The Gig Economy: Navigating the New Frontier of Work

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In the ever-evolving landscape of the workforce, the gig economy has emerged as a significant phenomenon, reshaping traditional employment paradigms and introducing a new era of job flexibility, autonomy, and digital innovation. This blog delves into the intricacies of the gig economy, offering insights for both workers navigating this space and businesses looking to leverage gig economy opportunities.

Understanding the Gig Economy

At its core, the gig economy encompasses a labor market characterized by short-term contracts or freelance work as opposed to permanent jobs. Platforms like Uber, Airbnb, and Freelancer have paved the way, creating ecosystems where individuals can offer their skills or assets on a per-job (or “gig”) basis. The gig economy’s rise is underpinned by digital platforms that connect freelancers with clients, making it easier than ever to find work or hire for tasks.

The Gig Worker: Autonomy and Challenges

For many, the gig economy offers an attractive alternative to traditional 9-to-5 jobs, promising flexibility, autonomy, and the opportunity to pursue a variety of projects. Gig workers can set their schedules, choose their projects, and in many cases, work remotely, offering a sense of freedom unmatched in many conventional jobs.

However, this freedom comes with its challenges. Gig workers often face uncertainties related to job security, income stability, and benefits like health insurance, which are typically provided in permanent employment contexts. The responsibility for taxes, retirement savings, and health insurance shifts entirely to the individual, requiring a proactive and savvy approach to personal finance and benefits management.

For Businesses: Benefits and Considerations

Businesses stand to gain significantly from the gig economy through access to a global pool of talent, flexibility in staffing, and cost efficiencies. Hiring gig workers for specific projects or peak times can help companies stay agile and competitive without the overhead associated with full-time employees.

Yet, relying on gig workers also presents challenges, including concerns about worker loyalty, protecting proprietary information, and ensuring consistent quality of work. Businesses must navigate these issues carefully, developing clear contracts, maintaining robust communication channels, and investing in relationship building to ensure mutual success.

Regulation and the Future of Work

As the gig economy grows, so does the attention from policymakers and labor advocates concerned about workers’ rights and protections. In various jurisdictions, debates and legal battles have sought to classify gig workers correctly, determining their eligibility for benefits and protections under labor laws. These regulatory developments have the potential to reshape the gig economy’s landscape significantly, affecting how platforms, workers, and businesses operate.

Embracing the Gig Economy: Tips for Success

For workers, success in the gig economy requires a blend of skill development, marketing acumen, and financial planning. Building a strong personal brand, networking, and leveraging online platforms can help secure gigs. Additionally, gig workers should educate themselves on tax implications and explore options for health insurance and retirement savings to ensure long-term financial stability.

Businesses, on the other hand, should focus on creating clear expectations, investing in technology to streamline gig worker management, and fostering a culture of respect and inclusion for all workers, regardless of their employment status. Understanding the legal landscape and staying ahead of regulatory changes is also crucial for companies to navigate this new world of work successfully.

Conclusion

The gig economy represents a significant shift in how we think about work, offering opportunities and challenges for workers and businesses alike. By understanding the nuances of this new landscape, both parties can navigate the gig economy more effectively, capitalizing on its benefits while mitigating its risks. As we look to the future, the gig economy’s role in shaping the workforce seems poised to expand, signaling a continued evolution of work in the digital age.

Sustainability in your HR Practices

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Sustainability. Merriam-Webster defines sustain as “trying to keep up or prolong”, and ability as the “means or skill to do something” so we can conclude that sustainability means having the skill to keep an activity going.  Now, let’s add the word corporate in front of sustainability.  Corporate sustainability – what does that mean to you? Corporate sustainability is not a token term. It is becoming a driving force in the work culture of many organizations and a key concept sought after by many job seekers. Corporate sustainability is the concept that will differentiate companies and give them a competitive edge while helping to preserve our planet so the needs of future generations can be met.

 

Human Resources personnel is the driving force of interpersonal operations within a company of any size.  They are tasked with maintaining the communication balance within an organization and drive cultural initiatives. Here are five key ways Human Resources can promote company sustainability initiatives.  

 

Communicate the importance of sustainability

Creating and promoting positive change must begin at the top and work down, but Human Resources will be tasked with communicating the importance of sustainability. Senior leadership and Human Resources must work collaboratively to communicate the value of sustainability and reassure employees that green initiatives will be more beneficial than cumbersome. Communicate sustainability practices on social media and the company’s website to promote positive company branding. 

