Leaders across industries are investigating and adopting on-demand and flexible workforce models to help them navigate economic uncertainty. These models can help companies ensure they have plenty of workers when they need them, while saving money and resources when they don’t.
But how do they work? And should your organization adopt this strategy?
Here’s everything you need to know when utilizing a flexible workforce at your organization.
What is a Flexible Workforce?
An on-demand or flexible workforce essentially grows to meet needs and reduces to a baseline number when its larger size is no longer needed. This can mean any mix of full-time, part-time, contingent, or gig workers you see fit. Your employee needs may change depending on the nature of your business. This is especially true for industries in which seasonal shifts consistently impact demand for products and services.
An on-demand or flexible workforce model aims to work for your unique situation and provide benefits such as:
- Fast access to well-qualified workers: With a more flexible strategy in place, you’re able to access workers faster than traditional methods. This is a necessity to manage changes in demand because it’s difficult to be aware of exactly how many team members you’ll need daily or weekly and when you’ll need them.
- A larger pool of skilled talent to work with: Flexibility is also of growing interest and priority to workers. By instituting flexibility into different aspects of your organization, you can access a wider range of external talent that might not have been available before.
- Happier workers: New hires are typically enthusiastic about their work and employees in general value a chance to learn and grow. Because of this, flexible workers are likely to be much happier than those in a more traditional role. Utilizing skilled contingent or gig workers can quickly boost morale throughout your company.
- Reduced overhead costs: Because a flexible workforce is built to meet your short-term and long-term goals, you can ensure you have the right number of workers at the right time. Labor is costly, even more so when you have too many workers in a period of low demand. As a result, the capital you can improve profitability or be reinvested back into your organization.
A Guide to Building a Flexible Workforce
While the benefits of a flexible workforce are clear, it can feel daunting trying to implement these new systems. However, with a guide to follow and the help of beneficial tools, using a flexible workforce can be seamless.
The best practices for creating a successful flexible workforce include:
- Determining where you need help: Before you can make any decisions, it’s best to consider how your current systems have operated over the years. This is critical to give an employer an overview of when the company has had too many workers or not enough employees to keep pace. As a result, an employer can more intelligently determine where and when you need help, as well as specifics such as whether you need full-time, part-time, or temporary help.
- Finding the approach that works for you: Flexibility has come to touch multiple aspects of the workplace, and it will be necessary to recognize where a more flexible and adaptable system can benefit your organization. Implementing an on-demand or flexible workforce gives contingent workers greater flexibility in terms of deciding which jobs they can take on at the time.
- Standardizing your procurement practices: Freelancers, gig, or contingent workers are the foundation of a flexible workforce. However, you need standardized systems in place for finding and managing this external talent to ensure the process is as efficient as possible.
- Encouraging a healthy work-life balance: Introducing flexibility means understanding that employees need to find a suitable balance between their work and home life. Using gig or contingent workers in an optimized way ensures that your business can maintain productivity, improve efficiency, and prioritize employee wellbeing.
- Understanding the workforce resources available to you: Leveraging advanced platform technology allows your organization to build and manage a flexible workforce with ease. Our Bluecrew by Employbridge and EmployGig solution use technology to help connect clients and talent quickly.
Implementing Proper Management Practices
Using an on-demand or flexible workforce also requires a focus on what your workforce management will look like moving forward. Here are a few practices that can ensure your flexible workforce is managed efficiently and effectively.
Techniques to improve your management when implementing employee flexibility include:
- Cultivating a culture of respect and trust
A positive culture is a necessity to keep your employees happy, as well as ensure any freelancers, gig workers, or external talent will be interested in staying long-term or returning. This is vital when companies are trying to navigate high employee turnover rates. - Prioritizing communication
A report from Pumble found that 86% of employees and executives cite the lack of effective collaboration and communication as the main causes of workplace failures. Proper communication will be a linchpin in creating a united workforce that understands exactly what is expected of them, which helps ensure employee engagement, productivity and efficiency are maintained. - Treating all your employees equally
Fair and consistent treatment of employees is a growing expectation, and it’s equally important this treatment extends to contingent workers along with full-time employees. This will be essential to promote employee satisfaction from your workforce. - Maintaining a focus on results
If you’re working to cultivate better business results, leverage management techniques to ensure your teams are on the same page and are able to stay on track. This can help bring about increased productivity and organizational success.
Introducing technology and tools can streamline this process even further.
Read on to learn how Employbridge can help your organization integrate a flexible workforce into your operations.
Implementing new tools and models
Despite a large number of organizations being aware of predictable fluctuating demand, the traditional hourly staffing model remains rigid. Companies need a more dynamic solution that allows them to remain at peak performance — no matter what demand looks like at the time.
Through EmployGig and our Bluecrew platform, Employbridge gives you access to a wide range of skilled workers who aren’t necessarily looking for full-time, permanent roles. EmployGig is a staffing solution for manufacturing and logistics. We use it to fill temporary positions with workers who want flexible, four-hour “gig” assignments. Our EmployGig team provides a managed service that includes redesigning your shifts and recruiting a broader workforce. Typical EmployGig workers include caregivers, students, and retirees.
Bluecrew is our digital platform that supports the manufacturing, logistics, and events and hospitality industries. We describe it as a two-way marketplace that connects employers with talent who are looking for temporary assignments, usually to supplement their income.
Using EmployGig or Bluecrew can help organizations alleviate the costs of traditional recruiting and hiring, scale their teams to meet variable demand, eliminate costly vacancies and, most importantly, drive better business outcomes.
Empowering teams toward flexible workforce management
On-demand or flexible talent is a strategy that can help business move forward during economic uncertainty. If you’re interested in adopting this strategy, talk to the experts at Employbridge about our flexible workforce solutions.
With more than 30 years of experience, Employbridge offers expert support, top talent, and innovative technology for smarter and faster staffing. By championing people, unlocking potential, and bridging skills gaps, we empower teams to build a future-ready and high-performing workforce.
Ready to navigate the dynamic nature of a flexible workforce? Contact us to learn more about how Employbridge can support you.
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