Opportunity Arises From Human Cloud” Business Model”
Crowdsourcing is having a transformative effect on modern workforce management. Igniting like a wildfire, this emerging practice, often referred to as “the Human Cloud”, applies a popular and innovative business model to the processes associated with the sourcing of contract labor. What is Human Cloud sourcing? How does it work and how will it reshape the face of modern workforce management? Read on to learn more.
The crowdsourcing model for business is perhaps best illustrated by the Uber app for car service. Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know of Uber, that smart phone app for connecting people who own cars with people who need rides in major cities where the app is available. Uber doesn’t own a single car nor does it pay the drivers. The company simply provides the technology platform to connect private parties on both ends of the transaction and collects a fee for so doing.
Uber’s phenomenal success has spawned a revolution, being applied by numerous startup companies applying the crowdsourced labor concept to traditional business models. Companies like Lyft (an Uber taxi service competitor), Shyp for crowdsourced parcel shipping/courier service, and Waze for traffic reporting are all leveraging this exciting new model. It makes sense that employers are intuitively attracted to a similar model for sourcing talent. After all, think of the markups to be avoided by building an app that connects contractors directly to employers. Think of the efficiencies to be gained by leveraging a direct engagement model and the potential to leverage your brand as an employer with a successful, high profile Human Cloud solution!
For small and mid-sized businesses, the opportunity is irresistible. The technology flattens the playing field and provides an organization with limited financial resources to compete on a more or less even plane with the largest employers. The strategy also ties in nicely with another recent advancement in the workforce management industry: EOR services. Almost as if by design, the Employer of Record services cropping up to provide payroll and benefits administration services to companies using contractors are nearly perfectly suited to supporting talent sourced via the Human Cloud. Together, these two emerging business practices may very well represent the “new normal’ for how the contract workforce is managed in the 21st century.
What’s clear is that as an industry, we’re currently in the throes of a shift in the way business is transacted. We’re witnessing in real time, a seismic reconfiguration of the traditional relationship between employers, workers and the intermediaries between them historically serving both groups. With innovation underpinning the “next” in nextSource, our organization tends to lean into the new and potentially transformative. It is part of our DNA. This is why we’re proud to offer EOR services and why we’re enthusiastic about the promise of the Human Cloud model as well. Early adopters of emerging technologies generally tend to capture competitive advantage using powerful and sexy new methods before their widespread adoption dilutes their effectiveness. Are you a bold nextSourcing organization?
