The 'gig economy' refers to employees hiring freelancers instead of full or part time staff. One in six workers in the UK are already part of the gig-economy. This number is expected to rise due to:
- Technology enabling location independent work.
- Past success of companies embracing flexible working arrangements.
- Agile employers embracing the gig economy as a cost-saving measure.
What does the gig economy mean for the workplace?
The gig economy means that most project teams will be formed by people who have never met. The short nature of the work, coupled with the speed at which they need to operate means that effective communication and collaboration are essential to the success of the project.
An office or workspace is still the most effective way for organisations to bring people together. It is essential for effective communication and collaboration, and also helps to instil the companies values within its new team of employees.
Surprisingly, this means that employers will have more need for collaborative work environments than ever before.
Many organisations may need to re-design the workplace to take full advantage of this, with collaborative and flexible workspaces similar to co-working environments being optimal for the gig-economy.
Read more about how the gig-economy will transform the workspace here.
In the gig economy, the office actually becomes more important, as a way of quickly imparting your organisational culture and vision on new employees as quickly as possible.
There will of course need to be changes. Offices will need to be built around collaborative, flexible styles of working, and it can be expected that modular, adaptable and agile offices will start to be the norm.
Read more about what the gig economy might mean to the modern ofcice here.