How To Manage External Workers

A recent piece in MIT’s Sloan Management Review discusses some of the issues surrounding many businesses’ increasing reliance on external workers like contractors, freelance workers, and gig employees.

‍

In order to best address these issues and optimize the use of external workers in pursuit of your organization’s goals, the authors propose conducting a 4 step process: First, companies should compare costs and benefits associated with choosing an external worker to fill a given role, including financial concerns as well as potential internal knowledge loss. Second, very clearly lay out expectations for the role in question since external oversight can be more limited. Third, make sure the management system that’s put into place still makes collaboration and coordination intuitive within the workflow of both internal and external staff. And finally, establish an open feedback channel so that these processes can be refined on an ongoing basis as the needs of the business and external employees both continue to evolve. 

‍

You can read that piece here.