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BLOG 1

Strategies for Managing Workers within the Gig Economy

Written by Kafayat Saheed

Since the advent of online platforms (Kenney and Zysman, 2019) and the emergence of the
Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, there has been a widespread increase in gig workers across the
globe and specifically in the United Kingdom. Gig workers are increasingly contributing to the
United Kingdom economy. As it is today, the United Kingdom gig economy is estimated at 7.25
million which is approximately 22.1% of the total United Kingdom workforce (Office for
National Statistics, 2023).

The gig economy has gradually pushed aside the normal employment relationship between
employee and employer (Lee, Kusbit, Metsky and Dabbish, 2015). Most gig workers are not part
of the organisation (De Stefano, 2016) but they are temporal staff employed to perform certain
functions or services. The fact that organisations do not have formal authority over gig workers
makes it difficult to manage them effectively. Managers will need a few strategies to manage
workers within a gig economy. In this article, you will come across a series of strategies that
managers can employ to manage a gig workforce.

Provide a Performance-based Compensation

In its simplest form, performance-based compensation presupposes an additional compensation

usually paid out to employees that have performed beyond their job requirements at an extremely
high quality. Managers can adopt a performance-based compensation strategy to boost gig
workers morale so that they can perform their jobs diligently. It is a general belief that gig
workers are independent employees who are not entitled for many standard employment benefits
(Williams and Lebsock, 2019). This perception must be changed if managers seek to effectively
manage a gig economy workforce. This is because compensation can help to improve the
performance of gig workers in the future (Cook, Diamond, John and Oyer, 2019) and also induce
desired behaviours (Lieman, 2018). There is no standard of compensation as it can be in form of
prize money or hourly pay.

Create a good Job Design

Job design can also be used by managers to manage a gig economic workforce. Managers must
take conscious efforts to organise tasks and duties of gig workers as this strategy will eliminate
unnecessary job tasks. Gig workers get fed up when do not know the responsibilities and duties
they are expected to carry out. A poorly designed job can set gig workers to fail and do the
wrong thing. This may create a recipe for frustration and a lead to lack of engagement (Kuhn,
2016). In essence, job design provides gig works with the possibility work whenever they want
(Stanford, 2017). Also, most gig workers work remotely because of its flexibility which a good
job design can provide. They prefer working with organisation that has a good design task that
can be completed in time and with minimal failure.
Provide Necessary Trainings

If you want gig workers to do a great job, do not see them as contractors who are not part of
organisation. Just like normal employees, they also need to be trained. One of the reasons why it
is difficult to manage gig workers is that most organisations see gig worker’s training and
development as solely their own responsibility (McKeown, 2016). It must be noted that gig
workers often need personal development to remain current in terms of skills and knowledge
(Peel and Inkson, 2004). Organisations can employ the services of online intermediaries to offer
pre-employment training for gig workers prior to recruitment. Also, you can utilise a few remote
training tools such as eduMe to make your gig workers learn new skills and knowledge.

Ensure Effective Communication

Communication has remained one of the most useful human resource strategies that managers
often use to effectively manage their employees. It is a glaring fact that managing people
effectively, motivating them and handling their situations are communication bound (Mitashree,
2018). A continuous flow of communication must be provided in order to instill a sense of
alignment in a gig worker. You can create a company newsfeed that will help remote workers
stay up-to-date on the business. Gig workers may not be happy when they are not given formal
performance reviews at the end of each assignment. It is through effective communication and
feedbacks that gig workers feel recognised.

Create an Employee Database

Gig workers, just like your permanent employees, have some essential information that need to
be tracked. Creating an employee database for gig workers will enable you to keep track of their
emails, addresses, phone numbers and other relevant information. An employee database
connotes a digital filling cabinet that you can use to store critical employee data, including name,
job position, address and so on. Such employee database will give you a clue of where a gig
worker resides and how jobs are to be allocated to him or her in terms of location (Lieman,
2018). Allocating jobs with long distance may be hectic for an individual gig worker.
References

Cook, C. R., Diamond, J. H., John, A. L, and Oyer, P. (2018). The Gender Earnings Gap in the
Gig Economy: Evidence from over a Million Rideshare Drivers. Working Paper 24732. National
Bureau of Economic Research. https://doi.org/10.3386/w24732.

