零工经济再不只服务于初创企业

跑腿工作外包网站TaskRabbit的崛起、Lyft司机以及Postmates快递员已经为大家所熟悉，对此也出现了许多针对性探讨，但大家能想到吗？世界上一些最大的公司里也开始出现打零工的人。越来越多的《财富》500强企业以及三星这样的跨国公司开始在Upwork和PeoplePerHour等在线自由职业市场招募设计师、营销人员、IT专才以及其他专业人员。

牛津大学经济社会学家、副教授威利·莱顿维塔说：“这些大公司对自由职业平台的使用程度之深令人惊讶。”莱顿维塔正在研究网络自由职业平台及其对劳动力组织方式的影响。一年来，这些平台上的外包项目总数增加了26%。莱顿维塔指出，虽然我们通常认为使用这些平台的是初创公司和小企业，但越来越多的大公司也开始转向这些平台。他说：“这种情况有可能产生实质性影响。”本周二，莱顿维塔及其同事格莉塔·科波拉尔在牛津大学互联网研究所的报告中发表了他们的研究结果。该报告题为《外包平台：《财富》500强公司怎样使用在线自由职业平台，莱顿维塔和科波拉尔在其中详细探讨了九家大公司的情况。

十多年以前上线的自由职业平台Upwork（当时用的是另一个名字）也注意到了这种趋势。该公司CEO斯特芳·卡斯雷尔说：“直到几年前，我们看到的大多数公司还都非常小，员工数量也许只有100人。”现在，这个平台上的大公司对自由职业者的需求是如此之大，以至于Upwork计划将“企业团队”的规模扩大一倍，以满足大公司的需要（Upwork目前和20%的《财富》500强公司建立了合作关系）。

依靠一批外部自由职业者看似和现代企业的需求以及价值相悖，因为人们常说人才和留住人才是现代企业的根本。同时，它们还得保护知识产权并保持自己的文化（文化本该吃定公司策略才对）。

莱顿维塔认为这些价值观正在发生改变。大公司已经开始青睐更“开放的边界”，并把自由职业者视为新想法的源泉和更广阔世界（更确切地说，它们所在的整个行业）的“知识传递者”。莱顿维塔说：“企业变得更加开放，目的是推动知识的创造。”他还指出，在使用这些平台方面最有心得的公司已经为自己汇聚了一批很有价值的专家，在需要时就可以去找他们。

企业还希望找到更灵活的低成本招聘途径，自由职业平台则让它们如愿以偿。这正是三星临时人才部门负责人凯思琳·尼尔森去年初找上Upwork的原因。尼尔森说，当时三星的主服务提供商出现了产能缺口，安排人员的过程往往又很耗费时间，特别是在三星需要找人来完成紧急项目的时候。虽然在Upwork上进行的尝试最初受到了内部质疑，但参与本次“试点”的三星业务团队对结果感到满意。这家电子巨擘还省了一笔钱——尼尔森说，Upwork为三星节省了60%的成本，并将走行政程序的时间缩短了64%。另外，人员入职速度是传统方法的七倍（Upwork为企业客户承担了很大一部分管理工作，包括发工资和签署保密协议）。目前三星正在让自由职业平台发挥更多作用。尼尔森说：“我确实相信这就是未来。”她认为在线人才模式适合年轻工作者的品味和预期。像三星这样公开表示接纳在线人才的公司寥寥无几——在牛津大学的这次研究中，三星是唯一披露自己身份的大公司。

自由职业岗位通常不享受正式员工的福利，也不像后者那样得到其他保护，这种岗位不断增多一直是近年来许多论述的主题。CEO卡斯雷尔说，Upwork等平台对自由职业者和企业招聘团队应该都有帮助。

莱顿维塔指出，虽然使用自由职业平台可能颠覆组织劳动者的方式，但这种情况尚未出现。而且即使出现这种局面，也需要建立一个全新的生态系统来支持这些独立就业者。对公司来说，这里存在协调成本，也就是管理内部员工以及和外部劳动者互动带来的双重挑战。对个人来说，这里存在风险，而且没有多少支持，这样的机制会产生赢家和输家。莱顿维塔说：“如果你是专业自由职业者，你就可以在世界上的任何地方工作，而且有灵活性，收入也很好。但如果没有任何拿得出手的技能，而是因为别无他法才到这些平台上来……那你就得接受培训。”

他指出，这样一个系统或许可以消除劳动力市场中的一些不公平现象，比如给某些精英学校的学位赋予的溢价，但也会带来其他不公平问题，比如在某些平台上完成项目较多的人得到的溢价。但大家还不用立即为此感到担心。莱顿维塔认为，目前大公司使用在线自由职业者并不是为了取代自己的核心员工，而是作为核心员工的补充，并且通常是为了特殊项目。他说：“你需要内部员工来承载公司文化。”也就是说，朝九晚五还不会马上过时。（财富中文网）

译者：Charlie

The rise of the TaskRabbit, the Lyft driver, the Postmates delivery man are well-known and much discussed, but guess what? Gig workers are coming to some of the world’s largest corporations too. Increasingly Fortune 500 companies and global giants like Samsung are turning to online freelancing platforms like Upwork and PeoplePerHour to find designers, marketing staff, IT specialists and other knowledge workers.

