4 Types of Employees: The Most Common Classification
Full-time
These are the employees that usually work an average of 40 hours per week. They get various benefits, like health, dental, and paid sick leaves and vacation days. Usually, an employer assigns specific responsibilities to full-time employees, and they, alongside provided benefits, termination, and applicable law, are mentioned in the employment agreement. Although they work remotely, it’s vital to keep them engaged and motivated, so employee retention means a lot in this case.
Ways to drive them:
- since this type of employees is constantly communicating with other team members and departments, it’s necessary to implement team-building events. This helps to get to know the colleagues better and make the staff members feel more comfortable around each other;
- it’s crucial to ask your remote employees about things that matter the most to them and create motivational strategies according to the peculiarities of each person;
- staying aligned and having regular check-ups is essential for keeping remote employees on the same page and noticing the issues they might be facing;
- remotely working employees require clear goals and expectations if you want to make sure they deliver on the company goals. So, it’s essential to ensure ongoing and clear communication and remember the importance of giving feedback.
Part-time
This category of employees works less than 40 hours a week and are usually paid by the hour rather than salaried. However, they are still considered legitimate employees of the company and, most often, aren’t eligible for the benefits.
Ways to drive them:
- ensure flexibility and keep it in mind when setting goals and creating plans. They strive for work-life balance and are more likely to stay loyal to the company that ensures suitable conditions;
- onboarding part-time employees is as crucial as doing this for your full-time staff members. Provide all the necessary resources and tools so the employees can execute their job properly.
- utilize various communication tools to mitigate the impact of different schedules on the effectiveness of your cooperation with part-time employees. Opt for email, video calls, instant chats, etc. Also, point out to the remote staff members that you are always in touch, and they can reach out to you regarding any questions and issues.
- offer development opportunities and invest in training employees. The opportunity to advance skills shouldn’t be compromised just because the people don’t work full-time. Besides, it helps to make your staff members more qualified and show them that you value learning and development.
- make communication frequent. If you have regular meetings, make sure to include part-time employees in them as well. This helps to strengthen relationships between the team members.
- offer part-time work for different positions. There’s an abundance of experienced professionals who can deliver superior results while working less than 40 hours per week. So, don’t limit the opportunity to cooperate with highly skilled people by hiring part-timers to less demanding jobs.
Seasonal
Unlike other types of employees, these are usually hired when there’s an increased work demand in the company. They are eligible for Social Security and unemployment benefits since they’re not considered permanent employees.
Ways to drive them:
- make them feel welcomed and motivate them to keep their performance standards high. If you want your remote seasonal employee to show exceptional results, you need to treat them as an integral part of your team.
- equip the remote team members with all the tools and resources required for the job. You’ll do yourself a favor by providing training to them because it will boost their performance and make you consider hiring them back for the next season.
- communicate goals and expectations clearly. Nobody likes figuring things out on the fly, especially when it comes to doing certain tasks. So, put effort into ensuring comprehensible targets to eliminate the issues before they occur.
Temporary
These working employees are usually hired for executing a certain project, which lasts for a specific period, like 6 months. Once the project is complete, they stop working for the company. Also, these types of employees are usually hired directly or via a staffing agency.
Ways to drive them:
- ensure training opportunities. As you might have already noticed, training is important for all categories of employees. So, if you want temporary employees to deliver outstanding results, ensure multi-faceted training.
- give and ask for feedback. If people understand what they lack or what makes them stand out among others, they’ll emphasize these strengths. Also, you can ask for their feedback to get a fresh view on your company’s activities, and, maybe, introduce some changes.
- keep attention to their thoughts and ideas. Since temporary employees usually have extensive experience working for different tech companies, they can provide valuable information to you.
What other categories of employees are there?
There are various employees types and ways of categorizing them because of the many approaches to handling this issue. So, to make the article more multifaceted, we’ve decided to point out a couple of other types of employees in the workplace:
- superstar, journeyman, underperformer, toxic employee;
- friend-seeker, director, money hunter, expert, creator, entertainer, etc.;
- architect, commander, visionary, mediator (based on 16 personality types);
- the passionate employee, the professional employee, the paycheck employee, the problem employee.
A perfect workplace is about uniqueness, and to ensure it, the leaders have to find suitable approaches to each employee. However, managing a diverse group of people is quite a challenge.
So, to make sure everything is smooth and there are no misunderstandings, you need to devote time, which is often limited, especially for startup and SMB owners. In this case, the most optimal solution is to hire an HR specialist who will work remotely and understand all the pains of work-from-home employees.
What are the Types of Difficult Employees?
There are a few types of employees that leaders find particularly challenging to deal with. They often exhibit negative workplace behaviors, hindering an entire organization’s success. Also, since there are several types of difficult employees, it’s necessary to find an approach to each to manage them successfully, because otherwise, they can create business losses and reduce employee morale.
Here’s a list of the most difficult types of employees in the workplace:
- Controllers/perfectionists
Although perfectionism isn’t a negative personality trait, it often hinders professional success. Such employees often perceive criticism badly and refuse to introduce changes to complete the project in time. Besides, they often run late because they try to reduce any downsides.
