Diversity, Inclusion, And The Alternative Workforce

Seizing Opportunity With The Rise Of The Gig Economy

- Kathi Enderes

The alternative workforce, including outsourced teams, contractors, consultants, freelancers, gig workers, and the crowd, is going mainstream. It’s the fastest-growing labor segment in the EU. By next year, the number of self-employed workers in the US is projected to reach 42 million people — nearly tripling in two years. Alternative workers account for over 10 percent of Australia’s labor pool.

Savvy leaders are well aware of the growth in the alternative workforce. In Deloitte’s 2019 Global Human Capital Trends survey, 41 percent of the almost 10,000 executive respondents said alternative workers are “important” or “very important” to their organizations. But only 28 percent said their organizations were “ready” or “very ready” to address the employment of alternative workers. A mere 8 percent said that they have the processes in place to manage and develop these workers. All this represents an opportunity and challenge for leaders everywhere.

A WELLSPRING OF TALENT

The opportunity in the alternative workforce is three-fold:

FILLING THE ‘SKILLS GAP’

The growing ranks of alternative workers offer a valuable pool of skills and capabilities in a time when it is becoming increasingly difficult to fill jobs. Last year, a global study by the Manpower Group reported that nearly half (45 percent) of employers studied were having trouble filling open positions; among companies with more than 250 employees, the percentage rose to 67 percent. That’s a major reason why the employment of alternative workers is spreading beyond IT into a host of other roles. Respondents in the 2019 Global Human Capital Trends survey indicated that they are using alternative workers extensively in operations (25 percent of respondents), customer service (17 percent), marketing (15 marketing), and innovation/ R&D (15 percent).