Clearly defined messages of what the company is doing to promote sustainability and why it is important must be delivered in different communication formats. Workshops and training sessions to explain the company’s efforts. As well as what each employee must do to achieve established sustainability goals will help communicate the message in a consistent manner. HR can facilitate small focus groups of employees to further strategize and spearhead company established green initiatives. Team building will help employees better understand company sustainability initiatives. It will also provide an opportunity to assimilate those initiatives into daily culture instead of an ordinary task to complete.  Progress begins with change, and all employees make a difference.

 

Save the trees. Go paperless.

Job applications, new hire paperwork, assessment results…so many facets of the employment process are still being completed with paper. Did you know that:

  • The U.S. uses about 30% of the global paper supply although it accounts for only 4.25% of the world’s population.
  • The average person in the U.S. uses more than 700 pounds of paper every year.
  • U.S offices use 12.1 trillion sheets of paper a year.
  • Paper accounts for around 26% of landfill waste.
  • 93% of paper comes from trees.
  • It takes nearly 47 gallons of water per ream of paper.
  • Reducing paper use reduces greenhouse gasses – 40 reams of paper is equivalent to 1.5 acres of a pine forest absorbing carbon for a year.

HR professionals are inundated with personal details of employees that must be kept confidential and secure.  Collecting paper applications and having employee data on paper is risky. Papers with employee data can get lost, be seen by unauthorized people and can get misfiled where access is unknown or unrestricted. Keep private details private by using cloud based employment software. SaaS (Software as a Service) offers no software installation on servers. The software provider does the heavy lifting – training, support, and upgrades – so employees can do the job they are supposed to. Stop using paper, and go paperless in the company’s employment processes.  Recruit using a robust Applicant Tracking System (ATS), onboard and communicate with employees using an intuitive Onboarding System and conduct Employee Assessments to evaluate employees’ skills all electronically. Going paperless saves time, money and offers a heightened level of security that paper cannot.   

 

Onsite versus Offsite

Remote and hybrid work schedules reduce emissions as compared with the daily drive to and from work. Human Resources professionals need to explore the financial and environmental impacts of flexible work arrangements and scheduling.  Evaluate if some roles can be completed in a four day week compared to a five day week to reduce commute time.  Examine the amount of domestic and international travel that needs to occur. Do employees really need to travel to another location for certain meetings? Can the message and collaboration occur with technology instead where travel is unneeded?  Remote and hybrid work schedules will not be conducive for all industries (ex. healthcare, manufacturing, and K-12 education), but it can work for many roles. This was proven when employees in many fields were forced to work from home due to COVID. 

 

Reduce, Reuse and Recycle (3R)

Look around within the company.  How quickly are items thrown away without a second thought?  Approximately 40% of all food in the U.S. goes into the trash taking second place to paper products. Every hour in the U.S., 2.5 million plastic bottles are tossed into the trash. Convenience today is not helping tomorrow. HR is intuitive of the work culture and can be leaders in the 3R initiative.

HR professionals are finding ways to cut costs by implementing sustainable practices. Reduce or eliminate the use of “disposable” cups in the break area and fill the areas with reusable items. Create a company food compost area to prevent food waste.  Have designated areas for recycling plastics, paper, cardboard, equipment and metals. Offer buybacks with gift cards or extra time off when employees recycle.  Track the company’s cost savings and environmental impact and share the data with employees to validate their efforts are saving money and advancing the sustainability mission.

 

Choose suppliers that are promoting sustainability

Knowledge is power. Find out what your company’s suppliers are doing. Are they minimizing waste and attempting to reduce emissions?  Does the supplier conduct internal audits to seek ways to be more sustainable?  How are materials procured? Is the vendor following fair-trade and cultural laws against child labor and paying fair wages to employees? Knowing the answer to suppliers’ internal and external practices can have a positive influence on the company’s financial and brand statuses. If your company is preaching sustainability, but purchasing from vendors who do not adhere to the same principles your company has communicated, it will take a lot to convince customers and job seekers that you practice what you preach which can result in a loss of money and talent. 

Company goals for the next year, five years and even ten years will pass in a blink of an eye. While it is important for a company to be profitable, leadership must take initiative to explore and implement sustainable practices to do their part in helping future generations grow and succeed to ensure longevity.  Contact ExactHire to learn more about our Applicant Tracking System (ATS), Onboarding System and  Employee Assessments to support your organization in your paperless initiatives towards sustainable practices.

