Gig economy growing

Businesses embrace new hiring paradigm

BUSINESS leaders expect the size of the global gig economy to continue to rise, with about one third of the world’s workforce tipped to be contractors by 2023.

Control over staffing costs was the main benefit cited by business leaders in research by recruiter Robert Half, which polled more than 3800 business leaders in 12 countries.

Support for long-term ab- sences and better management of workload fluctuations were also among the top benefits to employers.

“The gig economy is crucial for addressing businesses’ demands for greater flexibility, both today and in the future,” Robert Half Australia director Andrew Morris said.

“Growing technological complexity is changing busi- nesses, requiring more specialist and hard-to-find skills,” he said.

“And with traditional job roles evolving rapidly, businesses need to adopt more flexible approaches to recruitment to find the right balance of skills.”

More than one million Australians are classified as independent contractors, according to the latest figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Australian hiring managers predict a 70:30 split between permanent and temporary employees by 2023.

Seventy-six per cent of employers locally said that having a mix of both temporary and permanent employees was now crucial to the success of their business.

The increasing adoption of a flexible workforce is being driven mainly by new technologies, which allow for greater workplace flexibility.

A worldwide war for talent, making it harder to acquire specific skills on a permanent basis was also a factor, along with the evolving complexity of traditional job roles, Robert Half reported.

“Contract workers are essential for scaling any business and ensuring a contingency workforce,” Mr Morris said.

“With the growing split of permanent and contract workers, employers need to ensure they are maximising the benefits of the professional gig economy and embracing the long-term strategic gains that temporary workers provide, such as increased staffing flexibility, access to skills, and better management of workload fluctuations.”