Statistics abound regarding the “gig economy,” as it’s known — the growing labor market focused on short-term contracts and freelance work as opposed to permanent jobs. Nearly 100 million European workers are already estimated to be engaged in some form of independent work. Across the pond in America, as much as 50% could be contingent by 2020.
No doubt, the gig economy is large and growing larger every day. Employers are also creatively gaining more and more access to this wider, more specialized talent base. But not everyone is prepared to keep up.
What’s the answer?
A combination of technology, processes and people must come together to address the changing face of today’s workforce.
Consider the impact of the gig economy trend on payroll alone. With workers potentially joining for only weeks or days at a time, for example, traditional systems can be woefully inadequate. Today’s cloud-based multi-country payroll outsourcing (MCPO) solutions inherently take into account the most challenging factors while delivering:
• Unified hosted system in the cloud with pre-defined templates and lower overall costs
• Ongoing compliance with current and changing local and regional regulations
• Accurate, integrated and consistent processing across geographical borders
• Flexible secure access from anywhere with centralized monitoring and controls
Beyond Payroll Basics
Being desirable to gig workers encompasses much more than accurate on-time compensation and legal compliance, but the common bond is in the cloud. With the best cloud-based offerings, you’ll be able to more effectively find, engage and manage these contingent resources. It’s critical that you’re also able to quickly onboard and ramp up all personnel, of course, but the gig dimension adds more complexity to the overall equation.
Proven cloud-based HCM solutions enable everyone to work more effectively and assume greater ownership of everything they do. Productivity tools, analytics and other resources foster stronger engagement and better decision making. Traditional HR functions are handled with sharper proficiency and accuracy — from recruiting/onboarding, time/attendance management and workforce planning to learning/development, performance management and compensation processes.
Power to the Portal
Administration and access are streamlined through a portal-based shared services model. Instead of spending precious time focused on tedious manual tasks, your HR team gains bandwidth for more strategic endeavors. Management and staff aren’t waiting for answers. They can get what they need “on demand” yet with the highest level of security and privacy protections.
Training and other forms of professional development are also more effective with cloud-based innovations. In addition, whether full-time or contingent worker, satisfaction and retention rates are likely to go up when you have the power of cloud HCM at everyone’s fingertips.
Just Scratching the Surface
In this column, I’m just scratching the surface of the gig economy and its myriad effects on HR — all of which are a keen focus here at Zalaris. This trend is still in its infancy, and many think the rise of millennials is fueling it. In reality, it’s also propelled by an older, more experienced workforce that can apply advanced skills to corresponding projects.
There are many different dimensions, which I hope to explore in future Insights columns. But know this: If you don’t start making adjustments now for the gig mentality, such top talent will ultimately end up elsewhere.