach on an unmanaged server can be catastrophic.

CompuCom’s Managed Server Services manages the ever-evolving components of your data center so that all of your assets are monitored and maintained, your environment stays healthy, and your users stay happy and productive.

How CompuCom Can Help You

By allowing CompuCom to monitor, manage and repair your servers, you can repurpose resources including your staff, time and money to more business aligned functions. With CompuCom, you get:

• Our highly trained and certified IT pros, who bring an impressive level of expertise to a company, enabling you to scale your resource coverage while containing costs.
• Managed services that provide efficiencies of scale for servers, from traditional infrastructure to virtual to cloud. This results in simplified visibility across server environments while reducing management and operational costs.
• Active server monitoring and management that allows you to reallocate staff and resources for more vital services directly related to business tasks.
• 24x7 monitoring that offers assurance to end users of increased system uptime, as any problems are discovered early and resolved more quickly.