www.peopleandmanagement.com
Gig workers have no protections
usually available to permanent
employees. For instance, protection
against unfair dismissal, no right to
receive minimum wage, redundancy
payments, paid holidays or sickness
pay. But these are also the reasons
why they are so attractive to
businesses as a workforce.
contingent work and income generation by way
of “gigs” – single projects or tasks for which the
worker is hired. Such workers are in a temporary
relationship with an organization.
Macroeconomic forces like globalization,
technological changes; especially automation and
artifi cial intelligence, and emerging competition
with new business models has forced companies
to fi nd ways to stay relevant and competitive by
lowering wages and cutting benefi ts, converting
permanent employees into contingent workers
and outsourcing jobs. The millennial generation
is also attracted towards the gig economy because
of the freedom, fl exibility and ability to earn extra
money that such an arrangement provides over a
full-time role with one company alone. Given the
reduced attention spans and productivity levels,
they appreciate the ability to work on their own
schedule rather than some corporate drawn up
schedule. And yet they are not the only ones. The
older employees, especially those moving towards
the end of their careers are also looking at more
fl exibility in their work life as well as a desire to
monetize their experience across multiple projects
and organizations than just one.
Gig workers have no protections usually
available to permanent employees. For instance,
protection against unfair dismissal, no right to
receive minimum wage, redundancy payments,
paid holidays or sickness pay. But these are also the
reasons why they are so attractive to businesses as
a workforce.
So how can businesses take advantage of
this fast changing landscape?
• It starts with acknowledging that the world
has changed. Embracing this truth opens you up to
the possibilities that an army of qualifi ed, ready-
to-be-deployed, task-based worker force can yield.
Highly qualifi ed workers are available from all over
the world and can be deployed to achieve clearly
defi ned outcomes. This creates both time and cost
effi ciencies for your business and that translates
into bottom line profi ts.
• For companies, tapping into the gig economy
is a strategic decision and could lead to increased
effi ciency and big cost savings. Hiring experienced
people who hit the ground running cuts time and
money spent on identifying and hiring permanent
employees, overheads, long-term payroll expenses
and reduces time-to-success. All of these eliminated
costs positively impact your bottom line.
• For smaller companies, startups and SME/
SMB’s that are usually on a tight budget, tapping
into the gig economy could mean the difference
between survival and death. By effectively using
freelancers, these businesses can experience
increased agility and tighter budgetary control
while still pursuing growth projects.
• Create the right procedures, policies, systems
and processes to ensure you can manage your talent
pool of both permanent employees as well as gig
workers. For instance, you would need to ‘treat’ a gig
worker on par with a permanent employee when it
comes to integrating them within the organization.
They might be there for just a project but are still
going to be representing your business. Therefore
onboarding and the initial training periods need
to be handled properly along with the regular
communication and recognition strategy.
• Changing the employer-employee relationship
from command-and-control to one of collaboration,
partnership and mentoring. It is important to
change the mindset of everyone within the business,
especially the leadership if your business wants to
embrace gig workers.
Gig economy is only going to increase and
businesses can leverage the benefits of such a
workforce without increasing their costs. This is not
something that will happen in the future. Businesses
need to act now and those who do will be a far better
placed to ride the future than those who don’t. P & M
Vol. 10 Issue 1 • JANUARY 2019, Noida |
33