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The Blended Workforce

The lines are blurring. Full-time software developers are now working alongside upstart agile talent pools and, like it or not, it’s trending more toward the freelancers. Traditional business models may grumble at the idea of not having full control over its employees, but the complaints are losing their volume. The benefits to bringing in gig economy developers should and will far outweigh the old-school paradigms some companies may be trying to hold up against the tide of technology and agility.

Here are some things to know if you’re considering a blend of full-time and agile talent for your workforce:

  • Everyone’s doing it or they’re about to do it. Full-time employees are beginning to shift toward freelancing while business is already wrapping their arms around a blended workforce. In the near future, nearly half of the corporate workforce will be from the gig economy.
  • CEOs across the board point to talent gaps as one of their most critical concerns in regard to competition. If a company doesn’t have the right talent, they lack agility, ability to grow quickly, react to threats and prevents scalability. A blended workforce can provide stability and flexibility.
  • The workforce is a marriage of cost-saving and increased productivity. It’s pretty simple math.

This blended workforce doesn’t come without its own challenges, but when faced proactively, as opposed to reactively, the new norm of agile talent will become as commonplace as water cooler gossip, and likely force it into extinction.

Once you understand that a blended workforce will become a core strategy for you and companies like you – not a social experiment in telecommuting – it’s imperative that your organization ready itself to handle this shift.

Define Ensure that all freelancers – independent contractors, off-site workers, whatever you prefer to call them – are kept up to speed on that seem to pop up faster than ever. This may require you to beef up your in-house counsel or HR.

Finally, when you’re finally tasting the fruit of the gig economy and the agility you now have from hiring agile talent, Decentralized hiring can create chaos more quickly that you could ever imagine. Compliance will thank you, HR will thank you. Your staffing sources will thank you.