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Job Descriptions

Is your organization prepared for the rise of the gig economy?

By Jon Spratt on July, 31 2018
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Jon Spratt

Today’s labour market is becoming more and more infiltrated by the gig economy, a prevalence of short term contracts or freelance work instead of long term permanent jobs. 

This is creating increased competition for talent as traditional career paths are disappearing. Jobs are also becoming more flexible, with employees having the opportunity to craft their own jobs to fit with their wishes, needs, and capabilities.

There are approximately 77 million formally identified freelancers in Europe, India, and the United States[1]. According to the 2018 Deloitte Human Capital Trends Report, 50% of organizations surveyed have a significant number of contractors in their workforces.

Unfortunately, most organizations are not ready to take advantage of the flexibility offered by the gig economy. Only 16% of organizations have established policies and practices to manage a variety of worker types.

Organizations need to be able to engage with contract and freelance workers and allow them the same kinds of support offered to traditional employees. By ensuring accurate job descriptions, you will be able to provide all workers the support they need to achieve their goals.

Have your contract workers get off to the best possible start by adapting qualifying their job descriptions. The quality of your job descriptions has a profound impact on every part of your talent management processes, from recruitment to development. If you’re simply cobbling job descriptions for your contract workers from the remnants of previous descriptions, you’re likely to find it difficult to find employees that suit your talent needs.

Implementing competencies into your job descriptions communicates job requirements and expectations much more effectively. Integrating with CompetencyCore’s Job Description Builder empowers you to quickly and easily build interview guides and identify learning opportunities. You can now hire the right contractor and meet all of your deadlines.

Additionally, competencies allow for more flexible job descriptions which suits the very nature of contract work. Many competencies are transferable between jobs and, by hiring contract workers who have these transferable competencies, you are less likely to need to continuously rehire for new projects. Contract workers can view their job descriptions and be proactive in driving their own careers by seeing their clearly defined responsibilities and organizational opportunities.

Overall, competencies enhance your organization’s talent mobility and also reduces the need for outsourcing projects. Because competencies identify the crucial behaviors and qualities necessary for success in a given job, employees can see what competencies they need to make both vertical and lateral. For instance, without competencies transferring to another department with the same management level presents a challenge.

It can be unclear whether employees have the necessary skills requires for success in a seemingly different role. Competencies allow connections to be made between roles in different departments, where employees can see which skills they already have that will be useful in another role.

People can also clearly see what skills they perhaps lack and can create a specified and proactive development plan as a result.

Attain greater engagement and retention by implementing competencies that empower employees to gauge their own performance.