In the next few years we'll begin slicing and dicing jobs to create a gig economy, all because of the impact of Artificial Intelligence -- at least, that's today's hot topic when it comes to HR futures. Do you believe it?
We've been giving the topic a bit of a reality check at the Cafe in the last few weeks.
- The Truth about Gig Workers covered today's job classification issues.
- Even More about Gig Workers discussed today's facts on the gig economy.
- Tomorrow's Gig Workers Today predicted what's to come, with emphasis on what the employee's experience will be.
Plus, the Cafe had an earlier look at the lingering warnings of the "death" of the job.
Before we finish our survey of the gig economy topic, I thought we'd take a look at what it may mean for compensation and other Human Resource practices. There are a couple of surprises. And for readers who want to go further into each topic, you'll see a link to a more detailed Compensation Cafe article.
Job Evaluation - If Artificial Intelligence pares jobs down to short-term project work, job responsibilities will need to be described in a very different way. In this world, HR will select competing internal candidates for internal gigs and recruit external candidates for these outcome-driven assignments. If you think that through, you'll realize that we won't be able to select talent well if we use today's descriptors: job responsibilities and previous experience. After all, the project manager will want to know what the candidate can do. Skills and competencies provide more practical, job-specific insight. While this new scenario won't turn job evaluation on its head, it will require a substantial rework. (Check out this Cafe article for some examples.)
Career Levels - While competencies describe how you go about your work, they are of limited use if they don't describe the career level you have reached in the competency. For example, are you a supervisor who receives assignments with predetermined work plans and staff? Or have you achieved the level where you are given only the objectives for the assignment, and it's up to you to develop the work plan and staff? Distinctions of that type are crucial when selecting candidates for projects. Career competency levels will need to find their way into performance evaluation and career planning in a gig-based company. (To learn more about competencies, here's a place to start.)
Job Architecture - Job evaluation and career levels may get you halfway to a job architecture, but you won't be able to stop there if you find yourself in an active gig economy. Another challenge will be to keep internal employees from getting stuck or forgotten after they complete a successful project. These employees will need a line-of-sight to his/her next gig, and to understand how his/her capabilities and career are developing. HR and managers will use the architecture as well when recruiting and supervising external talent. (This Cafe article gives a detailed look at job architecture.)
Broadbands - Yes broadbands may be back! Think about it. In a project-based organization, market rates won't communicate the level of reward an employee would have earned as clearly as his/her competency and skill levels.
Margaret O'Hanlon, CCP brings deep expertise to discussions on employee pay, performance management, career development and communications at the Café. Her firm, re:Think Consulting, provides market pay information and designs base salary structures, incentive plans, career paths and their implementation plans. Earlier, she was a Principal at Willis Towers Watson. A former Board member for the Bay Area Compensation Association (BACA), Margaret coauthored the popular eBook, Everything You Do (in Compensation) Is Communications, a toolkit that all practitioners can find at https://gumroad.com/l/everythingiscommunication.
Comments