Great Onboarding in the Gig Economy
The gig economy is booming. With 57 million Americans engaged in nontraditional work and a 22% increase since 2000, the gig economy is a powerful and growing force.
How is your organization treating these nontraditional workers? So well that they can’t wait to return next time there’s an opportunity? Or so aloofly that they’re rushing to post a negative review on Glassdoor.com?
Many organizations struggle to effectively integrate non-W2 employees, lacking the internal processes to find, onboard, equip, pay, and offboard them. Oh, and make them actually want to come back for another gig when you need them next. They bring on freelancers without an intuitive, seamless process – making the process cumbersome for both the internal team and the new hire.
The gig economy is only going to continue to grow; the figurative genie is literally out of the bottle! Your organization needs a way to easily integrate and offboard nontraditional workers, manage ever-changing local and regional requirements and regulations, and make sure talented workers want to return when needed in the future. Your team also needs a way to easily manage the administrative side for these workers, so they’re not lost in a mind-numbing abyss of persistent and time-consuming (wasting?) on- and offboarding paperwork.
With a couple of simple steps, your organization can easily onboard, integrate, and offboard freelancers –making life easier for your team and strengthening your company’s brand in the talent pool marketplace.
Three easy steps:
1. Establish a Cross-functional Process with Automated Triggers
Your freelancer is going to need some combination of equipment, security clearance, and system access. By establishing an internal process with all the departments that are involved – such as HR, the hiring manager, security, and finance – you can ensure that your new worker has everything needed to be productive from day one.
Include automated triggers so your freelancer doesn’t show up on the first day without a username and password to access the system or a computer to use. It’s also important to have a seamless invoice and payment process in place for your temporary workers.
2. Streamline Compliance
Keep things simple by providing all the necessary compliance documentation in a mobile-first guided platform. This could include information about the office, all compliance documentation, the payment process, and requests for paperwork – such as NDA’s, W-9’s. Your new hire, HR, and hiring manager will appreciate how this simple step eliminates the back and forth typically required to gather all this information.
Ensure your system has accounted for local variations and regulations – from tax differences to data compliance concerns (i.e. GDPR).
3. Offboard Them Well
Close the loop on the short-term employee’s engagement with an intelligent, automated offboarding process. Create a cross-functional process and triggers to set off a cascade of events. This could include turning off system access, ensuring they’ve been paid, and requesting feedback on their experience with your organization.
This final interaction will linger with your temporary employees – an important consideration as they share their experience with others and consider returning to work with you in the future.