Speaking of the controllers, these are the people who want to be leaders, even if they’re not in the position to do so. Having ambitious and actively engaged employees is good for the company, but some of them may try to walk over the leaders or undermine them.
It’s necessary for both of these types of employees in the workplace to build healthy relationships with other team members and have tasks with defined deadlines. In this way, they won’t be scattered and get side-tracked.
- Passive-aggressive/overly emotional
Such people often express their emotions too overtly, being unsatisfied or angry with their company, coworkers, or employers, you should be ready to resolve conflicts. Also, they tend to raise their voice or slam doors when they’re not in the mood.
When dealing with such working employees, you need to keep a cool head and remain professional, not responding to their provocations. Besides, they need to be put in positions where they have specific guidelines and are aware of the expectations placed on them.
- Naysayer/bully
All people have their good and bad days, but some employees seem to be in low spirits every time you communicate with them. It also happens that a certain employee uses bullying as a method of motivating others to perform. These behaviors aren’t correct because they undermine the performance of the whole team.
If you have spotted such type of employees in your company, make sure to talk to them and mention what exactly concerns you. Mention the consequences that might happen if they won’t change their behavior and ask what you can do to help.
4.Social butterfly/gossip
When employees are socializing, it’s great because it improves team bonds and creates a healthier working environment. However, if you notice that your remote employees spend too much time in group chats or jump from topic to topic when in meetings, this may lead to disruptions and conflicts.
If such things happen and you’re afraid that your remote team members are spreading rumors because of a lack of communication and information about the company’s performance—it’s time to create clear boundaries. Also, emphasize that you’re always in touch, and if they have some concerns, they should chat with you instead of making up rumors and misinformation.
Types of Employees Benefits for Startups and SMBs
As we’ve already pointed out, there are different benefits for different categories of employees. Most often, these benefits are applicable for full-time employees, but this often depends on the business.
Usually, companies offer standard benefits, like health insurance or employee discounts. Yes, these benefits are nice, but they’re not competitive enough. Since the modern labor market is full of various companies, the quality of their benefits packages significantly affects their chances of attracting prospective and retaining current employees.
Here are the types of employees benefits that are offered by startups and SMBs and help them stay competitive on the market:
- Employee wellness programs
Let’s be honest: any employee benefits package can’t be complete without a health and wellness aspect. Keeping a healthy lifestyle improves both the physical and mental state of the team, so you can use various ready-made employee wellness platforms or create custom plans on your own.
Also, this benefit implies using various games and challenges to encourage a healthy lifestyle.
- Workstation support
When the workers have access to the amenities and the best equipment, it motivates them to give better results. They’re more productive because they don’t have to deal with slow hardware or software that has bugs. Besides, it makes them feel more comfortable and instills a sense of responsibility.
You can either provide employees with all the resources they might need for setting up a workstation or reimburse them for managing their at-home office.
- Learning and development options
Online courses and other opportunities to hone the skills are now at the forefront of the practical remote employee benefits. They are accessible and affordable, so you won’t have to spend a fortune on them, and your employees will get access to high-quality online courseware on any topic.
That’s a win-win situation because your company’s performance increases several times, and employees become more competitive and have comprehensive expertise.
- Home care services
When people are working from home, they need to be focused on work and not get distracted. However, nobody’s canceled homely chores, which often hinder employee performance and are time-consuming.
Paying for domestic care services, like meal delivery, cleaning, or laundry will prevent your team members from getting distracted and increase their engagement.
- Subscription options
One of the best ways to relax after a working day is to binge-watch some amazing content. You can provide this opportunity to your remote employees by paying for Netflix/Amazon Prime/paid online forums/magazines subscriptions. This helps employees both to rejuvenate themselves and get some useful knowledge on the topics of their interest.
- Extended company culture
Usually, an office employee feels more like a part of the company than a remote worker. The feelings of separation and loneliness are often present among the team members that work from home.
Video conferencing is a great way to celebrate various events and improve camaraderie. It’s about the small things that make remote employees feel like a part of the time, so delivering presents or a cake on their birthdays can make a big difference and prevent burnouts.
Why Do You Need an HR Specialist to Manage Different Types of Employees?
HR Bit has to emphasize that different types of employees require unique approaches. They all have contrasting needs, and there’s no “one size fits all” approach when it comes to managing them. You need to consider the specificities of each employee type and come up with plans that will be comprehensive enough to keep up with the demands of all categories of employees.
When it comes to remote work, you have to create effective development plans and offer different benefits for different categories of employees. The subtask is that you can’t be sure about the peculiarities of each employee if you don’t devote enough time to communicating with them.
Conclusion
Here we go: these are the 4 types of employees that every startup and SMB owner needs to know about.
Time is the most valuable resource for startup and SMB’s owners, and we understand that. But this is a double-edged sword because if you don’t pay enough attention to core business goals, your company is unlikely to confront competition. However, employees can’t be left on their own as well.
What’s the solution to this situation?
Hiring remote HR specialists is a forward-looking decision. HR Bit will be glad to become your reliable HR outsourcing vendor and manage your team while you focus on growth. We know all the challenges of remote work and can eliminate them before they occur.
You can entrust your human resources management to us because our company is flexible and will seamlessly incorporate into your company.
Feel free to contact HR Bit to make your business grow and your employees—happy.
