Michael Klazema, Chief Marketing Technologist at VODW, says, The gig economy is changing the world one industry at a time. How can you keep employee loyalty and engagement alive in a shifting employment landscape?
The gig economy isn’t going away. According to Inuit and Emergent ResearchOpens a new window , 9.2 million Americans will be working on-demand jobs by 2021. Companies like Uber, Lyft, and Postmates won’t be the only ones accounting for that figure: employers in every industry will embrace the gig economy in the years to come. Some will do it out of necessity as more and more of the world’s brightest talents shift to the self-employed model. Others will do it to save money, embracing freelancers and remote workers to cut down on office space and reduce spending on employee benefits.
If there is a drawback to the expansion of the gig economy, it’s employee engagement. Most freelancers work outside of the office, and many telecommute from great distances. It’s not uncommon for gig economy workers to establish long-term working relationships with companies without ever meeting their supervisors or HR managers face-to-face.
The gig economy poses challenges for interoffice relationships and company culture. Without the bonds that have customarily tied a worker to his or her bosses, colleagues, and even clients, many worry employee engagement is doomed to suffer in the gig economy.
Engagement, Loyalty, and the Gig Economy
How can companies keep employees and freelancers engaged?
The first thing employers need to understand is the worry about employee engagement goes both ways. While HR managers are most concerned they will end up with freelancers who aren’t reliable or loyal to the company, they also need to keep an eye on their existing full-timers. **Who’s to say your full-time employees won’t be drawn to the call of gig economy themselves?** Businesses that want to keep their top talent in an increasingly flexible job market need to pay attention to what their existing employees want.
In most cases, full-timers are drawn to gig economy opportunities because of flexibility. According to an Indeed Hiring Lab study from last yearOpens a new window , searches for jobs with terms like “telecommute,†“work from home,†or “remote†jumped 32 percent between summer 2016 and summer 2017. Employees want the perks gig workers are already getting. To keep your existing team engaged and satisfied, your best bet is to start providing those perks.
Another huge part of the engagement equation is integration. According to ForbesOpens a new window , gig workers tend to be less loyal to the companies they work for than traditional employees. In part, this lack of loyalty is unavoidable. Traditional employees build loyalty to their employers because they spend years with the same company, come into the office every day, and build face-to-face relationships with their bosses and colleagues. Working for that company becomes a huge part of their day-to-day lives and professional identities.
For freelancers, the connection is not the same, for multiple reasons. They don’t have the same personal relationships with colleagues. They may spend fewer hours a day or week doing work for that company. They may work for multiple companies at once instead of just one. None of these factors can be fundamentally changed without upgrading a gig economy worker to a full-time employee.
Learn More:Â 20 Fresh Employee Engagement Ideas for 2020Opens a new window
What businesses can do to increase loyalty and engagement is ramp up integration efforts. **Part of the reason gig workers are less loyal to the companies they work for is that they are typically kept isolated.** They might have one or two contacts at a company through which they get all their assignments and transmit most of their work. They don’t communicate much with other gig workers, nor do they collaborate with full-time employees.
Emphasizing integration can erase the unwritten rules about gig worker isolation, boosting loyalty and engagement. This process starts with onboarding. Employers committed to experimenting with the gig economy should develop an onboarding strategy specifically for gig workers that adapts or reflects the most critical components of the onboarding processOpens a new window for full-time workers. How will these freelancers be vetted, regarding background checks and skills tests? How will they be trained? Whether through occasional in-person meetups or video conferencing, how can you fold them into your wider company culture so they become a bigger part of the team?
Answering these questions may be the skeleton key to unlock ongoing employee engagement in the gig economy. Putting your gig workers in contact with full-time employees, establishing lines of communication, encouraging collaboration, and ensuring freelance work is covered by your company policies and practices will all help. Shattering freelancer/employee silos will make your business more efficient while improving engagement on both sides.
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Conclusion
Understand it is going to take time to optimize your business for the gig economy. The kind of seamless integration you need to achieve won’t happen overnight. If your HR team is willing to do the work, you will be rewarded with a business that is more flexible, more immune to job market evolutions, and more attractive to a wide range of talented people.