2022 is here; what's in store for businesses and recruiters?
We are in a new era of recruitment, where candidate experience and talent management are heavily emphasized. Because the pandemic disrupted typical working habits in 2020 and 2021, the global labor market is evolving rapidly as it rebuilds. The result is a hybrid mix of traditional workplaces and remote work that serve the digitization of organizations worldwide. In order to keep up with these changing trends, it's imperative to develop proactive strategies for designing inclusive workplaces and a coherent organizational culture that can cater to traditional business models as well as the gig economy.
What is the gig economy?
If you've ever used apps or online services to order essentials, hail a cab, or book your vacation/work-away rentals, then you've participated in the gig economy.
Broadly speaking, the gig economy represents an open market system in which businesses and independent workers engage in contractual work arrangements, often through digital platforms, on a short-term and payment-by-task basis.
Jobs considered part of the gig economy were once viewed as side hustlers, but they have now transitioned to common practice. In fact, the proliferation of freelancing and gig work will continue to be on the rise since talent pools have been constrained due to border restrictions that will likely continue well into 2022.
Reshaping the global workforce
One major shift during the pandemic was the advancement and expansion of the gig economy. More diverse and highly skilled individuals like coders, graphic designers, content writers, and even engineers can find contract-based work now, and the quantity of gig jobs available is rising too as more organizations become open to the idea of hiring temp employees. This is partially due to advancements in technology and the work-from-home surge proving that it's possible to maintain productivity with a remote workforce. For employees, gig work often offers more flexibility than traditional work models, and for recruiters, they can fill openings for clients faster and more efficiently.
While the trend of hiring gig workers has been upward for years now, the pandemic accelerated the transition. According to Statista, the projected gross volume of the gig economy is expected to reach 455.2 billion USD by 2023. As a matter of fact, startups and small and medium-sized practices (SMPs) around the globe have been actively exploring gig economy options as they face downsizing, hiring freezes, and a need to bridge the talent gaps.
The gig economy consists of many contingent work arrangements:
Freelancers
Consultants
Independent contractors and professionals
Temps (temporary contractual workers)
How do businesses engage in the gig economy?
This new workforce model is highly dependent on technology. The gig economy impacts future workforce management with the increase in job accessibility through mobile phones, interviews, hiring, and even payments,.
Automation is one tech advancement that benefits recruiters specifically with scheduling, tracking timesheets, and assigning tasks while also ensuring timeliness and quality candidate experiences. Zoho Workerly's automation and AI tools can automatically match a list of temps to a job based on given criteria, which reduces manually taxing and repetitive activities for recruitment professionals across the globe. This allows them more time to manage their gig economy workforce, balance traditional and contingent work requests from clients, and handle tasks better in terms of quality, quantity, and timeframe.
Technology
To successfully engage gig workers with contractual projects, recruiters need to become digital-savvy. AI and automation software, for example, have become essential in linking agencies with potential gig candidates. Some clients or candidates request more than two gigs a day; even 9-5 jobs can also be considered gigs depending on number of days an employee works in a week. These are also called "flexi jobs." Currently, with more of a candidate-driven market, contingent work is moving up the ladder, so even organizations looking for upper-level job candidates must consider flexibility and work-life balance when advertising.
Luckily, Zoho Workerly’s geo-fencing feature gives you all the tools you need to track employees remotely while also acting as a comprehensive workforce management tool for your temp staffing operations. Furthermore, Workerly helps agencies manage their clients, assign work based on temp availability, and so much more all within a single interface.
Talent Pools
Maintaining a talent pool with quality gig workers along with traditional candidates is a must in this new era. Today, most of the employees who are working in a traditional employment model have one or more gigs on the side. Keeping that in mind, the Zoho Workerly platform enables agencies to schedule jobs for temps, create and approve e-timesheets, and generate invoices quickly without having to search through a huge spreadsheet database.
Diversity and Inclusion
Hiring gig workers is a way to practice diversity and inclusion in the workplace. Often, a contingent workforce is a major part of company culture. Temp workers and contract employees offer new perspectives and can bring teams together if a client has both full-time and temp employees. Adapting to the gig economy is an opportunity to take a giant, positive step forward when it comes to advancing inclusion and diversity in any organization.
Wrapping up
The gig economy primarily depends on technology, and advances in technology will enable further growth in the coming years. Whether freelancers, consultants, temps, or independent contractors, gig workers are expected to have more choices in 2022 when it comes to selecting the clients they work with and the work model they choose. As a result, businesses will need to integrate recruitment tools with AI and automation functions to ensure a smooth balance of their workforce between permanent and contractual employees.
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