De Stefano, V. (2015) The rise of the just-in-time workforce: On-demand work, crowdwork, and
labor protection in the gig-economy. Comp. Lab. L. & Pol'y J. 37: 471

Kenney, M., and Zysman, J. (2019). Work and value creation in the platform economy. In Work
and labor in the digital age. Emerald Publishing Limited.

Kuhn, K. M. (2016), The rise of the “Gig Economy” and implications for understanding work
and workers, Industrial and Organizational Psychology, Vol. 9 No. 1, pp. 157-162.

Lee, M. K., Kusbit, L.K., Metsky, O and Dabbish, M.X. (2015) Working with machines: The
impact of algorithmic and data-driven management on human workers. Proceedings of the 33rd
Annual ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. ACM, .

Lieman, R. (2018), Uber Voor Alles, Amsterdam, Business Contact.

McKeown, T. (2016), A consilience framework: Revealing hidden features of the independent

contractor, Journal of Management & Organization, Vol. 22 No. 6, pp. 779-796.

Office for National Statistics, 2023. Gig Economy Statistics United Kingdom.
Peel, S. and Inkson, K. (2004), Contracting and careers: choosing between self and
organizational employment, Career Development International, Vol. 9 No. 6, pp. 542-558.

Stanford, J. (2017), The resurgence of gig work: Historical and theoretical perspectives, The
Economic and Labour Relations Review, Vol. 28 No. 3, pp. 382-401.

Williams, P., McDonald, P., and Mayes, R. (2021). Recruitment in the gig economy: attraction
and selection on digital platforms. The International Journal of Human Resource Management,
32(19), 4136-4162.
BLOG 2

PROVEN TIPS TO ENCOURAGE EMPLOYEE VOICE WITHIN THE WORKPLACE

In the recent past, there has been a growing interest in the notion of employee voice. The topic
has continued to attract many debaters and scholars as the idea of “employee voice” is fast
becoming a global trend in the workplace. Employees constitute a vital engine in the workplace
and their voice is a necessity to build healthy employment relationship (Welch and Jackson,
2007) and understand organisational internal development (Morrison, 2014). Boxall and Purcell
(2003) opined that an employee voice is “a process of empowering employees in order to
directly or indirectly contribute to decision-making in the firm.” It is considered as an
organisational process that enables employees to feel their inputs are taken seriously.

However, the activation of employee voice has been difficult to maintain in some organisations.
Whereas, there is a need for the encouragement of employee voice as it remains a fundamental
tool for sustainable organisational success. This article throws light upon the concept of
employee voice and how it can be encouraged within the workplace.

Employee Voice Defined

The concept of “employee voice” has been conceptualized by many scholars. It is evident that
there is no universally acceptable definition of employee voice due to the fact that scholars have
been inconsistent in their definitions of employee voice. For example, Van Dyne et al. (2003)
defined employee voice as an intentional expression made by an employee about work-related
ideas. Contrarily, Knight and Haslam (2010) remarked that employee voice is actually an
organisational process which ensures that employees are well informed about organization plans
and missions and also have a say about them. Radically, Dundon et al. (2004) postulated that
employee voice connotes an expression of employee dissatisfaction which is often raised with
line manager, especially through grievance procedure. Whichever way it has been defined, this
article contends that employee voice is a fundamental human resource management practice
which is particularly designed to ensure that employees have a “say” in the workplace.
Tips to Encourage Employee Voice

As an essential aspect of human resource management practices, employee voice must be

encouraged and maintained. Here are some proven tips that you can adopt to encourage
employee voice in your organisation.

Involve your Employees in the Decision Making Processes

One of the proven ways to encourage “employee voice” is to involve employees in the decision
making processes of your organisation. It is important to note that the participation of employees
in the decision making process makes them feel that they have a “say” and their voice is being
heard within the workplace. As a manager, it is required of you to know that you should
wholeheartedly embrace employee voice and avoid creating a half-hearted work teams (Nwuche
and Oshi, 2020). Do not always provide your employees with mere information but also create
an avenue or feedback system that will enable them to involve in decision making. When the
employees are not adequately involved in the decision making process, this may be interpreted
that their voice has no utility (Dundon and Gollan, 2007). In some cases, it might be seen as an
action which shows that management is untrustworthy.

