With the current COVID-19 pandemic threatening the survival of many businesses, business leaders need to transform their organizations to be better suited for the post-Covid world.
Businesses must be agile to succeed in tackling this challenge. Fast reactions to changing circumstances help them address opportunities quickly by allocating people and resources, and to experiment and iterate rapidly.
Has COVID-19 accelerated the Freelance Revolution?
Agile businesses require an agile workforce, consisting of both permanent employees and flexible workers, such as freelancers, contractors, and other contingent workers.
Flexible workers supply businesses with instant access to the right talent when needed and provide the advantage of scalability to meet fluctuating demand. This is crucial in times of uncertainty when there’s low visibility into the future and decisions have to be made rapidly.
The good news is that there’s a big and fast growing pool of flexible talent to tap into.
UK’s freelance workforce is booming
In the UK alone, the freelance economy has grown by 25 per cent since 2009 and flexible workers now account for around 15 percent of the working population. Workers with the most in-demand skills, such as experts in big data, AI or digital transformation strategies, are increasingly choosing to work as freelancers.
You might think implementing an agile workforce strategy is just a temporary solution to weather off the current storm, but that’s not the case.
It’s a vital long-term solution for bolstering your organization for the future.
The ongoing crisis is just a large-scale reminder that businesses are constantly facing changes that threaten their bottom line – some minor, some major. Being agile, flexible, and resilient will better position your business to overcome these challenges with minimal consequences to your business.
The new hybrid workforce
So, to prepare for the aftermath of COVID-19, your business will need to push recruitment beyond the confines of the enterprise wall to include the new hybrid workforce structures.
The key to success is to shift your talent strategy to focus less on talent acquisition and more on talent access.
Take advantage of technology to remove paperwork
Online marketplaces, like Worksome, give your business instant access to highly skilled flexible workers to help deliver your projects within seconds – and all the logistics and payments managed for new and existing talent.
This allows you to act with agility and be adaptive, flexible and creative through a changing environment. It also reduces your administrative headcount and frees your key people from wasting time better spent on other key tasks across your business, which is key to operational success.
Here’s our three steps to adopt an agile workforce strategy:
- Shift your talent strategy — and supporting infrastructure — to focus less on talent retention and more on talent access: Think about how you can “access” the right skills at the right time rather than “owning” the skills. Traditional career paths just don’t work anymore for some of the best talent, and businesses need to adjust accordingly.
- Deconstruct jobs into projects that call for specialized talent: Workstreams of an agile workforce look like mission-based projects, with the right people working on the right projects — both aligned with your business’ strategic goals and priorities.
- Implement a centralized platform that matches work needs to skill supply and then matches top of the line freelancers for the job: The right technology can provide you with instant access to talent when needed. Try out Worksome, which offers both instant access to flexible talent and a management system of all new and existing freelance workers.
The new workforce after COVID-19
For all the tragedy caused by COVID-19, this turmoil is also a time for positive change.
Greater workforce agility will change the nature of the workplace, but will also make companies more effective. Businesses who figure out how to use today’s adversity to invent tomorrow’s workplace will be the ones that prosper in the long term.
The time to transform is now.
Book a demo with Worksome, or try the platform now and find fully vetted on-demand talent by posting a job for free
Partner
A Scandinavian scaleup created by X-Googlers, we make hiring as hassle-free and agile as possible. Post projects to your talent pool, your trusted recruiters or our marketplace of 30,000 vetted contractors across the Nordics, UK and US to make sure you work with the very best talent available.
