Employers that want an agile workforce must address problems with gig work

For employers who’ve had to adjust their talent strategies to survive a flurry of challenges in recent years (skills shortages, AI changing the nature of work, and rising operational costs, to name a few), gig work, in its many iterations, paints a promising picture.

Non-traditional forms of employment allow employers to use talent on an as-need basis, typically for a fraction of the cost. There’s one major problem, though: Workers aren’t so keen on non-traditional work, and their qualms with it lie with the nature of these roles, according to a new Indeed survey of more than 10,000 employers and job seekers across 12 countries.

A “no brainer?” More than half (53%) of employers surveyed reported currently leveraging an “agile workforce”—meaning non-traditional employment like gig and contract work, interim or fractional roles, remote “digital nomad” jobs, and job rotations—though 67% plan to eventually do so.

From their perspective, leveraging alternative forms of employment is a “no brainer,” Priya Rathod, Indeed’s workplace trends editor, told HR Brew.

“For employers, it’s increasingly a business strategy,” Rathod said. “They’re evaluating agility in terms of what that means for them, and what that means for them is flexibility, speed, and cost efficiency, which are all things they’re very interested in taking advantage of.”

Well, not for workers. Just 25% of job seekers report currently working in “agile roles,” according to Indeed’s survey, though 45% anticipate that they’ll have one of these kinds of jobs in the future. While workers acknowledged that pursuing nontraditional employment could provide more flexibility and control over when and how they work, and help attain a better work-life balance, 55% believe taking an agile role is a risky career move.

These roles may sound fine in theory, but Rathod said that workers are put off from pursuing them over traditional employment when confronted with the current state of the labor market, as well as more structural issues with the state of gig work. In Indeed’s survey, respondents cited concerns like unpredictable annual income, lacking opportunities, and irregular or delayed payments as their primary worries about nontraditional employment models.

“If you look at it from the job seekers perspective, it’s not that they don’t want agile work. It’s that they want it to feel sustainable and something that they can do long term, and right now it doesn’t feel that way to them,” Rathod said.

What workers want. When asked what would convince them to pursue agile roles, benefits were top of mind for job seekers—paid time off, health insurance, and a retirement savings plan, to be specific.

That could be a big unlock for markets like the US, which lacks universal healthcare and paid parental leave, and is quickly draining its national retirement fund. Compared to the global average, agile work is less prevalent in the states. Just 40% of US-based employers currently leverage agile workers, and 17% of job seekers identify as agile workers, compared to 53% and 25% globally, respectively.

“In the US, it’s very essential, in a lot of cases, for workers to have access to things like health insurance. And right now that agile workforce doesn’t,” Rathod said.

Working with staffing firms could help alleviate that issue; staffing giant Adecco retains temp workers as W-2 employees, handling payroll and benefits. Other companies are exploring “portable benefits.” For example, DoorDash last year began piloting a partnership with Stride Health, offering workers in Pennsylvania a savings account that could be used to fund things like retirement savings, health insurance, or time off.

Another approach employers can consider is introducing gig projects to their existing workforce, which employers including Workday have already implemented. Just 15% of job seekers say they’ve looked to their employer for such opportunities. This could be an interesting option for workers, as they can pursue gig work while in a safe setting in which they have steady employment, according to Rathod.

“When people know what they’re signing up for and they feel like it’s going to fit in the way they view their career as a whole, it stops feeling like a risk, and it starts feeling like something that’s usable for them and more stable,” she said.