As the world began to shut down in March 2020, companies everywhere experienced difficulties recruiting and maintaining their workforce, among other issues. With the economic downturn, layoffs were abundant and managers had to be creative to keep the wheels turning within their organizations.
Companies held off on hiring during the early months of the pandemic, even when help might have been needed. This is where the “internal gig-worker” became a popular trend in businesses. Traditional gig workers are also known as freelancers or contract workers that are paid for a specific period to complete specific projects or tasks.
The trend of using internal gig-workers gained popularity during the start of the pandemic, where the jobs meant for external gig workers were now available in an internal gig-worker pool. Employees with necessary skills would pick up projects on top of their regular workloads so the company could avoid finding new freelance talent.
While the idea may seem smart in the short run, internal gigs lead to overworked employees that already have full plates of work. These internal gigs ask your employees to do extra work, potentially for no additional pay or less than what would be paid to an external freelancer. Relying too heavily on your current employees to continuously pick up extra work on top of their current workload can lead to resentment and unhappiness within the organization.
Think about it, if there are extra projects in which additional help is needed, it only makes sense to find additional freelance or contract workers to complete the project. Otherwise, these would not be extra projects; they would fit into the standard workload of your employees!
At Sharp Decisions, we understand this issue. This is why we have provided top talent to our clients for over 30 years. Our experience in this realm is unmatched as we routinely deliver results on time, on target, and on budget.
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