I recently sat through an orientation for a company that has taken the “temp agency” model and moved it into the mobile app world. I had seen a few openings at the company and thought to myself, “what better way to learn about how they work than to become one of their users/temp workers and see where all the growth was coming from?”
The room was mostly empty with a few chairs, a person behind a desk checking IDs and registering people and one TV. That was it! You sat in the room and used your smart phone to fill out the paperwork. There were 5 people total in the room, including me, and we went about doing our “paperwork” on our phones. The TV was used for a short presentation on the app and some of the information in the employee handbook.
Whenever you put people in a room, they start to talk and so a conversation started, mostly between the person behind the desk and the individuals in this case. The questions about “how did you hear about us” and “what will you do,” all made sense, but the answers were far more revealing.
“I have a full-time job, but I want more freedom, so I thought this way of working would be better for me. I could also use it to make extra money.”
“I moved here from Indiana and am a student, so this type of work will be better for me because of my schedule.”
After hearing those, I asked a few questions to understand if this type of work was something to get someone through a particular period in their life or if it would become the norm. The answers were the same, this is the way it is going to work. Yes, it is a very small sample size, so not a very scientific study, but valuable just the same.
The generation of workers that are getting prepared for the “rest of their lives” have a different mindset with respect to employment. They are living their lives on their terms and adapting the work life to match that. They are more interested in renting than buying a home and don’t want to be held down by a single job. The “gig” economy as it is called is starting to mold the overall work culture.
The worker, powered by their smart phone, can pick and choose where they will work and how they will earn income. The provider of the app becomes their employer, but they are not supplying the work, they simply supply the opportunity for work, a go-between of sorts. This company is in a few cities today and expanding into more and more metro areas. In time, they will be ubiquitous and many more like them will appear to fill niches of specialized professionals, think construction, restaurant staff, etc.
This sounds great for the employee, but what about the employer? How do you change your business practices so that you can make full use of this new type of worker? Those are the key questions that business owners will have to explore in the next 20 to 30 years as this current generation of workers becomes the model for the next generation. You have time to figure it out, but don’t think you will not be affected!
The worldwide pandemic has shifter our perceptions of value and work life balance. Where the Baby Boomers and Gen-X crowds held to standards based on the post WWII world, the creation of the internet and a connected society has created an entirely different population. As long as they can get the latest handheld computer, disguised as a phone, and reliable internet access – don’t think WiFi, think 5G – they are set. Watching a big screen TV is not what they like to do, they sit at the dinner table binge watching whatever the latest show is and then clean their plates while the phone is propped up in front of them.
I know because that is what happens in my home and I was the one that built the phone stands so that phones did not end up in the sink!
The traditional job post and belief that you will have an employee for a lifetime have to be questioned. Or maybe, the real question is, what do we need to do so that the up-and-coming generation of worker feels like they are in control. Is it remote work opportunities? Is it more a model of “part time” work with flexible schedule and the worker decides when they work? If you have to fill a shift, maybe you have to make the pay variable, so you pay more for the times when people don’t usually want to work, and the workers bid for the opportunity?
There is a lot to think about and best to start now and be prepared than go out of business because you could not find employees to staff a shift.
Gramatges Consulting 