I had a coffee with a colleague last week and she shared that she was about to have some major changes in her career. She had been working for a number of years as a full time consultant in a Learning & Development Consulting Firm. In the past, this organisation had a policy of strictly only having full time employees sent out on engagements.
 
The nature of consulting creates ebbs and flows in work, and sometimes this meant they were over or under capacity resulting in panic recruitment and later lay offs.  Not sustainable.
 
The have recently made the shift to sub contracting and offered my colleague the opportunity to be an external consultant to be used on a contract or “gig” basis. Her initial response was, “I can’t believe they will be paying me more to do the same job!”
 
This is a simple example of an organisation choosing to operate according to the  gig economy.
 
If you are not sure what the gig economy is, I think Phil Lewis, Professor of Economics, University of Canberra described it well in his article published in The Conversation:
 
“Workers in the “gig economy” are employed on a particular task or for a defined time, with little connection to their employer. Indeed, the concept of “employer” has little meaning to these workers since they are better regarded as self-employed selling a service in much the same way as a greengrocer sells apples.”
 
In the US as of 2015, 53 million people work as freelancers.  They earn 17% more than full time employees and over the course of their career will likely earn 28% less but this is because they work fewer hours. They, rarely if ever, work a 40 hour week.
 
Despite the slow start, I believe that the gig economy is an inevitable reality for Australia.   It could be longer to take hold because, relative to the US, our unemployment rates are low or that our labour/employment laws are pretty good at providing safe secure environments. 
 
And yet, an AFR article last year talked about how new players in the gig economylike UBER, AirTasker, and Expert360 provide employment opportunities for those with skill or hours mismatches that traditional employment makes impossible.
 
My daughter who is into her second year of a graduate placement sees her days numbered as an employee.  She plans to share herself around a number of employers for 5-10 years before putting her shingle out and working the gig lifestyle.  She tells me this is not an uncommon conversation amongst her peers.

How could your organisation leverage a gig strategy?