By Menno Bart, Senior Manager Public Affairs, The Adecco Group
The world of work is inevitably becoming more flexible and agile. Companies have a need to quickly adapt to changing market situations as workers demand more flexibility that they experienced during the pandemic. One of the results of this is that companies will start using various ways to engage talents: short-term or zero-hour contracts, freelancers (whether via a platform or via offline channels), agency workers, or even via providers offering outsourcing services.
Luckily, there are existing solutions that can be scaled to facilitate these profound changes in workforce management. Each of these forms of work can be attractive for workers and for companies, and it is important to ensure labour market regulation that enables this.
Simultaneous with these labour market trends, there is another pervasive development that companies need to account for, and that is a drive towards more sustainable business behaviour. This is urged by expectations of investors, customers, candidates and employees, as well as by regulatory requirements.
Sustainable behaviour implies that in their operations, companies take into account the wider impact they have on the world in which they operate. This impact is summarized by the widely known acronym ESG: Environment, Social, and Governance. In our view, when it comes to the Social part of ESG, what is needed is a truly Sustainable Employment model.
Sustainable Employment means that companies take into account the full work-life journey of their workers. This starts with a recruitment process that is fair and equitable, onboarding, re- and upskilling to set people up with the skills they need to grow, and of course fair remuneration and benefits for all workers.
More and more companies feel a need to go above and beyond in giving their employees what they need and deserve. The current talent scarcity surely helps accelerate that trend. The next step in that process is for companies to realize that they have a broader responsibility than just for their core workforce. Beyond the purely legal obligation, there is a moral imperative for companies to look at the impact they have on people who are executing work for them, even if they might not be directly employed.
Platform work and other forms of flexibility can bring a lot of value to both workers and companies. Companies should realize, however, that they have a choice in how to use platform work or freelance workers. I strongly believe that creating more clarity in the platform work space will help companies make more responsible and sustainable choices.
Although the final shape of the European Platform Work Directive is not clear yet, it is fairly obvious that it will include significant action to avoid bogus self-employment. Until now, it was often too complex for responsible employers to know where to draw the line between employment and self-employment, and it was too easy for those of ill will to abuse the grey areas. Similarly, the platform work directive, together with the European AI Act, creates more clarity around the use of algorithms in assigning work and managing workers, even those who are not directly employed by a company.
Platform work is a political hot potato, and the pinnacle of current debates on how to organize work. I strongly believe that this discussion can and should not be seen in isolation however. Platform work is only one symptom of a changing labour market. The more fundamental discussion is how societies can organize flexibility in a sustainable way.
Once legal clarity has been established by incoming legislations such as the Platform Work Directive, it may create more space for companies to think about how they want to treat those workers who are not employed by them, but who do perform work for them in the value chain. There are many intermediaries such as platforms, workforce solutions providers / agencies, and benefits providers who all stand ready to support employers in finding the best solutions for all workers. Only by joining forces across the labour market ecosystem will we create sustainable employment.
* The blog is published a part of the Reshaping Work efforts to stimalute timely debate. The opinions and views expressed in this publication are those of the authors. They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of Reshaping Work.