Always Seek for Employees’ Opinion

Another important strategy you can adopt to encourage employee voice is by always seeking for
employees’ opinion on an important issue. Employees do have something to say about work-
related issues when they arise; it is therefore necessary for a manager to provide an opportunity
for employees to express an opinion in decision making within the workplace (Wilkinson et al.,
2004). According to Truss et al. (2006), “allowing employees the opportunity to feed their views
and opinions upwards is the single most important driver of engagement”.
Create an Effective Internal Communication System

Employee voice can also be encouraged through the creation of an effective communication
system that will facilitate openness and feedback. According to Constantin and Baias (2015), a
manager should not underestimate the role of internal communication in encouraging employee
voice. To these scholars, an effective internal communication system enables the employees to
understand and comprehend the work policies as well as the organisation mission. The
establishment of an internal communication system will enable employees to have a say and
contribute to wealth of knowledge needed to solving internal problems.

Always Conduct an Employee Survey

The use of employee survey to gather and obtain employees’ opinions and reviews has been
emphasized in the literature (Cox, Zagelmeyer and Marchington, 2006). As a manager, you can
encourage employee voice by constantly conducting an employee survey. This is an essential
employee feedback method which consequently facilitates employee voice. An employee survey
can be conducted through the use of questionnaire. As indicated by Cox et al. (2003) most
organisations have recently made use of an employee survey as a central tenet of employee
voice. With an employee survey, you are likely to provide a snapshot of the thoughts, comments
and opinions of your workers about a rising issue or matter. In other words, the assessment of
your employees’ thoughts and feelings are better done using an employee survey.

Establish an Employee-Centered Leadership Style

Leadership style can signal and encourage employee voice. For example, employee voice is
more encouraged in a transformational leadership (Geary, 2007). However, leadership styles
such as authoritarian or directive may not support employee voice (Wallace and Gunnigle,
2007). In this regard, it is advisable that a manager should establish and encourage employee-
centered leadership styles such as democratic or transformational leadership styles. This is
because a number of researchers have discovered a positive relationship between an employee-
centered leadership style and employee voice (Walumbwa and Schaubroeck, 2009). It is evident
that trade union is more encouraged in An employee-centered leadership style unlike an
authoritarian leadership style that is characterised by union avoidance (Geary and Roche, 2001).

Create Multiple Employee Voice Tools

As a manager, you can also encourage employee voice in your organisation by creating various
employee voice tools. This is a modern human resource management strategy which has often
been utilised by many organisations (McCloskey and McDonnell, 2018). However, it must be
noted that creating multiple employee voice tools may “result in a crowding-out effect, with
some mechanisms negatively affecting other mechanisms” (McCloskey and McDonnell, 2018).
Nevertheless, you can learn how to effectively use these various tools to obtain employee voice.
Also, you must decide on which is best for your organisation whether to adopt a one-on-one
meeting system, suggestion boxes or focus group discussion. With multiple employee voice
tools, an employer can create various avenues through which employees can start helping to
make reasonable suggestions on what to do and what not to.
 References

Boxall, P. and Purcell, J. (2003). Strategy and Human Resource Management. Palgrave
Macmillan: Basing stoke.

Constantin, E.C and Baias, C,C. (2015). Employee Voice: Key Factor in Internal
Communication. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 191 ( 2015 ) 975 – 978

Cox, A, Zagelmeyer, S and Marchington, M (2006) Embedding employee involvement and

participation at work, Human Resource Management Journal, 16 (3), pp 250–67

Dundon T, and Gollan P.J. (2007) Re-conceptualizing voice in the non-union workplace.
International Journal of Human Resource Management 18: 1182–98.
Dundon T, Wilkinson A, Marchington M, and Ackers P (2004) The meanings and purpose of
employee voice. International Journal of Human Resource Management 15: 1149–70.

Geary J, and Roche W. (2001) Multinationals and human resource practices in Ireland: A
rejection of the ‘new conformance thesis’. International Journal of Human Resource
Management 12: 109–27.

Geary J. (2007) Employee voice in the Irish workplace: Status and prospect. In: Freeman RB,
Boxall P and Hayes P (eds) What Workers Say: Employee Voice in the Anglo-American World.
Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 97–124.

Knight, C. and Haslam, S. (2010). Your Place or Mine? Organizational Identification and
Comfort as Mediators of Relationships between the Managerial Control of Workspace and
Employees’ Satisfaction and Well-being. British Journal of Management, 21: 717-735.

