Gig Economy Apps

Gig Economy Apps Transforming Talent Sourcing

From VMS to Job Boards to Gig Portals – The tech features to expect in 2020 as the Talent Industry shifts to Workforce Management Software

Ours is an era where business models are in a constant state of flux. Employers are having to constantly review their skills needs, sometimes having to re-equip anything up to 40% of their workforce to new skills every 3-years. This unpredictability in talent demands, creates a need for a more flexible, on-demand workforce.

Indeed, the pace of change in the talent sourcing industry is not slowing down. The market for talent is unrecognisable to a decade ago.

We hear that something like 40% of all jobs in the USA are hired out to contingent workers through indirect programs. According to the latest published research , something like 60 million workers go to make-up the gig economy in the U.S. and by 2027 the majority of U.S. workers will be gig workers.

Gig Economy Apps are important because they facilitate gig working, something that used to be something people only did for small businesses, but not anymore. The majority of Fortune 500 firms are now embracing gig workers for non-core roles such as marketing, Human Resources, published relations, and procurement. Even in technical, professional and scientific roles, the paucity of gig workers means that firms are having to trash plans for the recruitment of full-time employees and instead are offering these roles out on contract

The rise of the gig economy gives rise to the need for new technology ecosystems.  These Gig Economy Apps take the form of a Total Talent Portal used to connect organizations to the contingent workforce they need on their terms.

The so-called ‘gig-economy’ is moving into full swing, largely because it offers employers lower employment costs, risks etc. while improving their ability to get jobs done and overcome the rigidity of employing a full-time workforce. When business models change so rapidly, that matters.

According to Statistics, the gig economy is a section of the economy which consists of independent contractors and freelancers who perform temporary, flexible jobs. … 56% of gig economy workers in the U.S. report having two or more jobs or projects, and 58% report working 30-hours or less per week.

Candidate Code Testing

Third-party online testing tools are revolutionizing code testing in the IT market to vet the promised qualities stated by candidates. These industry specific checks are increasing as Artificial Intelligence (‘AI’) installs new possibilities in pre-onboarding checks. Vendor Management Systems have a major role to play in simplifying access to these popular platforms by integrating these features into their platform and offering Single-Sign-On (SSO) to useful apps that organizations want to use.

Bias Avoidance

Unconscious bias happens when people either intentionally or unknowingly insert terms into documents (like Job Definitions and CVs) or recruitment processes. For example:

• Requiring roles to be fully co-located or inflexible hours will rule specific groups out;
• Sifting through CVs that contain potential triggers for bias such as the use of masculine terms;
• Adoption of a policy to reject CVs with an unexplained gap in employment history that can impact on people from poorer backgrounds that are more likely to take time off to care for relatives;
• The unknowing installation of interview, short-list or on-boarding bias where operational behaviours aren’t corrected where bias might exist.

Recruitment bias can introduce unintentional discrimination and result in poor decision-making. It’s become one of the hottest recruitment topics in an era where the ability to demonstrate fairness and parity of opportunity for people from all sorts of backgrounds is not only a legal requirement but also a major contributor to a positive brand reputation.

Vendor Management Systems serve to enforce positive behaviors in recruitment processes and therefore have a major role to play in the avoidance of recruitment bias, and yet very few solutions embrace explicit functionality to enforce positive behaviors.

Job Pricing Intelligence

VMS capabilities aid organizations in gaining a rich appreciation of the rates they should be charging for the right skills to get their jobs done have moved to a new level with artificial intelligence-led solutions. A broad range of third-party ‘big data’ oriented platforms now harvest job category pricing data across regions to offer employers forensic pricing indicators they can use to make sure they pay the going rate for the talent they need in their area. Vendor Management Systems have a key role to play in bringing access to these platforms and seamlessly integrating them with job boards and recruitment tools to build a joined-up (and ‘rate-aware’) Total Talent Management (TTM) ecosystem for employers. 

Vendor Risk Management and Compliance

With an increasingly regulated business environment, further exacerbated by changes to tax systems and the introduction of the EU’s GDPR, organisations are under pressure to ensure they don’t fall foul of employment law. Vendor Management Systems have a key role to play in governing data appropriately and enforcing vendor terms and conditions; honouring tax systems, data protection, data security and diversity policies.

You might well ask…

What type of technology ecosystem do organizations need in order to embrace the gig economy?  And is it better to source their tech platform through a third-party Recruitment Process Outsourcer or Managed Service Provider? 

There are some obvious features that Total Talent Management Systems need to offer if they’re to be useful and offer organizations the competitive advantage they seek. Here are some highlights.

• Resourcing Triage and SOW Contract Design
• Job Category Taxonomy Design
• Market Insights / Rate Cards
• Direct Sourcing through online job boards and (task) ‘gig’ boards
• Indirect Sourcing through Vendors
• Automation of Manual Recruitment Tasks
• Use of AI and Online Testing to Filter and Validate Candidates
• Recruitment Bias Avoidance
• Compliance and Regulatory Governance
• Purchase-to-Pay Integration
• Key Trackers

Contact us via the Gig Economy Apps demo below to discover these features!