“It’s surprising how far some of these very large enterprises are in adopting these platforms,” says Vili Lehdonvirta, an economic sociologist and associate professor at the University of Oxford, who is studying online freelancing platforms and their effects on the way workforces are organized. In the past 12 months, the total number of projects sourced using such platforms increased 26%. He says that while we typically think of start-ups and small businesses using such platforms, increasingly large firms are turning to them too. “That is something that could have real impact,” he says. Lehdonvirta and his colleague Gretta Corporaal on Tuesday published research on the subject—they looked closely at 9 large companies—in a report by the Oxford Internet Institute, “Platform Sourcing: How Fortune 500 Firms Are Adopting Online Freelancing Platforms.”

Upwork, the online freelancing platform that launched (under a different name) more than a decade ago, has noticed this trend as well. “Until a couple years ago, we mostly saw very small companies, with maybe as few as 100 employees ” says CEO Stephane Kasriel. Now, there’s so much demand from large firms for freelancers on its platform that Upwork is planning to double the size of the “enterprise team” that caters to them. (Upwork currently works with 20% of Fortune 500 companies.)

Leaning on a crew of outside freelancers may seem antithetical to the needs and values of the modern corporation, for which talent—and retaining it—is often said to be everything. There’s also intellectual property to protect and culture (which is supposed to be eating strategy for breakfast) to maintain.

Lehdonvirta says these values are shifting; large firms have begun to appreciate more “permeable borders” and to see freelance workers as a source of fresh ideas and “knowledge transfer” from the wider world (better yet, their broader industry). “Enterprises have become more open to facilitate knowledge creation,” he says, adding that the savviest of platform-using firms build a bench of these highly valued experts that they can call upon as needed.

Corporations are also looking for more flexible and low-cost ways to hire, which freelancing platforms make possible. This is what led Cathleen Nilson, head of On Demand Talent at Samsung to turn to Upwork early last year. The company’s master service provider had capability gaps—particularly when it came to staffing quick-turnaround projects—and a lengthy engagement process in general, says Nilson. Though the Upwork experiment was initially met with internal skepticism, the business teams involved in the piloting of the platform at Samsung were pleased with the results. The electronics giant also saved money—using the platform achieved 60% cost savings and reduced administrative time by 64%, says Nilson. The onboarding process was also seven times faster than with traditional models, she adds. (Upwork handles much of the administrative burden for its enterprise customers, from payrolling to handling non-disclosure agreements.) Samsung is now expanding its use of freelancing platforms. “I really believe this is the future,” says Nilson, who notes the online talent model fits the tastes and expectations of younger workers. Few companies are as open about embracing online talent as Samsung; it was the only large corporation involved in the Oxford study to reveal itself.

The rising number of freelance positions, which typically lack benefits and other protections that come with being a full-time employee, has been the subject of much handwringing in recent years. Kasriel says platforms like Upwork should benefit both the freelancers and the corporations hiring them.

Lehdonvirta says that while the use of freelancing platforms could disrupt the way workforces are organized, that hasn’t happened yet—and a whole new ecosystem will have to develop to support an independent workforce if it does. For corporations, there are coordination costs—the challenges that come with managing both an internal workforce and interfacing with an external one. And for workers, there is risk and not a lot of support—a system that produces winners and losers. “If you’re a skilled freelancer, you can work anywhere in the world with flexibility and good earnings, but if you don’t possess any marketable skills and you’re driven to platforms out of desperation...you'll have to upskill” says Lehdonvirta.

He notes that such a system may mitigate some inequalities in the labor market—the premium placed on degrees from certain elite institutions, for example—while creating others, like the premium placed on those who have performed more tasks on certain platform. But you don’t need to fret about that just yet. Lehdonvirta says large enterprises are at this point using online freelancers not to replace their core workforces, but to complement them, usually for special project work, he says. “You need the in-house employees to carry the culture,” Lehdonvirta says. That means the 9-5 isn’t obsolete just yet.