McCloskey, C. and A. McDonnell (2018). ‘Channels of employee voice: complementary or

competing for space?’, Industrial Relations Journal, 49, pp. 174–193.
Morrison , E. ( 2014 ). ‘ Employee voice and silence’ , Annual Review of Organizational
Psychology and Organizational Behavior , 1 (1), pp. 173 – 197 .

Nwuche, C.A and Oshi, J.E.O (2020).The Dynamics of Employee Voice: Evidence from
Nigeria. American International Journal of Social Science Vol. 9, No. 1.

Truss, C., Soane, E., Edwards, C., Wisdom, K., Croll, A., and Burnett, J. (2006). Working life:
employee attitudes and engagement. London, Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.

Van Dyne , L. , Ang , S. and Botero , I. C. ( 2003 ). ‘ Conceptualizing Employee Silence and
Employee Voice as Multidimensional Constructs’ , Journal of Management Studies , 40 ( 6 ), pp.
1359 – 1392 .

Wallace J, and Gunnigle P (2007) The Irish trade union movement and European integration:
Past and present. Paper presented at Conference Towards Transnational Trade Union
Representation, National Trade Unions and European Integration, University of Bochum,
Germany.

Welch, M. and P. Jackson (2007). Rethinking internal communication: a stakeholder approach.

Corporate Communication: An International Journal 12(2): 177–98.
BLOG 3

Human Resource Strategies to Manage Employee Disputes

in an Organisation
Employee disputes remain an inevitable (Robbins, 2005) but unpleasing part of organizational
life, which need to be well managed for them not to become exacerbated. When left unresolved,
employee disputes could be detrimental to organizational performance (Mashanne and Glinow,
2008). A number of researches have indicated that employee dispute is a recurring problem in
the workplace. In 2014, a research conducted by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and
Development (CIPD) discovered that 38% of employees in the United Kingdom experienced
interpersonal dispute. Essentially, employee disputes could occur between employees and their
employers or between two or more employees (Teague and Roche 2012).

In whatever form it takes, employee dispute needs to be resolved because it is capable of

resulting in poor company morale. Handling employee disputes in the workplace is a critical
thing that must be done with prudence and cautiousness. As a human resources manager, it is
your duty to figure out the best strategies to avoid employee disputes. Are you a business owner
and you crave to know how you can successfully manage employee disputes? This article sets to
identify the useful ways through which you can curb or manage employee disputes.

There we go!

Provide Trainings on Conflict Resolution Skills

Most organisations utilise training to foster learning among their employees (Bohlander and
Snell, 2010) for the purpose of achieving many organisational goals. In resolving employee
disputes within an organisation, human resources managers often provide trainings in conflict
resolution skills and problem solving skills to ensure the minimization of employee disputes. No
doubt, trainings on conflict resolution skills will improve employees’ capabilities, skills and
knowledge (Mc Kinsey, 2006) on how best to manage disputes when they ensue. Training is also
capable of empowering employees to address conflict proactively.

Adopt a Collaborating Conflict Management Approach

There are a number of conflict management approaches at the disposal of a business manager.
These include compromising, competing, collaborating, accommodating and avoiding (Hughes,
Ginnett and Curphy, 2009). These approaches have their own unique features and come with
diverse merits and demerits. However, this article recommends you with a collaborating
approach. The collaborating conflict management approach is a win-win approach that helps
business owners to minimise negative feelings among workers. This approach allows you and
other members of the organisation to collaborate with one another to identify a lasting solution to
an existing employee dispute. Using this approach, you must identify the conflict issue between
employees and involve all parties concerns, needs, desires and interests. This will enable all
parties to work together to brainstorm solutions that will be a lasting one.

Create an Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR)

As a manager, another essential resource which you can use to support dispute prevention is the
creation of an alternative dispute resolution (ADR). Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) is an
alternative method which is often used to assist disputing parties in resolving recurring
disagreements (Mediation and Conflict Resolution Office, 2004). This system allows a manager
to employ a neutral individual as a mediator. Such mediator is essentially saddled with
responsibility to settle dispute between disputing parties. With an alternative dispute resolution
(ADR), a manager provides an opportunity for employees to minimise the disruptions and stress
associated with dispute. In essence, employees’ complaints are easily processed and resolved
through en effective alternative dispute resolution (Mediation and Conflict Resolution Office,
2004).
Create an Enabling Complaints System

According to a report (Ombudsman, 2009), a complaint is a ““expression of dissatisfaction made

to or about an organisation by an existing employee”. It is necessary for a business manager to
create an enabling complaints system which will make it easy for employees to file a formal
complaint. Consequently, an employee feels his or her needs are met (Bodtker and Jameson,
2001) given the fact that he or she can easily log compliant related to workplace disputes. Not
only that, an enabling complaints system can improve the respond rate of a manager in
determining what action to be taken to prevent resentment among workers.

