Gig Economy - whats your side hustle ??

The term Gig Economy means different things to different people, depending on the industry or market you are in. Focusing on the Gig element, we would normally consider this related to the entertainment industry. Where it would generally refer to an artist or group putting on or performing at a dedicated event or in a series of events across different venues. The economy part is us as the consumers of the given entertainment. We buy tickets for the gig and the artist or performers make their income, after the cost to cover the venue hire and associated hospitality staff, such as bar staff and security etc are paid.

In the world of work it’s actually very similar, in that it relates to a professional, carrying out a specific task or action, for a fee, usually at cost pre agreed, a bit like us paying the cost of a concert or Gig ticket.

While its a popular topic currently, its far from new. Many professionals across a number of industries are part of Gig Economies for many years, however, we are probably more familiar with the term ‘Freelancers’ where we recognise roles such as journalists, writers, editors, accountants, artists, substitute teachers, Locum Doctors and a whole economy of experts who have a dedicated skill that businesses or institutions will pay for.

It’s on the latter point that is one of the reasons the Gig Economy is currently flourishing and why we need to be very aware of it and how it will change the world of work moving forward in the Future of Us.

Staying with the Digital theme of this Blog, if we look at the progress of technology, coupled with the exponential growth and the constant innovation of digital solutions, its fair to say that many of the roles in technology that exist today don’t actually have a dedicated school curriculum focus, or university degree course that covers the skills required. Many of the coding and data science roles that exist today, did actually exist 4 or 5 years ago. In short the current education system will struggle to train for the skills required for job of the future. So what’s the answer…

In the traditional freelance space, business will carry on as usual, but the use of technology will allow both the freelancer and the customer turn things around far quicker seeing the freelancer working on multiple projects at once using dedicated applications to bid for and take on work much quicker and in a number of industries the customer will be presented with greater choice were skills are abundant and in turn reduced costs.

In the growing Digital Gig Economy, change will be fueled by a range of key factors.

Skills Gap - Those with the skills required for the new digital roles, or roles in demand, will become a valuable asset. They will quickly realise their worth and value and become difficult for companies to retain their talent. Also the growing skill demand will catch many companies napping and by the time they realise the skills are in demand, either the employee will start up as a freelancer, or a disruptive startup will likely spot them quickly and whisked them into their organisations.

Choice - This skills, knowledge and value awareness will allow those with the skills the opportunity to make the choices. They will firstly make the choice based on their own personal preferences. Are they ambition and looking to build a business in this space, or are they looking for a lifestyle job that allows them the choice of when they work and where. COVID19 has given people the comfort that many roles can not be carried out from home. The value of this from work life balance and reduced cost of childcare are not to be overlooked. After this Pandemic the Gig Economy experts will be in high demand and likely to be calling the shots.

Rare skill - aside from the obvious value of holding a rare skill when working for an organisation, rare skills in the Gig Economy will be often sought by many and see the ability to re farm work efficiently across a number of contracts at the same time. Digital Technology will also aim to use this form of tech to find these Gigs easier and also allows the efficient partitioning of contracts and projects. A wide range of project management tools incorporating AI are now available, allowing far greater efficiency.

Brand & Reputation - aside for the lifestyle choices we may make, in making the Gig Economy work for us. We will also see a rise of people (particularly those with Skills in demand) actively looking to work for organisations who’s brand purpose and cause match up with the individuals principles, morales and or beliefs. What does the organisation stand for and why should we work for them. Are they a charity or a political organisation we wish to support, or a super cool upcoming tech company that we want to be associated with. A company's brand and reputation will grow every more important when its comes to attracting and retaining talent.

So what does this mean for the business and enterprises. Well, while it might feel like the Gig worker is calling the shots here, this can and does work both ways. One of the biggest costs to any organisation is its people. Recruiting, building and maintaining a workforce is a huge undertaking and for any business managing these resources is one of the highest priorities. Balancing the demand and resources is a double edge sword, having the staff in place to manage the high workloads is comforting but equally balanced with how to maintain a workforce and profits during quiet periods is a very difficult formula for any business. The Gig Economy plays an important role for many businesses and organisations in addressing this with a percentage of a workforce you can switch off at short notice. With many organisations utilising this in well established subcontracting arrangements, allowing the upscaling and downscaling, without the impact of ongoing embedded employee costs such as health care, pensions, severance and in some occasions office locations and their associated running costs.

Your AI Digital Project Manager co-worker has a new task for you….

Advances in Digital communication and collaboration software incorporating AI and machine learning will be what really accelerates Gig Working from the current small percentage of highly skilled individuals, staying ahead of the skills gap, or businesses looking to stay agile in management demand, into the new normal. These technology solutions will see AI take the lead and allow a department to run a project and see exactly who is involved, who worked on what and which tasks required collaborations. A dashboard and the AI will be able to report on projects progress, call out any delays and call out the need for skills and who has them within the project or not. Where there is a gap, it can look to acquire these in a single sub project, farming tasks out securely in isolation to the Gig Economy. These new types of project AI systems will report exactly who did what and when and acknowledge performance or pay as required. Projects will become far more efficient all round and the days of a lazy co worker, a thing of the past.

This same technology will not only fuel the growth of the Gig Economy, but will also make business far more comfortable with home and flexible working. The old guard managers out there shuddering at the very mention of ‘flexible working’ with a vision in their mind of people sitting in gardens drinking beer, with a million distractions and staff logging off early. When in true reality, most are usually working very hard and make expenitally good use of their time without travel. During the COVID 19 pandemic, I’d say I’ve never worked more efficiently and effectively, using the time I would normally be standing on a train platform or sat in traffic jams, to instead catch up, plan, focus and be generally more creative.

Side Hustles

As the world of work evolves and the Gig Economy grows, powered by advances in technology, we will also see growth of a subsection of this new Economy, known as the Side Hustle. This will see an army of regular employees use their skills, experience and creativity across a number of fields, to earn some extra cash in the evening or weekends. It’s kind of a part time job on your terms, where you choose what you do and when you do it. Also as the world of work becomes more flexible, it may not even be evening or weekends, instead a mingle of what we do day to day. Task based outputs taking over as the measure of performance, instead of who just looks busy in the office.

So how will it work? A wide number of ways really, from Ebay entrepreneurs, Esty creatives, or Imagine an accountant working for a large firm and then taking on some part time bookkeeping a couple of evenings to earn some extra cash. This could also be work in the form of very basic data input duties where very little skill or experiences are required. If we consider the advances of tech, the side hustle is already quite well established in the form of solutions such as, Amazon’s Mechanical Turk, Fiverr, TaskRabbit and Upwork allowing you to post your skills and match up with a required services and customer then choose the provider based on past examples or recommendations. Also Arbnb seeing people make money out of spare rooms or an empty house while on holiday. the side hustle already play a key role in our economy

As the trend grows, will we also see people couple a few Side Hustles together, or enjoy such success that they move to Gig Economy workers or start up a small or medium business of their own.

Will changing attitudes and better use of technology, and COVID19 see Side Hustles become Gigs, become Start Ups, become Businesses, or become work as we know it? I think we just might...