an organizational norm.
Inside Gig Talent Operating Models
The operating model for the Inside Gig is different from both traditional and innovation-based talent operating models. The Inside Gig model is based on the premise that the time allocated to work on projects outside the regular scope of an employee’s day-to-day job is (a) integrated into the employee’s regular workweek and not specifically identified as innovation time or added on to an already challenging work schedule; and (b) centered on the mission-critical work that the company has to do. It is our fundamental belief that employees have far more capability than their workplace acknowledges and uses, when it comes to solving current business challenges. For example, developing products defined in an organization’s current product development road map, resolving a customer service problem, or improving a current process that isn’t performing to expectations. This is what the Inside Gig model is all about; it’s not about investing an employee’s resources in blue-sky activities.
However, a positive side-effect of the Inside Gig model is that it can spark innovation. This is an important benefit for any manager to understand. Innovation is a direct consequence of people working together from different parts of a business (e.g., marketing, sales and engineering), each of whom may bring a different perspective to the project. It also helps to generate more empathy and understanding of how work is accomplished in different parts of the business, because people share what they need to do to achieve the team’s goals. Naturally, the more sharing and relationship building that occurs, the greater the likelihood that new ideas will emerge.
The Inside Gig talent operating model leverages the talent a company has to solve current business challenges. It gives employees opportunities to contribute skills they don’t use in their day-to-day jobs and gain new skills while getting real work done.
You would be right to think that sharing talent across organizational boundaries requires managers and their team members to negotiate what aspects of team members’ current roles can be automated, outsourced or given up completely because they’re not value-added. Alternatively, there may well be aspects of a specific role that could be outsourced or assigned to someone else in order to allow an employee to learn something new or use a skill that is underutilized in their current position. This makes room for a portion of the employee’s time to be allocated to work on projects outside their current job description. It could be 15 percent or 20 percent of the employee’s time on an ongoing basis, or up to 100 percent of an employee’s time for a short duration. With this time, employees can choose to volunteer for projects that let them utilize skills they have but are not putting to use in their current job. They can also learn new skills that will make them more valuable to the company, or simply work on projects that are aligned with their passions or interests.
The matching of skills and interests to opportunities is accomplished using artificial intelligence; in other words, through computers that find the best match of employee skills to the skills needed for specific projects. This gives employees equal access to new experiences in different parts of the business that they previously had no means of finding out about. It also supports diversity and inclusion by eliminating inadvertent human bias as employees seek access to new opportunities to enhance their skills.
Working on cross-functional projects enables employees to construct broader networks within the company to facilitate internal moves that align with their career aspirations. It also increases employees’ understanding of the business, not just what happens within their teams. Career progression in the Inside Gig model offers a mosaic of experiences that advances employees via exposure to different opportunities that build breadth and depth, making them increasingly valuable to the organization and more marketable to other companies. We’ll go into the specifics in more detail in Part Three: How to Make It Work.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
•Traditional talent operating models are designed so that organizations can hire individuals to fill prescribed roles that fit their knowledge, skills and experiences. Employees are expected to devote 100 percent of their time to deliver on the tasks and responsibilities of their jobs.
•Innovation-focused talent operating models provide employees with implicit permission to devote some of their time at work (generally 15 percent to 20 percent) to projects that suit their personal interests and passions. While these projects need to advance the business in some manner, they’re not related to any current ongoing venture the company is dedicated to pursuing. Because employees are still responsible for getting their day-to-day jobs done, this often equates to 120 percent time.
•The Inside Gig talent operating model differs from innovation-focused talent operating models in that the percentage of time individuals take away from their day-to-day responsibilities is used to positively contribute to ongoing business projects. Employees work with their managers to reallocate tasks and responsibilities to make room for different work, which lets them leverage skills and abilities they have but don’t use in their day-to-day jobs, work in areas they want to learn and grow in professionally, or simply explore work they’re deeply interested in doing. The use of technology to match skills and interests to opportunities gives employees equal-opportunity access to projects.
REFLECTION POINTS
What problems are you and your team trying to solve that are proving difficult and could benefit from alternative perspectives?
Do people outside your department come to mind that you would like to bring to the table?
Is there any flexibility built into your company’s talent operating model that can stretch people’s skills to facilitate learning and make new connections? If not, do you think there is an opportunity for a trial venture?
CHAPTER 2
The Fourth Industrial Revolution and Its Impact on Business
A new type of thinking is essential if mankind is to survive and move toward higher levels.
—Albert Einstein
THE FORCES SHAPING THE WORLD OF WORK
WHETHER YOU ARE A TEAM MEMBER or you lead a team, large or small, you will have noticed that the world of work is changing, a consequence of the way the world in general is changing. For one thing, countries like the United States and Canada are experiencing higher levels of racial and ethnic diversity through international immigration patterns. According to the Pew Research Center, by 2055, the United States won’t have a single racial or ethnic majority.1 This shift in demographics is naturally affecting the workforce, which is becoming more diverse by gender, culture, religion, sexual preferences and identification. The burning question facing organizations is how their talent operating model is set up to accommodate the diversity of thought, personal and professional experience, and work habits that people bring to the workplace every day.
Most notably, the workforce is simultaneously growing older (because baby boomers aren’t retiring) and younger, with the rise of the millennial generation. Millennials currently make up more than half of the workforce and bring with them high expectations for work experiences that provide them with purpose and meaning at work. They want continuous learning and development opportunities that will result in rapid career progression.
Gallup has studied millennials for several years. In its 2016 report, How Millennials Want to Work and Live, it challenged the notion that they’re a generation
