Effective management of a gig workforce

When the pandemic upended the jobs of millions of people around the world, the gig economy grew rapidly as many of these workers turned to gig work to supplement their income. A Niti Aayog report has revealed that in India in 2020–21, 77 lakh workers were engaged in the gig economy. The report also projects that the gig workforce will grow to a whopping 2.35 crore workers by 2029-30!

It is clear: the place of gig workers is firmly entrenched in today’s workplaces.

What is the reason for the growth of the gig economy? Primarily, engaging gig workers enables businesses to quickly respond to changes, fill open positions and save on onboarding time. Apart from that, contingent work helps organisations save on protection and benefits such as health insurance and severance packages, which are normally given to full-time employees.

However, a point to note is that managing gig workers can be a challenge as they may not have the same level of commitment to the organisation and may not feel connected and engaged.

Here are some ways in which gig workers can be managed effectively, made to feel a welcome part of the team and encouraged to do their best work for you!

• Set clear expectations: While signing up gig workers, it is your duty to provide a contract with clear expectations and compensation and benefits details. To avoid any kind of ambiguity in the work expected from them, it is crucial to spell out every little detail in the contract that they sign.
• Ensure job-skills match: What are the specific open positions that you hope to fill with a contingent workforce? Have clarity on the family of jobs to be filled with temporary workers. Moreover, for best results, ensure that the skills of the gig workers match the open jobs that you are hiring them for.

• Help them stay connected with the rest of the team: Gig workers often work on their own terms—at locations and timings that suit them. This means that they do not get enough opportunities to interact and mingle with the rest of the team. In spite of these differences, try your level best to include them in the team, irrespective of where they are located. This could be through online meetings, by inviting them over to your office for special occasions or by including them for annual meetups.

• Provide feedback for the work done: While you do not need to have a full-fledged appraisal cycle scheduled for your gig workers, make sure you provide them with feedback on the work they do for your team. Since gig workers largely work independently, they will appreciate the time that you take out to evaluate their work. It is also a perfect way for them to keep improving themselves in the services they provide.

• Ensure employee recognition: Though gig workers might not be full-time employees of your organisation, it is still crucial that you recognise the good work done by them and reward them for it. This has a two-pronged effect: it provides them the much-needed encouragement, especially while working in isolated setups, and prompts them to take up subsequent work for your team or organisation.

• Avoid micromanagement: The contingent workforce is generally quite self-driven. They are aware that they need to consistently do a good job in order to get repeat work from their clients. Many of them have probably chosen gig work so that they have the flexibility and autonomy they desire while they do their best work. They resent any kind of micromanagement of their work; it is always best to allow them to carry out their tasks independently, with minimal interference.

• Make payments on time: Gig workers with specialised skills have the upper hand and are now deciding the companies and teams they wish to work for. It is in the best interest of organisations to ensure that the gig workers they employ are compensated well and on time for the efforts and skills that they bring to the table.

The fact of the matter is that a lot of high-skilled labour is now available as part of the contingent workforce. That is the reason organisations need to go all out to deliver a stellar experience to their temporary workers to ensure their loyalty to the company. Businesses that embrace and welcome gig workers give themselves a higher chance of having the agility and flexibility needed to survive in an uncertain business climate.

Careernet Flexistints offers flexible staffing with a ready pool of knowledge workers that can be scaled as per your organisation’s specific project requirements. Write to us at sales@careernet.in to know more.