BUILDING THE ON-DEMAND WORKFORCE Companies can transform their talent model— and business strategy—by using digital talent platforms to access highly skilled freelancers. Joseph B. Fuller Allison Bailey Manjari Raman Nithya Vaduganathan James Palano Elizabeth Kaufman Renée Laverdière Sibley Lovett About the authors Harvard Business School Joseph B. Fuller is a Professor of Management Practice at Harvard Business School. He co-chairs the HBS Project on Managing the Future of Work and is a visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. Manjari Raman is a Program Director and Senior Researcher for Harvard Business School’s Project on Managing the Future of Work as well as the Project on U.S. Competitiveness. James Palano was a Research Associate on the Project on Managing the Future of Work. The authors thank Research Associates Brad DeSanctis and Ria Mazumdar for their support on this report. Boston Consulting Group Allison Bailey is a Managing Director and Senior Partner and the Global Leader of BCG’s People and Organization practice. Nithya Vaduganathan is a Managing Director and Partner in BCG’s Education, Employment, and Welfare Leadership Team and the Public Sector practice. She is also a BCG Fellow on the Future of Work at the Bruce Henderson Institute. Elizabeth Kaufman is a Managing Director and Partner and core member of the Global People and Organization Leadership Team. Renée Laverdière is a Partner in BCG’s Education, Employment, and Welfare Leadership Team and People and Organization practice. Sibley Lovett is a Project Leader at BCG. The authors thank Partner Diana Dosik and Associates Sofia Kinney and Victor Fu for their support on this report. The views expressed in this paper are the sole responsibility of the authors and not meant to represent the views of Harvard Business School, Harvard University, or Boston Consulting Group. Acknowledgments and disclosures The authors would like to acknowledge funding support for this project from the Division of Research and Faculty Development at HBS and pro-bono, in-kind support and expertise from BCG. The Boston Consulting Group, Inc. (“BCG”) has confidentiality obligations with its clients that prohibit it from disclosing client-specific relationships. BCG either may provide or does provide services to, has partnerships with, or has other relationships of a commercial or noncommercial nature with organizations cited in this report, either in the past or the future. Joseph Fuller is a compensated observer on the board of directors of Catalant Technologies, Inc. Please direct inquiries to: Harvard Business School: Manjari Raman ([email protected]) Boston Consulting Group: Nithya Vaduganathan ([email protected]) Suggested citation: Fuller, J., Raman, M., Bailey A., Vaduganathan N., et al (November 2020). Building the on-demand workforce. Published by Harvard Business School and BCG. Report design: Terberg Design LLC HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL WOULD LIKE TO ACKNOWLEDGE THE SUPPORT OF THE TONY TAMER (MBA 1986) RESEARCH FUND FOR MANAGING THE FUTURE OF WORK. Executive summary 2 Rise of the high-skills freelancer economy 4 The on-demand workforce: The transition imperative 9 The on-demand workforce: The transformation challenge 13 Building the on-demand workforce: A strategic approach 20 Building the on-demand workforce: An action agenda 25 Appendix: Survey methodology 27 MANAGING THE ON-DEMAND WORKFORCE 1 Executive summary MusThe right assimi, talent, expel in the ipsum right place, dolorit at theere (TheDunt adresearch unt volo did optiore not includenectae. Etdigital volupti platforms onsequamet such nusapicatiumright time, is the voloreribus,equation for success sed eum in asaudant. Uber, Amazon Mechanical Turk, and TaskRabbit, which connect consumers directly to large numbers today’s world. 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