Employers and their 21st Century workforces...
It's 2020 and everyone is saying this will be the next roaring 20's.
The 1920s defined the 20th Century. It saw the final throes of Royal rule around the world, the emergence of a knowledge economy, the birth of liberal democracy, the triumph of democracy over facism in the space between two world wars, transformative financial crashes (most recently in 2008), and the birth of modern art, music, and global culture.
At Turning Basin Labs (TBL) we are interested in the question of ‘work’.
Taking that a step further, we are interested in how we treat workers in the modern economy.
The 2020's offer an opportunity to create an inclusive, thriving global economy, if we accept that it's time to genuinely transition power from stale, pale, male corporate leaders to a more inclusive generation of business leaders who recognize the value of combining profit with purpose
At TBL we are a cooperative staffing agency that knows that greater value is generated when companies invest in their people and in the case of Bay Area contractors, we are building a business model to support this ‘new world of work’.
To this end we think it's critical that all employers who embrace a flexible workforce, embrace these contract “temp” workers equally to their permanent “full-time” colleagues.
The two-tiered system of worker classification (temp vs full time) in America is failing our workforce. At TBL, we see this on the front lines of the Bay Area gig economy, where the rules, like AB5 compliance, are rewriting the labor code in ways that are creating massive income instability for gig and contract workers in particular.
It’s time to embrace a third employment “gender” (if you will) between “W2” or “1099”. It’s time to embrace a perspective on labor and tax laws that acknowledges that not everyone ‘works’ the same as everyone else, and that that’s a good thing, and most importantly, that that’s a good thing for businesses and workers.
We know higher productivity is tied to worker profit sharing– but this has almost always been unavailable to most contract “temp” workers, who don’t have a seat at the table.
So where do we start?
How do employers work profitably and responsibly with their 21st century flexible workforces?
- Putting your people first is the best investment you can make. We like to say “stay close to the money” because it is very clarifying about how employers are treating their workers. Are contract workers receiving equal benefits to full-time employees? Where we shortchange any portion of our workforce, we shortchange everyone. A commitment to the highest standards and lifelong learning are built into our cooperative workers bones, because we know that high performance and continuous improvement are the reality of a 21st century workforce. We suggest giving contract workers support during COVID 19 is good but going further could generate even more benefits for companies, it has to be week in week out. Productivity, commitment and quality can all increase if we lean in and support contract workers more.
- Embrace Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in an authentic way not just because everyone is doing it. The question of inclusion for Bay Area employers has been top of the agenda for 3-4 years, yet there are still manifold challenges holding most Silicon Valley companies back (compliance, executive buy-in, perceived costs). Diversity at leadership of organizations in the Bay Area is still lacking, efforts seem geared towards entry level and junior roles. Further, DEI roles and functions have emerged but in some instances it can feel like distinct leads with limited budget, limited team and not sitting on the Exec means an opportunity could be missed to really empower these roles to have an impact, which makes us think should DEI roles be more integrated in Chief Strategy roles or Chief People roles? Going a step further it might be that helping people to understand diversity might require deep and immersive experiences to help employers ‘feel’ things rather than just read about them.
- Make it Business as Usual (BAU) as soon as possible, especially with a lot of this work it starts as pilots and programming and needs to grow to scale. Following this the goal is how to take things to scale, and in the case of powering your workers, the sooner you can mainstream things in your business the sooner they become artifacts in your business, that are recognised as fact and truth. Making it BAU is no easy feat but is possible. We are really interested in exploring how to do this work at scale. How do we make it stick? How do we move beyond the box ticking, and token events to hard wiring this approach into how our employers do business and how workers experience things. For example you see this challenge unfolding at Google, as it has unfolded at company’s before it, and as will be the case for many more after it. At TBL we want to help offer such movements to workers outside of their workplaces and ideally collaborate with workplaces to facilitate such discussions effectively. We’ve set out a series of events and activities here, and we’re keen on feedback and learning so that we keep refining these activities going forward.
- The benefits are various - Our benefits are various but clear. We want to offer all our workers benefits counseling, in-work support, and community so that they have the tools and resources they need, they can perform and be productive, and ultimately they can build strong and sustainable professional relationships with their employers of choice. Some of the in-work supports we are building out include access to salary negotiation support, travel support, career coaching, CA benefits counseling, and stress management services. We also provide community, a local network of workers with access to knowledge and social capital to help Bay Area workers navigate their careers.
Our ultimate goal at Turning Basin Labs (TBL) is to maximize value for both high-road employers and workers. The world has changed and how people learn and earn has changed. There are only so many events, pats on the back, and research pieces we can publish - we need to take action, learn from that action and grow that action.
So ask yourself, is your hiring strategy and culture positioned well to contribute to the global economy? Are you prepared to thrive in the gig economy? Do you want to be genuine and authentic in how you grow an inclusive business? Get in touch we’d like to help.
