Reflections on the Demand for On-Demand

My Taxify driver in Johannesburg recently told me that Having access to resources 24/7 seems to be part of our daily lives nowadays. Movies, TV-programs, groceries, data, social media, phones…the list seems endless when it comes to products and services we can call upon on demand.

Remember the time when you had to be somewhere specific at a specific time to make a phone call? Or listen to music? Or watch your favorite TV show? Not to forget the time when you had to show up physically to do your job? The internet has shown us that the world literally is at our fingertips. It is available in our bedrooms, on our laptops and on our smart phones. It is about bringing you things you want, when you want them.

The gradual transition into an on demand culture is almost seamless these days, but it should leave us a few questions for consideration.

On the positive side, the products and services on demand provide an opportunity for us to ultimately make a personal decision on when we want to do what, in short how we want to prioritize our time. The flexibility, autonomy and availability could be seen as the ultimate benefits of today’s society.

Apalele was an economics graduate from Zimbabwe who meandered south just before the World Cup in South Africa, to earn a living. After a few stalled efforts, he found his groove due to the very on-demand economy we were now chatting about. He was currently driving for someone else, but was planning to jump on the Uber Eats wagon shortly.

As always, when you get into a Taxi and get stuck in traffic, we spoke about many topics. My use of Uber Eats when I was in Dubai, the similarities (and differences) of both our work situations working in foreign countries, our favourite joints in Gauteng.

Of deepest interest to me though, was Apalele’s reply to my question, was he resentful about not being able to use his academic qualification for better purpose? He told me that, on the contrary, he studied economics as a means to an end – to get a job that would allow him to provide for his family. He now had that stepping stone job not as a driver, but an aspiring businessman in the new on-demand economy, who would benefit from the theoretical foundation he received at university.

After the ride, we left each other, each with something new to think about.

The trend of on-demand in the broader economy is undeniable. From ride-sharing to couch sleeping to dining and a host of others, consumers want things how and when they want it. If businesses don’t adapt accordingly, the spend will go elsewhere.

In the same vein, if such agility is not embraced when shaping corporate workforces, heavy long fixed-term employment costs are to be expected. Along with regular and frequent rounds of redundancies and layoffs.

For a few years now, a regular topic of discussion with my employers has been to focus on lean and effective organizations. Unfortunately, too many of these simply translated into numbers, trimming employee numbers “from x by y% in z months.” That’s understandable, the leaders had to show quarterly cost reductions.

However, at issue is the broader, almost philosophical question of how do we work, and how will we work?

If customers want on-demand, don’t employees, too? And, if so, can this be done for the mutual benefit of employer and employee?

I think the answer is already out there, and glaringly obvious. After all, data doesn’t lie…most times!

There is a larger pool of skilled people who prefer to work according to their own preferences and lifestyles. They fall into various categories, ranging from young graduates who want to travel and work at the same time, to retirees who want to keep active.

At the same time, employers are looking to reduce or optimize employment costs. Due to currently established norms of employment, a “regular” job with fixed payments is the norm; this is the reason why employment cost remains, for most employers, their largest single operating expense.

It always seemed paradoxical to me that companies hire people to do a job made up of tasks, on permanent basis, then question the work ethic of these same people should they happen to deliver quickly and at quality on these tasks. “How busy is he or she” was one of the most frequently asked questions during team performance reviews.

Marrying these two dynamics should be a no-brainer, and is certainly the reason for the staggering growth of contingency workers in North America. According to the Edelman Institute the freelancer workforce grew at a rate 3 times faster than the regular workforce since 2014. About 57 million people in the US freelanced in 2017 and at current rates the freelancer workforce will outstrip the regular US workforce in numbers by 2027.

People say that freelancing gives them freedom, flexibility, added income, and lowers the risk of having one employer. Employers love using freelancers, not just for cost reasons, but to tap into the latest market skills and developments, wherever these are located, without having to engage large consultancies. Some of the companies already using freelancers as part of their strategic shift include Accenture, Dropbox, Airbnb and Touchnote. Africa’s largest telecoms company has about half of their workforce across 22 countries made up of non-traditional “employees”.

For African and Middle East countries where youth unemployment is a huge societal problem, freelancer work can provide the stepping stone for graduates to gain real-life work experience and provide an added channel to them finding work.

As it did for Apalele.

The time is right for corporate employers to start understanding which skills they need inside their organizations permanently. For the balance, infused skills at the best quality through alternative arrangements must be contemplated.

When considering that the fields of robotics and AI are also poised to disrupt the entire world of work as we know it, this cannot happen quickly enough.

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