Table of Contents
Introduction
1. Understanding the Current Gig Economy
2. The Role of HR Before and After the Evolution of Gig Economy
Conclusion
Introduction
The evolving job market is gradually accepting the gig economy as an emerging, powerful force. Especially post-pandemic, we are witnessing the revolutionized way people work. Organizations operate, and as they expand at an unprecedented rate, HR professionals come into the spotlight to navigate this transformational business landscape.
As we have entered into a digital world, the workforce landscape is changing, and employers are not limiting themselves to finding the best individuals for each job, even if it means candidates from different geographies. This initiative saves business resources and enhances work-life balance and freedom to choose jobs or gigs that candidates are interested in. However, even though this flexibility looks appealing, gig workers lack a few fundamental criteria, such as less pay, no health or retirement advantages, and out-of-pocket supply expenses.
Therefore, in today’s exclusive HRTech Cube article, we will discuss various elements of the gig workforce and the procedures that HR professionals can implement to address the growth of this economy.
1. Understanding the Current Gig Economy
If broadly defined, the gig economy means a candidate acquired for a specific time. A recent finding by Deloitte Global Millennial was observed that 84% of millennials and 81% of Gen Z find freelance work more appealing than full-time jobs. This dynamic presents challenges. This new dynamic offers organizational challenges, allowing HR to add more value to this current workforce, such as the traditional viewpoints on career development and talent acquisition will change and a new shift in leadership culture will evolve as we step into the gig economy landscape, which requires command, collaboration, and mentoring.
The gig economy will focus more on a performance culture as it is purely based on a contractual basis, which also indicates the responsibility for gig workers’ work volume will increase. However, HR professionals might face some issues, such as managing the talent pool and developing employees’ value across permanent and temporary gig economy workers, or even integrating contract terms and conditions that are appropriate for both types of workers.
2. The Role of HR Before and After the Evolution of Gig Economy
The first process is to find and hire the best and most competent candidate for a job opening, conveniently and cost-effectively, as it incurs significant costs and is mostly a one-time activity for many organizations. On the other hand, while recruiting gig workers, the sourcing to selection to onboarding takes a matter of weeks; for instance, Uber’s exclusive rating and sourcing platform is in place for freelance workers.
Talking about performance management, HR managers need to figure out how the existing performance level of the employees and their work needs to be improved. Therefore, the only way HR managers can check on performance is through systematic assessment that evaluates employees’ performance over time. Whereas gig workers follow a different technique while getting evaluated, as HR and other team managers allocate them for the short term and further hire them if the outcome of the project is satisfactory.
The third point is employee retention, which refers to the numerous policies and practices that let employees stick to their organization for longer. Every company invests time, money, and effort in process the of hiring; therefore, retaining employees is essential. However, retention and attribution management are different in gig work, as HR can incentivize workers to stay and create an environment that encourages the gig employees to come back.
The learning goals in an organization are different for employees and gig workers. For employees, it is a long-term process, and there is a probability that managers might not get instant outcome-oriented. On the other hand, learning goals are different for gig workers. For gig workers, their managers will provide bite-sized learning that delivers the job, which is the way to go for the capability-building strategy.
Conclusion
To sum up, we can say that gig workers have the potential to transform the way companies approach employment and productivity. However, this advancement has presented benefits and challenges for HR professionals creating a new paradigm, such as inclusivity, diversity, and professional development in the workforce.
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