Technological innovation in HR has historically been driven by the need to automate and improve processes. For years, tools were built to relieve administrative burdens, improve processes and reduce liabilities, but this had an unfortunate side effect: Employees were laden with a litany of non-intuitive, onerous technologies and processes.  

A profound transformation has taken place in the last few years with the emergence of HR tools that provide a seamless, intuitive user experience that centers around the employee. Almost every HR function is seeing an explosion of new technologies — from referral tools to candidate relationship management to assessment tools to applicant tracking. Venture capital and private equity firms invested $1.87 billion in HR and workforce-related products over the last two years, according to CB Insights (via Deloitte). This funding activity has brought to market the next generation of technology solutions that allow businesses to navigate this new world of work.

The war for talent has driven employee branding and experience to the forefront. Today’s workers are changing the rules of engagement. They are choosing to engage with businesses in ways that don’t exactly fit traditional full- and part-time roles but as freelancers and gig workers who require the flexibility of being able to work for a few weeks or even a few hours. While traditional temporary labor has always benefited businesses, the gig economy offers even more agility and on-demand opportunities hand-picked by the workers themselves.

What Is Driving The Change?

Businesses have standard, proven ways to work with recruiters for direct hires, staffing firms for temporary labor and consulting firms for project-based engagements. Today the same is happening for the gig workforce. The marketplace is becoming defined and an ecosystem is taking shape where organizations are using on-demand workers to get things done. This desire to work independently and flexibly has sparked a serious revolution in HR technology, as companies pursue a way to manage independent workers efficiently alongside their full-time workforce.

While consumers were early adopters of mobile apps like Uber and TaskRabbit, the model didn’t integrate well with the more complex talent sourcing processes of businesses. HR leaders of large organizations were largely still tethered to their desktops and operating within the parameters of their approved vendors and recruiters.

The next wave of technology innovation changes this by creating two things: a strong technology backbone that can handle formalized business requirements, and a user experience that meets the needs of the workers themselves.

Companies like Shiftgig and Upwork have built desirable talent pools of on-demand workers that businesses can tap into without disrupting their existing HR workflows or risking compliance compromises. For the gig workers themselves, engaging with these platforms is still as easy as they need it to be, picking up work easily via their phones or online apps.