Work on the Communication Process

Every organisation comprises of people of different perceptions, beliefs and opinions. These
differences often lead to different employee disputes which need to be identified and well
handled in order to maintain good employee relations. For a manager to successfully handle
employee disputes, he or she must understand the role of communication in reducing tension and
prevent dispute from further escalations. As puts by Yu-Chih, (2011), “managing people
effectively, motivating them and handling their situations are communication bound”. This
implies that there must be an effective communication process that will enable employees to
express their grievances. It is understood that many employee disputes are borne of
misunderstanding due to lack of communication (Taur, et al. 2022). Therefore, the absence of a
workable communication system within the workplace may exacerbate the problem of employee
disputes.

Be Decisive

One major fact that you should is that employee dispute, when effectively handled, have the
potential to boost organisational performance. On the other hand, it employee dispute can
jeaopadise or interrupt operations and consequently decrease productivity (Brodtker, et al, 2001).
This justifies the reason why you should take action when necessary. As remarked by Garcie-
Herrero (2012), employee disputes can be best solved through an active approach which enables
the manager to recognise a dispute and pay attention to the conflicting parties. In this regard, a
manager should be decisive on both functional and dysfunctional disputes.

Create a Lasting Solution

As a manager, you have a great role to play in solving employee dispute and prevent it
recurrence. A manager must strive to always create a lasting solution that is acceptable to both
sides. It is presumed that a lasting and comprehensive solution prevent employees to behave like
“stone wall” (Scott, 2011). In this regard, you must encourage an open discussion between
conflicting parties and have them state their interests. This will create a sense of belonging for
both sides and prevent stonewalling that may further create hard feelings (Scott, 2011). Solutions
must be able to produce justice and fairness. This is because “justice and fairness encourages
positive attitudes and facilitates conflict management” (Rahim, 2002). To create a just and fair
judgment, it is the onus of the manager to ensure a brainstorming solution that will help the
organisation to gather multiple ideas for resolving employee dispute and come up with a lasting
solution.
 References

Bohlander G. and Snell S. (2010), Managing Human Resources, South-Western Cengage

Learning, 5191 Natorp Boulevard Mason, OH 45040 USA

Garcie-Herrero, S. (2012). Working conditions, Psychological, physical symptoms and

occupational accidents”. Bayesian network models, safety science. 50 (9), 1760-1774.

Hughes, R., Ginnett, R. and Curphy, G. (2009). “Leadership: Enhancing the Lessons of
Experience”. 6th edn. New York: McGraw Hill.

Mc Kinsey Quarterly (2006), “An executive take on the top business trends”, a Mc Kinsey
Global Survey.

Mcshane, S.L and Glinow, M.A. (2008). Organizational Behaviour. New York: McGraw – Hill
Companies.

Mediation and Conflict Resolution Office (2004) The Use of Alternative Dispute Resolution
(ADR) in Maryland Business: A Benchmarking Study. Maryland Chamber of Commerce.

Rahim, M. A., 2002. Toward a theory of managing organizational conflict. The international
journal of conflict management, 206-235.

Robbins, S. (2005). Organizational Behavior: New Jersey: Prentice Hall.

Taur A. D., Ashtaputre A.A., Gaikwad U. S.,. Bhutekar S.V., Bochare B. R., Sheikh M. R.,
Talware S. L. and Ambhore A. M. (2020). Conflict Management skills at Workplace. Indian
Journal of Social Sciences and Literature Studies Vol. 8, Issue 1,

Teague, P, and Roche, W.K (2012). Line Managers and the Management of Workplace Conflict:
Evidence from Ireland. Human Resources Management Journal, 22(3).
Yu-Chih L, J., (2011). Relationships among interpersonal conflict, requirements uncertainty, and
software project performance. International Journal of Project Management. 29, 547-556.
 Appendix 1

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 Appendix II

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