Talent Acquisition and the "Gig Economy" - Building a strategy and maintaining a network of "Side Hustlers" (4/4)

The final reflection on my discussion with John Syverson of Gentry Partnership around Gig Economy strategy. You’ve built out the strategy and most likely put a good investment behind attracting the right people for the right projects. How do you capitalize on all of the time, money, and effort? You now have to put together a plan to be able to keep that workforce warm and be able to reengage with the workers that can help continue to make an impact as new gigs come up!

Retaining and maintaining  a top gig talent pool –The work may not always be there or be short-term, which it the reason that you didn’t need an FTE in the first place. How do you keep top performing gig workers interested and, potentially, gain referrals while they are not working for you? This is where having a strong employment brand and (re)engagement strategy comes into play. Being able to build and maintain a NETWORK (fancy database) is key.

• Setting expectations upfront is important to any relationship. Make sure that you set expectations ahead of time that there may not be (or will not be) permanent opportunities available at the end of the project. Also setting realistic ranges of the length of any project so that workers can plan for the end of the project is important to a successful gig worker brand.
• Maintaining a database of gig workers that have performed well or may fit future needs is essential to maximizing the investment. Understanding that there will always be a need for new workers to be added with new investment is important, but being able to easily reach previously vetted candidates is a very cost effective and often underused strategy.
• Maintaining communication with previous workers with company updates, project successes, full-time opportunities, etc… are just a few examples of how to keep a dormant workforce engaged in-between needs. Communicating these messages out on a regular consistent basis can be easily done with a properly managed network with the proper contact information. Emails, text, and voicemails are great ways to start with this messaging.  

These are just a few things to consider when looking into a gig workforce strategy. There are a number of deeper dives to take into each of these topics and other strategies that can be discussed and implemented. It’s a new and growing part of the workforce and it will be interesting to watch, from both a legal and strategic standpoint, how this option plays out. There are benefits to both the workforce and businesses. The one thing that is for certain is this resource isn’t going away and will continue to grow in the years to come. Is it something that your business is looking into or should consider?