A Conversation with Barry Asin, President at Staffing Industry Analysts
When companies are building their workforce, they have a plethora of choices regarding the types of workers that they want to hire. Workers can be classified in many different ways — there's full-time employees, part-time employees, contingent workers, contract workers — just to name a few.
Throughout the following podcast and blog, the gig economy is discussed, which is a labor market that relies heavily on temporary or part-time positions filled by contingent workers rather than full-time employees.
In this episode of our 'Back to Work' podcast series, Barry Asin, President at Staffing Industry Analysts (SIA), and our host, Joe McIntyre discuss the current state of the gig economy and how its been impacted by the pandemic. They also dive into the intersection of talent and technology, the human cloud, and other industry trends.
Listen to our Podcast:
Why is the Gig Economy Trending?
Companies who utilize the gig economy population are able to hire the talent they need for what they need done. The gig economy has been a growing trend since the pandemic has changed the way in which many of us work. As many workplace environments have become more flexible and people ditch the traditional 9-5, it's become easier and much more common for companies to hire flexible workers.
Barry mentions in the podcast that COVID has allowed us to experiment with what works and what can be done regarding remote/flexible work. So as more people joined the gig population, we all realized that this can work well and we don't need everyone to work a traditional, in-person, 40 hour work week. And employers are seeing the benefits of the gig economy, too. It gives companies access to a bigger talent pool to choose from, leading to better hires in the end.
Additional Workforce Trends
Over the past few years, the dynamic has shifted between employees and employers — talent is in the driver's seat today. Employees have a bigger voice than ever before in the workplace. Because many employees simply don't want to, a lot of companies will never get ride of hybrid/remote work. If they do, they risk losing their top talent to a competitor who will give their employees what they want. So with that, we're in another period of renegotiating our work environments, schedules, expectations, etc. as the pandemic is not at the forefront of our lives anymore.
Another notable workforce trend the industry is experiencing right now is the evolving intersection of talent and technology. The human cloud, which is essentially a talent platform that utilizes technology to connect workers to the work that needs to be done, has become more prevalent in the past few years. To close out the podcast, Barry and Joe talk about the advantages and drawbacks of technology's emergence in the talent acquisition process.
To listen to our full podcast, click here. And be sure to stay tuned for Part 2 of our podcast Q&A with Barry for insights into defining leadership in the workplace.
