HR Strategies for Managing a Gig Economy and Freelance Workforce

Introduction

As the rise of the gig economy and freelance workers have overhauled the usual picture of employment, businesses around different sectors are provided with opportunities that come along with challenges in this new landscape. In this ever-changing scenario HR officers need to grapple with the complexities of dealing with an atypical workforce comprising of short-term and project-based assignments.

This blog will discuss effective human resource management approaches for gig economy and freelancers in order to guarantee an organization’s agility, flexibility, and success in a changing world. Through espousing creative approaches along with information technology, HR experts can capitalize on the gig economy perks and prevent the looming pitfalls that could otherwise obstruct business growth and competitiveness.

 

Flexible Talent Acquisition and Onboarding Processes

Delivering to the demand set by the gig economy to collect new workforce and practices of skilled labor is the target of Heads of Human Resources where they have to implement internal talent acquisition and onboarding methods for the competent freelance collaboration management. Through mobilizing leading-edge methods and technology, companies as well as organizations would have an effective connection between sourcing, hiring and integrating gigging people within the staff. In addition, HR professionals are able to use social media, an online platform, freelance market places, and talent pools so as to outsource, recruit, and hire gig workers more rapidly. These digital platforms are a talent labor market with a vast variety of talents from numerous skills sets and industries which companies can use to hire special skills at the ‘beep’ of the moment. This is enabled by the HR departments exploring these resources then identify and target qualified gig workers, whose skills and competencies are convenient for the organization needs and efficiently execute the project. This increased agility and responsiveness is as a result.

In addition to that, well-organized streamline on boarding procedures that consider gig workers are necessary to guarantee the smooth entrance of gig workers into the organization hassle-free. In contrast to permanent staff members, contract workers are mostly used to operate in the organizational setting without much knowledge of their culture, processes and work orientation procedures. HR professionals can tackle this challenge by providing an inclusive outset of the company clear formalities including people’s roles, responsibilities, project objectives, and communication protocols Also, if to have properly structured project because of which the entrepreneurs or gig workers should understand their roles and can deliver the expected results from day one who is coming to the organization. (Benner&Berg, 2019).

Cultivating a Culture of Collaboration and Engagement

A delicate undertaking of a freelance workforce, ensuring that there is a culture of collaboration as well as engagement that exceeds the boundary of the traditional organizations. HR professionals hold the key to building up communication and spirit of teamwork in the remote freelance environment, thus creating a sense of collaboration between internal and external teams.

HR should ensure that collaborating among the team members which are not co-located has efficient virtual communication channels, collaboration tools and project management systems put in place. These digital means enable the employees to seamlessly communicate in real-time, to share documents and to manage the process so that the freelancers are able to work efficiently together though they may be operating in remote area. The role of HR comes into play by giving independence to participants in those matters through offering them proper tools to work effectively and collaboratively, thereby helping the projects achieve success and contribute to the development of the organization. (Montealegre, 2016).

Performance Management and Feedback Mechanisms

The gig economy is manifested by a world of flexibility and project-based engagement such that the feedback mechanisms and effective performance control that influence workers' output and ensure quality are critical. Part of HR professionals’ responsibilities is to develop strategies and techniques for their performance management, monitoring, evaluating, and improving, if necessary, the quality of work. Such strategies should be in accordance with the business goals and internal standards applied in the organization.

An essential part of this strategy is measuring performance through metrics, performance indicators (KPIs), and project milestones which are normally used to evaluate their performance. Through establishing a framework of set expectations and objectives since the beginning, the HR department enables freelancers to have their journey midway paved for success and they are able to gain understanding about how their contributions actually supports the organizational goals or not. They will define the bases for assessing the level of success and they will show those areas needing for improvement and reflecting the highest quality of performance. (Rudzitis, 2019).

Conclusion

Attracting and retaining talent from a gig economy and contractor workforce will be crucial for HR function to find new ways of how to be flexible, collaborative and effective in labor market regulation. Through use of adaptable recruitment system creation, flows of mutual engagement, and governance of the contractors by a robust performance management system, the organizations can take the advantages of the gig economy but at the same time solve the problems related with the success of the contract workforce.

Reference

Benner, M. J. & Berg, D. N. (2019). The gig economy: Responsibilities of the expansion of the gig economy. Human Resource Management, Vol. 58, No. 2, pp. 109-123.

Cascio W. F. and Montealegre R. (2016). Technological innovation is transforming workplaces and organizations. Ann. Rev. Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, 3, 349-375.

Rudzitis, N., & Froehle, C. M. (2019). The gig economy: Implications for human resource management. Business Horizons, 62(2), 151-159.