The volume, velocity and intensity of "noise" encountered in the Gig Economy requires HR to demonstrate agility in its policies, processes and practices. Agility is not just an organizational attitude anymore; it is a skill that will lead to the survival of the fittest.
In 1995, Microsoft's Encarta team had a valid reason to feel pretty smug. Spotting the opportunity to provide an easy to use and searchable CD-ROM encyclopaedia, the company had built a repository of 62,000 articles, pictures, illustrations, music clips, videos, timelines and maps, and, soon, it had resulted in sales amounting to US$ 800 Million. The programme was so popular that it became the personalized library of school teachers setting research assignments anywhere and everywhere across the globe. And yet, in only fifteen years it was no more! Despite having moved online by 2009, Encarta's slow moving content creation and verification processes simply could not compete. And, at this point in time, Wikipedia boasted 2.7 million entries (five million today). It was an organization simply savvy enough to harness a growing appetite to create educational content among normal folk. It is a cautionary tale about spotting new business opportunities first, but perhaps more crucially, about how successful an entity can be in which all the contributors are passionate about taking ownership and responsibility for their contributions. Wikipedia does not have to wait for someone high up to confirm that the information has gone through the requisite verification processes (for better or for worse, depending on your view). It simply does it. Wikipedia could be seen as the ultimate in organizational agility. And, it is not the only entity to emerge triumphant in this way. Kodak and FujiFilm, Blockbuster and Netflix, black cabs and Uber- recent history is littered with similar reminders that reflect the stark need to keep up.
The 5 Steps to HR Agility in a Gig Economy
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