Free ATS Buying Guide

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Recently released on ExactHire’s website is a comprehensive overview of applicant tracking systems. We have a detailed account of features provided, the cost of the software, important integrations, and the overall importance of the product. This guide breaks down the components that make up an applicant tracking system and explains each of them in detail. The guide also goes over potential cost savings associated with an ATS, as well as the importance an applicant tracking system has on a company.

Why create a Free ATS buying guide?

You might wonder why would we be interested in providing such information? Well at ExactHire we frequently find ourselves receiving questions about how our ATS compares to others. This often leads to a conversation centered around a prospect’s hiring challenges and how an ATS–any ATS–can address those. So considering we have these discussions on a daily basis with the people who ask, we figured there are thousands of more people out there who need basic, non-biased information regarding applicant tracking systems, but who don’t ask us.

Countless search items on Google lead straight to dead pages, outdated information, or biased answers. We saw a problem with this and wanted to make a resource where small business owners, new HR practitioners, and others can go to receive the information they need. So we took it upon ourselves to create a free ATS buyer’s guide!

We believe that by providing a wealth of information on the topic, consumers are better prepared to make buying decisions with better accuracy as to what they need. This, in turn, will lead to a happier ATS customer and thus better relationships between customers and ATS vendors (hopefully that vendor is us, but if not, we’ll take the positive karma).

What is in the buying guide?

The content of the free ATS buying guide, as stated before, is comprehensive. We start off with a basic definition and other key points. Then the guide dives into different features and integrations you can expect or want out of different applicant tracking systems. Then we talk about costs associated with applicant tracking systems and what kind of returns on investments you receive from an applicant tracking system. Lastly, we delve into the importance of an applicant tracking system and what difference it can make for your company.

This and more are all included in the buying guide, all completely free! If you, your HR department, or anyone else in your company wants to learn more about applicant tracking systems and what they can do for your company, then there is no better place to look then our ultimate buying guide!

ExactHire ATS Buying Guide

Linked below and throughout the blog is the buying guide, please use the link to explore the buying guide and all it has to offer. If you feel that any questions of yours aren’t answered, or would like an elaboration on any point made, please contact a member of our team.

Access Guide

Click to Access Free ATS Buying Guide

ExactHire Partners with JobTarget

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Indianapolis, Indiana – August 16th, 2021– ExactHire and JobTarget are pleased to announce that they have formed a strategic partnership whereby JobTarget’s products will be available through ExactHire’s Applicant Tracking Software (ATS).

JobTarget is one of the largest job advertising platforms on the internet. They provide the web’s only e-commerce marketplace for job postings, Job Site Marketplace as well as an auto optimized job posting product called Programmatic. This system automatically and actively manages job posting campaigns. It analyzes each job posting, seeing if where it’s posted is driving the right candidates. If it determines a posting isn’t performing well, it shifts budgets to other sites that will.

ExactHire provides applicant tracking and employee onboarding software to the SMB market. Clients have access to a team of SHRM-certified hiring strategists to develop successful hiring plans for their companies. ExactHire increases job seeker traffic to optimized job applications, resulting in more job applicants and more qualified candidates. Using ExactHire ATS, managers can screen candidates and efficiently move them through the hiring process to make quality hiring decisions. The system can then launch new hires into a fully-integrated digital onboarding software for clients that need both solutions.

Bringing together JobTarget’s digital recruiting expertise and ExactHire’s applicant tracking software, this partnership will provide effective and efficient recruitment advertising for ExactHire clients and free them from the manual work of having to analyze and manage each of their postings.

To learn more about the integration, visit exacthire.com or jobtarget.com

Quotes

“For both companies, this partnership is exciting. We are two leading organizations, in recruitment technology, joining forces to provide successful and efficient solutions. We are very thrilled to be partnering with ExactHire,” – Geoff Sauer, Vice President of Sales

Our partnership with JobTarget adds great value for our ExactHire clients. The integration enhances our system’s job posting functions, making it easier for our clients to reach more job seekers, manage job ad spend, and ultimately receive more qualified candidates. This will always be an important aspect of a company’s success.” – Harlan Schafir, Chief Visionary Officer, ExactHire

About JobTarget

JobTarget is a recruitment innovator. We’re on a mission to create an amazing job search experience. We do this by providing a recruiting and job search platform that helps create better communication, greater transparency, and increased efficiency. Since 2001, JobTarget has been helping organizations and millions of job seekers find each other. JobTarget offers advertisement to a network of 25,000+ job sites. We offer a variety of products, like Job Site Marketplace, Programmatic, and Media Services to make your job postings easy and efficient.

