HR Planning for a Blended Workforce

Developing a thorough knowledge of corporate culture, plans and policies are fundamental duties of HR managers. HR managers act as an internal change agent and consultant (Kotter, 2010). The growth of the gig economy is inevitable, a change in approach to this disruptive trend is needed. It is time for HR managers to initiate change and act as an expert and facilitator to accommodate contingent workers in the organization and utilize maximum benefit from it. In order to avoid playing catch-up in the coming years. HR professionals have seen a general shift from a transactional focus to a focus on strategic activities. HR also has an increased presence at the executive table and truly can influence an organization. HR does operate in two different roles in an organization, transactional and transformational functions (Nieves and Osorio, 2017). With the increasing use of automation, artificial intelligence (AI) in performing its functional operations there's a current debate that the functional part of HR will be replaced by machines and HR will only operate in transformation. In fact, HR may be more critical now than ever indeed, not having an effective HR system in place may be the demise of an organization.

Contingent workers, agile talents, on-demand workers, freelancers, contract workers, consultants or any alternative form of temporary employment and full-time employees together creates a blended workforce (Mulcahy, 2018). Work preference, resource issues, practical constraints and technology enabled the blended workforce, and HR managers are required to address this in their strategic planning process. Most contingent workers are highly skilled workers, to compete in the market organizations has to adapt to acquiring these talents according to their preference.  Accommodating a blended workforce brings due challenges to HR. Contract workers and full-time workers cannot be considered as same, legally as well. HR needs to be ready to act on all possible positives and negatives of such a workforce. These contingent workers are experts in their field with lots of experiences, this can bring a fresh set of eyes and a unique viewpoint to the perception of the organization. On the other hand contract workers spent less time on work than the full-time workers and achieving higher satisfaction both monetary and non-monetary. This can influence existing key full-time workers to choose their path in the contingent workforce, hence organizations need to be ready for such consequences as well. Some gig workers are in it for building a career while searching for permanent employment. Offering the possibility of repeat engagement to contractors might be a wise investment for the future.

Outdated policies need to be addressed and reviewed. HR should consult with its internal client functions to determine what work is best accomplished by full-time employees (eg. Work tasks involving sensitive intellectual property) and that work which can be accomplished by contingent workers. Process mapping is often used to identify the tasks and flow of work which should be allocated to in-house staff or contingent workers. Limited strategic business competencies as well as focus on transactional functions of HRM by HR managers can be identified as key HR experience barrier to adopt the hybrid workforce (Kotter, 2014).  New policies and procedure are needed internally on how to govern access to information for both sets of employees, data security, sharing confidential information and trade secrets, attorney-client privilege etc. Having a through background assessment before acquiring high skilled talents on contracts must be done. The disruptive work environment involves huge risks as well as benefits.

Having a talent pool and awareness of the skills lack can help the organization to get the right fit on temporary hire. The most important aspect that HR must keep in mind for this change is to educate existing employees about the transformation, by coaching them and making them more accepting of this new staffing ideology. Only when freelancers and full-time professionals work together seamlessly, can this new staffing model succeed.

References:

Kotter, J. (2010). Leading change. Boston, Mass.: Harvard Business Press.

Kotter, J. (2014). Accelerate: Building Strategic Agility for a Faster-Moving World. Boston, M.A.: Harvard Business Review Press.

Mulcahy, D. (2018). The Gig Economy: Skillsoft.

Nieves, J. and Osorio, J. (2017). Commitment-based HR systems and organizational outcomes in services. International Journal of Manpower, 38(3), pp.432-448.

The Gig Economy, and why it Matters

Globalization, de-industrialization, automation, and digitization – all have had and continued to have a disruptive effect on traditional jobs and working practices throughout the world (De Stefano, 2015). A gig economy is a free market system in which temporary positions are common and organizations contract with independent workers for short term engagement. the digital element is argued to be the primary distinction between the gig economy and the traditional working arrangements. there are currently four broad types of platforms that have been identified; higher skilled creative and IT tasks that can be performed from anywhere; low-level repetitive work that can be performed from anywhere; manual service work that can be performed on the customer's premises and lastly work that involves driving and delivery. Many talented people have decided to leave the traditional workforce in exchange for freelance work in their area of expertise. This gives them desired flexibility in their lifestyle. Working with this emerging system is becoming a challenge for Human Resource Managers. If the best talent is no longer available for an in-house position, HR managers must find ways to either create long-term contracts or to develop other suitable talents (Lawrence F. Katz; Alan B. Krueger;, 2015).

Leading companies in the gig economy

Some might argue that outsourcing and freelancing have been there for the past 25-30 years and why it has become the new talk of the town? People have been doing independent work for a time in memorial. Especially in the field of education (lecturers), software engineering, consulting etc. This is just a matter of technology making it easier than it ever was. Technology enabled a lot of people to become free agents to live much more flexible work lives. And so that’s the very positive side of the gig economy. It brings agility, flexibility, and innovation (O’Brady, 2014). Whereas employment benefits such as pension, medical insurance are the downside of this disruptive economy. HR departments will have to reckon with what that means for the future of talent recruitment, acquisition, development, and retention.

Source: BMO wealth management survey 2017

According to the World Economic Forum human capital report 53% of the working world are employed and 13% of the working world are self-employed. the rate of self-employment is increasing throughout the world year by year. and its time for HR managers to adapt to the new working world and plan human resource management accordingly (Todoli-Signes, 2017). According to Intuit by 2020 as much as 40% of the American workforce will be contingent workers or independent contractors. Most see gig economy as a positive trend, employers are eased with downsizing along with the burden of labour security expenses they have to offer for permanent employees. If a business is successful it means it has a competitive advantage over its rival. Competitive advantage is about differentiation. Independent workforce is undifferentiated. A successful business cannot hire any worker through any sort of gig economy type if that job involves creating or maintaining its competitive advantage. Thus, HR managers are with the task to accommodate both in house and contract workers in the most efficient way. Embracing a flexible workforce, identifying roles that could feasibly adapt to the gig economy.  Integrate gig workers and workforce by offering gig workers a sense of belonging, which in turn will make it easier for HR managers to establish a pool of go-to freelancers that they can rely again and again.

References:

De Stefano, V. (2015). The Rise of the 'Just-in-Time Workforce': On-Demand Work, Crowd Work and Labour Protection in the 'Gig-Economy'. SSRN Electronic Journal.

  Katz, L. and Krueger, A. (n.d.). The rise and nature of alternative work arrangements in the United States, 1995-2015.

O’Brady, S. (2014). The Fissured Workplace: Why Work Became So Bad for So Many and What Can Be Done to Improve It by David Weil, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2014, 424 pages. ISBN: 978-0674725447. Relations industrielles, 69(3), p.655.

Todolí-Signes, A. (2017). The ‘gig economy’: employee, self-employed or the need for a special employment regulation?. Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, 23(2), pp.193-205.