Ways Which Gig Economy Impact on Current Human Resource Practices
The gig economy is a growing trend among most of the employees who belong to Gen Z and millennials. Gig worker can be identified as an independent contractor, on-call worker or online platform worker who works for an on-demand company with a formal agreement to provide services to the company and its clients. Modern working trends are now moving towards more virtual workplace concept therefore the term gig economy is now becoming popular among generations. As a result, most of the employees are willing to be a part of the gig economy and HR professionals are now facing a challenge of recuring those employees to increase the organisational talent pool. Still, Gen Z and millennials count a small percentage of the workforce, but the trend is moving upwards. Since Gen X and baby boomers are leaving the workforce it is time for organisations to come up with strategies to attract more gig workers to their organisations. According to Deloitte Global Millennial Survey, 2019, 84% of millennials and 81% of Gen Z candidates are willing to join the gig economy. Also, they prefer joining for the companies who are practising gig economy in their workplace.
When the pandemic started most of the companies changed their business model and shift to a virtual working environment which is the easiest and more cost-effective way of doing business. The speed of digital transformation impact on most of the society to realise the advantages of being digital. Disruptive innovations are coming toward the market and those companies are now taking over the market share. Employees are also willing to join the organisations who are practising those kinds of strategies because those employers are offering higher salary and greater flexibility. Therefore, the HR professional needs to change their current strategies to recruit and retention the future workforce. Gig economy comes with many challenges and few of them are stated below.
Identifying gig economy roles
To adapt to the gig economy structure in the organisations, they need to identify the roles within the organisation which suits to the gig economy. This will help organisations to recruit the employees within a small period. Independent workers, freelancers are more motivated, innovative, and engaged than traditional workers. Therefore, having certain rob roles for gig workers can improve the productivity of the organisation. However, gig employees are not committed to the companies they are working for because they are working under so many employers, but they will fulfil the requirement of the organisation on time.
Flexibility
The most significant impact of the gig economy is that the employees are willing to work in a flexible schedule. Candidates are valuing the work-life balance and work flexibility is becoming a priority for most of them. Therefore, it is a must to practice flexibility to attract more gig workers to the organisation. To overcome this challenge HR can offer more flexible working schedules, remote working opportunities, attractive base salaries, and they can provide holiday allowances to attract valuable talents to the company.
Along with these major challenges, managing gig worker talent pool, the documentary process of the contract terms and conditions and managing the quality of the output will be also challenging. When the organisation opens to a gig worker they will eventually position as an employer who is willing to take contract workers. To make this type of decision the ability to risk-taking need to be high. Thus, having a risk-taking senior management team will be an added advantage for the organisation who are willing to adapt to the gig working environment. Also, the organisation needs to ensure that they are equipped with the newest technology to fulfil the requirements of the gig employers. Since we are in the 21 centuries with the high technology development it is a must for the organisation to adapt and change their strategies according to the market trends. Otherwise, the companies who are leading the way in the industry right now can be destroyed by the disruptive innovators.
