www.peopleandmanagement.com
But what exactly is the Gig
Economy?
While there is no one universally
recognized defi nition, Gig Economy
refers to workforce participation
in 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 holiday or sickness
pay. But these are also the reasons
Create the right
procedures,
policies, systems
and processes to
ensure that you
can manage your
talent pool of
both permanent
employees as well
as gig workers.
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 who 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 that 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 period needs 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 benefi ts 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 far better placed to ride the
future than those who don’t. P & M
Vol. 9 Issue 6 • Sep-Oct 2018, Noida / Pre-Event Edition |
77