Is The 'Gig Economy' Finding New Avenues To Explore?

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For years we have been hearing from industry experts that ‘the gig economy is coming’. In fact, it has been impossible to miss the light and scrutiny that has been cast on this type of work. Politicians and economists have debated the pluses and problems alongside the ongoing legal challenges the industry continues to face.

Yet, there remains no agreed definition of which jobs constitute part of the ‘gig economy’, it usually refers to low paid, flexible work where people are offered their 'gig's through a website or app. The most well-known and popular companies currently operating in this phenomenon are Uber, Deliveroo and TaskRabbit. They are also often confused with zero-hour contracts, the key difference is that the individual is paid by the task performed and not by the hour on a rolling basis.

But, the British workforce has already seen significant movement away from the nine to five structures in favour of this more flexible working set up. Various reports suggest that the number of self-employed contractors has grown by 23% in the past decade to nearly one in seven workers.

It was therefore surprising to see that many of this number do not fall into the predefined definition of a low paid gig worker. Highly skilled employees are now seeing this as a more viable option for their future career aspirations and it is this key area that is likely to cause the next surge in activity.

Recruitment

Part of the success for the likes of Uber and Airbnb, came through removing the fat of the middle man, ensuring that they could connect two parties more efficiently.

This model is already proving to be a key component in the future growth of the ‘gig economy’. Instead of relying on recruitment agencies to provide options for potential candidates, companies like Syft and Coople UK are using an Uber/Tinder format to put the best candidates and the employers on a level playing field.

By creating a profile specifying exactly availability and type of work required, employers can scroll through and hand pick who they would like on a job by job basis instantly. Companies in the retail or tourism industries can have temporary staff fill in at short notice, while those in corporate event planning and hospitality can build a list of favourite staff that they like to use for each event.

This allows for the best staff to be shared across many brands and pick up a constant stream of quality work. It also allows hiring managers to get better quality employees either for short term projects or to provide assistance to an overworked workforce.

Star Rating

However, this concept of employment is not without it’s pitfalls. Anyone who uses Uber or Airbnb regularly will have at one time or another being on the wrong side of the ‘rating system’. The concept is easy, if you enjoyed your experience leave a good rating, if not then leave a lower score. Yet, this short-term decision can have a long-lasting effect, in the case of Uber, the lower the score of the passenger the less likely they are to be picked up. The lower the score of driver, the more likely the fare will be cancelled in the hope of a better driver.

If the recruitment industry slowly moves to a small scale quantitative way of measuring employee’s ability, it will only take a number of spur of the moment overreactions for ‘gig economy’ employees to find themselves out of work long term.

This over reliance on data and its collection is a worrying trend across many industries. This data can easily be used to automate the process as has been seen in online questionnaire and CVs for jobs. By going by a score or removing the human element, it is becoming imperative for ‘gig’ employees to learn to play the game.

Future Growth

The interesting growth aspect of this ‘gig economy’ is that it is not just ‘gig’ workers filling in these roles, it is also full-time professionals who have a passion or hobby in these industries but did not wish to undertake a full-time career in them. Seeing civil servants helping at tourism events on the weekend or marketing professionals being tour guides to sports trips is likely to be a regular occasion in the future. This could also affect the number of people willing to do hours for charities in their spare time.

Will this raise the standard of those in full time ’gig’ status or will it make it even more difficult for people already too reliant on the ‘gig economy’ to get employment? These are the unknown elements that will have to be monitored carefully.