In my most
recent post HR and
the Gig Economy, I talked about how the workforce is changing as managers staff
their teams with more contingent labour.
HBR also wrote a
thought-provoking article Run
Taskrabbit Run, exploring a not-so-distant future where businesses no longer
have employees. Since my very talented former colleague
Stacy Chapman, the CEO of SwoopTalent,
has predicted that more doomsayers will write more about this topic… challenge accepted.
I'm actually not a doomsayer, at least I don't think I am. I personally
see the gig economy as an opportunity for HR rather than a threat, at least in
the medium term (y’ know, before HR gets replaced by chatbots), because
contractors are people. For too long HR has let procurement own services
talent as the proportion of contingent workers steadily
increases. It’s time for HR to
step up and reclaim the people agenda.
Here are
some of the challenges HR needs to be ready for to stay relevant in the gig
economy:
People Data: I know we’re all still high fiving about
moving to the cloud, but to prepare for the gig economy, your HR solution needs
to track data for contractors as well as employees. You need to know where your contractors are
placed, when, for what, and how much they cost.
You also want to know if they are effective, which will be a challenge
since they aren’t included in your performance appraisal process.
Compliance: There are some legal challenges with making contractors
feel too much like part of the team - not to mention employment insurance - but someone needs to figure that out for the business.
Who better than HR? Not procurement, unless HR also wants to share ownership
of core competencies, performance management and employer brand. Yeah, I didn’t think so. : )
Organizational development: What is the right employee to
contractor ratio? Where should external
skills be brought in on a project or fixed term basis v. in-house? Most importantly, how can HR add real value
to this discussion, rather than just consolidating input from different parts
of the business? Own this!!!
Recruiting: HR plays an active role in recruiting talent
but not – typically – in acquiring contractors, besides signing the contract
with the agency and/or sending over the NDA.
However, just like employees, contractors have diverse skills and
personalities, and some will be a better fit than others. Does HR really
want to leave this up to chance, allow mission critical work to go to the
lowest bidder, or fail to consider skills augmentation in a broader company
context?
Performance and Engagement: Like employees, contractors need to
be engaged and assessed for organizational fit and quality of work. After all, they perform critical tasks for
your company, provide a crutch for your company’s core capabilities, and cost
money. It’s important to make them feel like
part of the team, help them succeed and establish some metric to assess
the quality of their work.
Skills Development: If we envision a future where most or all of
the workforce is project based, at least in some industries, how will HR shape
core competencies in that future? What will
core competencies even mean? And how do you ensure today that skills for
hire are also transferred, and that any skills or knowledge gaps your contractors have are addressed so they can work as efficiently as
possible?
Leadership: Managing contractors requires somewhat different
skills and perspective than managing employees.
It’s HR’s job to make sure managers are ready to lead a truly diverse
workforce made up of employees, contractors and non-humans.
Rewards: As
more contractors are brought in to augment teams, compensation equity and
company perqs will take on a new flavour.
There’s no one right answer, but plenty of wrong ones, and it needs to be considered
in light of what is best for the business.
Ideally, you don’t want rewards to create a divide between internal and
external team members, which is what will happen if contractors get treated like second class citizens.
Collaboration: The right collaboration and project management tools can help teams work more productively. With the gig economy, having the right tools to streamline processes and tasks while linking work to company goals has never been more important.
Collaboration: The right collaboration and project management tools can help teams work more productively. With the gig economy, having the right tools to streamline processes and tasks while linking work to company goals has never been more important.
Internal support: This one has long frustrated me as a hiring
manager. New employees get the red
carpet rolled out by HR, a new laptop, a new workstation, etc., whereas
contractors need to go on a treasure hunt to find a place to sit and get signed
onto the system. Which the company pays
for in lost productivity, frustrated engagement and an hourly rate to
boot.
Employer Brand: Just like employees, some contractors are a
better fit for your organization than others.
How do you help ensure your organization attracts the best contractors,
and equip them to deliver the best results?
So, you get
the idea. As contractors become part of
the mix at work, HR needs to start thinking in very real terms how to
attract, retain, engage and develop them.
Or… become less relevant to the business as the workforce changes.
Visual courtesy of Business in the Workplace.
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