What's your workplace culture in gig economy?

Prof Bibhas K Mukhopadhyay

Professor of Management, and author of the book 'India's Economy: Under a Tinsel still Tough'.

He can be reached at m.bibhas@gmail.com Dr. Boidurjo Rick Mukhopadhyay

International Award-Winning Development and Management Economist. He can be reached at boidurjo@gmail.com

Globally, several labour force organizations have actually argued against the nature of work offered in the gig or sharing economy. A vast majority of it is done virtually where a connecting platform helps in matching the demand for and supply of gig work (and workers). Therefore, security of such work availability depends on 'digital reputation' alongside the skills/expertise that a worker brings to the table.

"Culture eats strategy for breakfast," Peter Drucker once said. Research shows that freelance work is most common in Millennials (64%), with Gen X (52%) and Boomers (41%). Also, almost 59% of the employers believe that a rapid increase in temporary jobs will negatively influence the standard workplace in the future 3-5 years.

These non-traditional jobs do not have detailed terms and conditions and have little or no control over the payout. Two of the many advantages of such jobs are the A) immense flexibility of location and B) timings that they offer. Gig workers have the freedom to decide where and how they wish to complete a task/gig/work. This may work for students and older people as much as other demographics that could use some extra source of income.

There are a number of issues with freelance or gig work.

Firstly, there are no standard benefits like sick pay, pensions, parental leave or holiday entitlement as such. Surely though, there is flexibility with time and work allocation in the short run but the benefits are not future facing. This is primarily because gig workers tend to get paid on the basis of the job that they do (i.e. normally earn less than the minimum hourly wage and have no financial security). This has a negative impact on the gig worker's family time or social life as they have to remain 'on-call' all the time. Think of your Uber rides at odd hours or hiring a virtual tax consultant during holiday week/season.

Secondly, as workers are disempowered with no financial security since the workers are not classified as 'employees', minimum wages and no employment rights, the employers are raking it financially. The gig workers cannot plan for their future as their jobs are not formatted in a way which would enable the individuals to get a mortgage or bank loan. However, in most cases where the gig is ride-hailing (Uber, Ola) the drivers have to invest their own or borrow capital to buy the vehicle/ key asset.

Thirdly, the quality of work may also be sometimes compromised as fewer professional workers arrive in the market.

Recently, a lot of talent leaders are found focusing on delivering the 'right employee experience', isn't then there is a need to extend that conversation towards gig workers also?

A major MFDA (mobile food delivery aggregator) shared that gig employers need to ensure that gig workers have a similar employee experience as traditional workforce with onboarding and offboarding and understanding the company's vision, products, processes and culture. The right level, frequency and channel of communication are all very essential. Gig workers who are informed and who align with the company's goals and recognize that fact, are more productive. This does therefore trigger the importance of culture after all.

Companies are already employing technology tools to help them manage the process. At Ernst and Young (EY hereafter), the company launched a product called 'Gig Now' which "…is a global solution that helps EY transform the contractor hiring experience and it helps build quality contractor talent base".

Culture in the Gig economy is an important topic to explore further. There has to be an increasing focus on understanding what culture means for gig workers employed by platforms. A recent study by the Harvard Business School shares that companies are inviting gig workers they work with to company picnics. This essentially enables the worker to build a more personal connection with that manager who emails her with assignments but whom she might never have met. To focus on maintenance of the culture, and enabling a learning culture – in a way that gig workers have the ability to come in for a short amount of time and do great work is going to be a key.

Culture matters not just to a business but to the community (former co-workers, clients and colleagues amongst others) that they are a part of. Being a part of a larger community, and having a strong culture will help businesses find partners, clients and connections that can build as well as sustain a business. "Going for Competence and not Compliments" should be the way to go forward, particularly when thinking of building a sustainable culture.

The need for alignment of company values and employee values:

When a gig worker set out on the independent work-life structure, they have a fair idea about how things are going to go, but as the day-to-day reality of running a business set in, those ideas may have gotten pushed aside as they work to keep the lights on. In this situation, having principles and values to guide what type of work to take on and how to complete them — would eventually help set up a culture. Establishing a healthy, coherent, culture in such a fluid environment, with increased digitalization at workplace is therefore key for sustaining organizational setting.

Let us look at some suggestions on how different short and medium-term steps can help gig employers develop a workplace culture that the freelancers can experience.

Firstly, companies need identify the story-tellers of an organization. Even in fluid workplaces, find those 'idea champions' whoeveryone listens to and feel inspired by. Listen to them, get them on board, delegate them new self-managed projects and get their perspectives. Help them shape the narrative.

Secondly, know the importance of cultivating a vision of an organization. Make attempts to make sure that every employee or contingent worker who views the job as a gig see themselves as members of a growing 'community'.

Thirdly, identify the workers who have the right energy, and empower them. The work has to spread beyond the story-tellers and a company cannot feel complacent with a slow assimilation process. It should soon fade away if you don't speed up earlier in the process. Engage your key employees who deliver and have a track record of high energy and resilience, engage in a dialogue about the culture and teach them to translate ideas into action. This will grow with time.

Fourthly, evaluate the impact of the culture work. Experience suggests that the work will be judged by the degree to which it empowers people to address some of the real challenges they face and do better on the real outcomes they care about. Try looking beyond 'customer ratings', 'digital reputation grade', 'number of tasks completed within x time' and 'stars' – they can surely be indicative and help in projections but it is after all what it is – numbers! Building a workplace culture calls for real engagement, frequent and conscious dialogue between employers and gig workers. This is about the future of workplace.