Gig economy: A bridge to the future of work

To the typical 9 to 5 officer goer, the term gig-economy conjures up images of a struggling musician, or writer — hungry, tired and far from home, looking for their next assignment. But the emergence of the freelancing, temporary or assignment-based workforce has grown from a small trickling stream of renegades and misfits into a gushing river of millions of free agents, a huge global talent pool to dip into. In a country like India, where millions still sit for the Railway Board exams because it represents stability, credibility, and respect is the gig economy growing, and how are talent management teams and business leaders leveraging it for their organizations?

A recent study by Paypal India states that India is the largest freelancer market in the world, and one in four freelancers in the world is from India.

A study by E&Y reveals that 3 out of 4 organizations globally are looking to increase their contingent workers, and interestingly, two-thirds of contingent workers like the contingent model and don’t want a full-time job.

This is like a perfect union, where both employers and individuals workers seem to be gravitating towards a new model which suites them both. However, what are the implications of this for talent management teams or individuals? 

The 'Now' way of business: Organizations today are facing uncertain business environments and lesser clarity on business moving forward. This makes for the ‘now’ model to emerge where assignments are created that require to be done today cause visibility is only for today. Such assignments that are ad hoc, temporary and prone to vagaries require more unplanned resources. 

Business Projectized: More and more businesses are creating assignments and project-based goals and endeavors than typical tasks and activities because the outcomes require collaboration from cross-functional teams, sharper deadlines, and defined end objectives. This again makes a case for work products that can be shipped anywhere in the world and done by the short-term workforce.

JIT Team: Organizations are facing situations where they need teams to be set-up for short periods of time or a quick ramp-up or ramp-down to react and respond to the market opportunities. The gig economy is ideal for professionals who look for autonomy in career prospects, and for organizations that are looking for short-term solutions to capacity or skill.

Cost Burden: A fulltime workforce is an ongoing, year-on-year burden on cost — not just payroll costs but other associated costs including health and medical insurance, which can be reduced. This is making businesses open to increasing their temporary workforce. Why not try this if it shows well on the bottom-line? 

The new employee: A freelance industry report back in 2012 cited by Daniel Pink revealed some interesting data points. 90 percent of freelancers were happier than they were before going solo; only 29 percent of North American freelancers work more than 40 hours a week, and 46 percent have more free time. 

In the midst of these trends, we can be sure that organizations will continue to look for top talent. While the industrial era and the century following institutionalized the employee-employer relationship, the era of technology and disruption will redefine the workforce engagement in a number of interesting ways. There are interesting models of engagement that one can observe to see how the employee-employer relationship is being redefined in this new equilibrium. Companies like Airbnb, Uber, Adobe are at the forefront of a renegotiation of the typical employment contract, while professional services firms like KPMG are also evolving to redefine their relationships with contract workers with respect to the following HR aspects:

Learning and Development: While the earlier phase of evolution of the giggers was characterized by skills building and training as the responsibility of the gigger, increasingly, smart talent teams are recognizing that reskilling is one of gigger’s big worries, and they are providing platform and training to giggers who are registered with them. This changes the dynamics of how L&D is run. For example, KPMG is working with Coursera to provide learning platforms and world-class programs that are always available, self-guided and also ‘just-in-time’. Individual training and training calendars will be passé. People learn best when they have the opportunity to deploy what they have learned immediately and almost ongoing. Just-in-time training is the way to go.

Open Hiring Models: HR teams need to revamp how they source, curate, and engage talent. William Allen who runs both Behance and 99U (freelance platforms for Adobe) has also setup a recruitment portal that allows other organization to hire full-time creative professionals. The professionals show their portfolios and creative work, have open feedback and ratings on their assignments, and references that can be easily engaged. KPMG in Australia has a platform that has 1500 consultants signed-up for exclusive ad hoc work for the firm as and when needed. Temporary consultants sign an exclusivity agreement, get feedback on an open platform and are paid some of the best rates in the industry. 

HR Policies: The area that requires most redefinition would be the policies. In a time where there would be 2 fulltime employees, 3 bots and 4 freelancers working on a single assignment, organizations will have to reassess their compensation structures, performance development models, policies on non-compete, non-disclosure as well as their benefit models. Today, full-time employees and giggers are looked at as two buckets; however, tomorrow there may be other buckets. The Ubers and Airbnbs show that there can be distinct parts of the value chain that can work entirely through giggers. The social contracts are different from their full-time employees and can coexist to deliver new business models and provide immense economic value.  

HR Engagement: The best engagement platforms will have the best talent. This is a no-brainer.  Adobe gives a great example of an organization that shows that it is committed to a community of freelancers. 99U has a new strapline "Empowering the Creative Community"; their previous strapline was: "Insights on making ideas happen" — this marks a subtle shift of focus to make their freelance community feel cared for, focusing on their needs and making them successful. If as a whole the community is successful, there is no reason to say that that Adobe, through 99U, will not be successful.

HR Platform: To engage and empower the giggers, HR platforms would need an overhaul — from digital HR, open systems, open transparent feedback mechanism, simple digital contracts, agile onboarding etc. There isn’t an aspect of the employee engagement cycle that does not need an overhaul. 

The gig-economy represents a parallel universe: It’s where a professional’s engagement is characterized by short-term contracts or freelance work. The advantage for the individual is that one can work only in chosen fields during a specified time. Employers/hirers of skills may only avail of services when there is a requirement and have no other commitments with the gigger. The business environment will eventually force more and more organizations to leverage the Gig economy whether they like it or not; and the organizations that will be successful would be the ones that provide a safe, keen and paying audience to a struggling actor or a musician in his or her journey and make those gigs a win-win for all.