A MAJOR IMPACT ON HR
Jim Barnett, CEO of Glint, a maker of employee engagement software, says the shift toward independent contractors and contingent workers will trigger equally seismic shifts in HR technology.
For employers, Barnett says, on-demand hiring lowers costs and creates more competition for talent while traditional workers’ career paths are phasing out and being replaced with temporary jobs focused on skill (versus career) development. “Traditional metrics will need to be tweaked in order to properly measure these workers in terms of engagement and retention,” he says. “This will require significant gains in speed and agility in order to quickly identify work/projects in need of attention, source employees with the required skills, and staff project teams that can quickly perform the necessary task.”
MAKE WAY FOR VIRTUAL REALITY
Shaun Ritchie, CEO and cofounder of Teem meeting software and analytics, believes that this is the year VR is going to change the way the workplace collaborates. “In-office employees and remote or gig workers will be able to connect like never before via video and telepresence,” says Ritchie. And he predicts, “VR will be used to accommodate the evolving definition of “employee” to include both workers in conference rooms and gig workers contributing remotely.”
NEW JOB DESCRIPTIONS
Sanjay Sathe, CEO of career coaching platform RiseSmart, sees gigging evolving out of traditional roles. “Where freelancing was most often thought of for creative work (editors, graphic designers, web designers) and contracting was thought of for IT-related positions (programmers, project managers), the gig economy has begun to encompass all types of roles,” he explains, including senior-level executive positions in career paths such as finance, accounting, and IT.
Sathe believes that making space for gig work across an organization will make it more agile and responsive to the market: “While 67% of companies do presently limit the number of these types of positions, according to 2016 Workforce for the Future Survey, having gig positions means they are able to onboard new talent and off-board unneeded skills without the burden of employment taxes and paperwork.”
Agility comes from being able to hire professionals faster for gigs because, Sathe notes, it requires fewer approvals from various internal managers and HR. “It is often a decision made quickly and without posting as a traditional job might be advertised,” he adds. Sathe observes that this can works in favor of the candidate, “as long as the candidates are agile enough to meet to varying demands of companies and are responsive when they receive inquiries about these gig positions.”
Read the full story at How The Gig Economy Will Change In 2017 | Fast Company | Business + Innovation
