Posted: AIM Group, April 23rd 2020
Tobias Porserud, VP at Sweden-based gig-recruitment app AppJobs and Director at AppJobs Institute presented a keynote at VirtualRecBuzz2020 on “how the future of work will be like Netflix and chill, minus the chill.”
Will we all become gig workers? Like the way we stream videos, gig work will transition to become easier, broader and more flexible, Porserud said. This may be accelerated further by the impact of Covid-19.
The external cost of workers is now lower than the internal cost, leading companies to wonder whether an independent contractor or a fixed-cost employee is best. It used to be the fixed cost, but that is now changing.
“External transaction costs are plummeting quickly now: planes, communications, computer storage are also lower,” said Porserud. “When external costs go down, internal costs go up. Instead of a few big companies with lots of employees, the Fortune-500 company size is decreasing. For instance Google has more freelancers now than full-time staff.”
It used to be cheaper to have all employees in one building, now it’s easier and competitive to be at many places at the same time, utilizing more capabilities. This has huge consequences. Previously in the corporate economy, we had nice security but less flexibility. Now, security will fall but flexibility is increasing. In the new gig economy, it’s easier for companies to access workers and for workers to access companies.
How is Covid-19 impacting this?
“Many people seek opportunities in the gig economy during Covid-19. We have seen a big increase in clients looking for our services. It’s linked to the lockdown in each country and different sectors have different demand,” Porserud said.
“The majority of workers are losing all or most of their work, including those in the gig economy, but not just blue-collar workers. Despite the awful problems, there are lots of opportunities.”Description for this block. Use this space for describing your block. Any text will do. Description for this block. You can use this space for describing your block.
“More people will be forced into going for highly flexible low-security jobs and they are all undertaking a crash course in working from home as part of a remote digital team.”