About ExactHire

ExactHire helps growing organizations solve unique hiring and onboarding problems so that they can attract, hire, and retain the best talent–fast and effectively. We achieve this through pairing our powerful HR software with a team of SHRM-certified hiring strategists that provide ongoing support and guidance.

It’s Not About Selling Software

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The COVID-19 pandemic has required that ExactHire, like many other companies, move to a mandatory work-from-home model. ExactHire has always offered remote work as an option to our employees, so this change has minimally affected our operations. Obviously, the same cannot be said for the pandemic’s impact on our business.

Our software is designed to create efficiencies for HR professionals and allow them to focus on their people. We believe that people are an organization’s greatest asset. So as soon as news of the pandemic hit, and prospective clients began cancelling demos and breaking off communications, we knew why. Their only concern and focus was on their people.

Within our organization, our team has worked quickly to discuss how we can take care of our people–our families, our team, our clients, and human resources professionals. This is not about selling software, it’s about the safety and welfare of our community. There is nothing more important today and in the days to come.

Our Families

As mentioned, ExactHire has always offered remote work as an option. Those who’ve felt “a little” sick have been encouraged (sometimes told) to work from home. Additionally, members of our team with children are empowered to work from home when a child is ill, allowing them to flex their time if they choose. The pandemic has made these “options” mandatory, but our team has not missed a beat.

We know that our team is at its best when they and their families are safe and well. Yes, this means that some work calls may include barking dogs, ringing doorbells, and toddler talk. But it also means that our clients and community are working with an organization and people who care. It’s not about selling software.

Our Team

Challenges are usually a source of energy for our team. And while this pandemic is likely the biggest challenge we will face, our team has not blinked. Collectively, we’ve worked through questions and solutions related to our own health and safety, current and future needs of our clients, and how we can leverage our resources to help our community.

We’re part of the ExactHire team because we believe that we can help people. We help business owners, HR professionals, employees, job applicants, and job seekers. That’s what has kept our team together and positive during this time–the belief that we can help others. It’s not about selling software.

Our Clients

A month ago, HR professionals across the world were dealing with a completely different set of problems than the ones they have today. Even now, employers are uncertain of what the future may hold. Despite the hourly changes in what the pandemic could mean to our world, a prevailing sentiment is emerging–things may be different, but we will move forward.

Our VP of Client Success, Randi Doerr, recently created a video message to our clients. In it, she explained that while we as a software company cannot solve the many challenges that they face, we stand ready and willing to do what we can. It’s not about selling software.

Our HR Professionals

Helping others is usually easiest with those whom we are the closest–we know their needs and the offer of help is more likely accepted. However during times like these, we all must reach further to help one another and accept help from wherever it may come.

Our team has developed countless articles, ebooks, webinars, and guides to help HR professionals. This content includes topics such as:

  • remote working,
  • company culture and employee engagement,
  • HR change management, and
  • leadership.

We’ve compiled the best of these resources all in one place on our website. We know that these resources cannot possibly solve all the challenges that the COVID-19 pandemic presents, but it’s our sincere hope that they do help in at least some small measure. It’s not about selling software.

Our Future

As a small business, we’ve experienced the ups and downs that all growing companies must endure. Our team has never backed down from a challenge; we don’t intend to do so now. But we do realize the serious threat that the COVID-19 pandemic poses to our world. And so we’re doing what we can to take care of our people.

We believe that if everyone continues to do the same, we will not only emerge from this current emergency stronger, but perhaps better too.

Sincerely,

 

Harlan Schafir

 

 

Harlan Schafir
CEO, ExactHire

 

OnboardCentric: Mobile Employee Onboarding

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Andrew Taylor

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Andrew Taylor joined ExactHire in July 2020 as a Full Stack Developer, and has been developing professionally since 2012.  Andrew is eager to collaborate with the ExactHire and DeveloperTown teams to find innovative solutions and make a positive difference in the hiring and onboarding industries.
Prior to joining ExactHire, Andrew worked for Stack Sports, a sports technology company, as a lead developer and development team manager.  He primarily developed software related to the endurance sports sector for participant registration, timing/scoring, and results posting, but also worked closely with clients to develop volunteer management, fundraising, and communications solutions.

Andrew holds a B.A. in History and Classics from Hope College, in Holland, MI.

In his free time, Andrew likes to spend time with his wife and kids, read, play video games, try out new restaurants, garden, and generally enjoy the great outdoors.