Leveraging the Gig Economy to Augment IT Staff in Higher Ed

Chad Stiller, Associate Director of Information Technology, Northern Arizona University

Higher Education has shown itself to be susceptible to the “great resignation” or “great reshuffle” occurring in the wake of the COVI19 pandemic. The effects of this process have been significant but not uniformly distributed as some job types have demonstrated higher rates of turnover, in particular in-demand technical skill sets within Information Technology (IT). IT staff are leaving to take roles that offer significant salary increases as well as greater flexibility and progression opportunities.

Compounding the problem of experienced staff leaving is the lack of qualified applicants applying for vacant positions. Positions that would once attract dozens of candidates are seeing zero applications, or at best a handful that barely meet minimum qualifications. One reason for this phenomenon is that a significant number of individuals are pursuing freelance work in lieu of full-time employment.

While not a traditional approach in Higher Ed, augmenting staff with freelancers forming the “gig economy” is becoming an increasingly attractive option considering contemporary recruitment and retention issues. Bringing freelance staff onboard provides flexible and agile resources that can be utilized to address specific project needs or technical skillsets that are compromised due to full time staff turnover. One of its great advantages is in allowing an institution to quickly identify, vet, and hire a worker with the specific abilities needed at an exact point in time. This relieves the internal pressure on training and building depth of bench around skills which may be hard to find or not required year-round. Organizations looking to utilize this model will need to be aware of the direct and indirect costs, be cognizant of where these resources are best utilized, and ensure that proper engagement management is in place.

A variety of online marketplaces exist to facilitate connecting freelance technical staff with organizations looking for hourly/weekly/monthly or project-based engagements. Direct costs can range from $20-$180+ per hour, with more experienced participants and in-demand abilities commanding the higher end of the scale. Marketplace fees and retainer structures also impact direct cost, but these costs are offset by reduced institutional overhead in paying benefits, providing equipment, and in some cases allocating physical space. The flexibility to start and stop these short-term engagements as demand and budget permits allows for a more granular level of budgetary control as well as the ability to readily tie costs to specific programs, projects, or services. This level of transparency is often difficult for institutions to attain and presents an opportunity to better articulate IT costs across the board.

Organizations will need to develop clear scope and provide concise expectations around deliverables in order to maximize the value of a freelance engagement. This is no different than traditional third-party vendor arrangements, as clarity is necessary to avoid cost overruns and ensure deliverables are met in the time expected. As gig workers are “one stop shops” with no support team of other experts around them, it is even more critical to be clear with expectations. To facilitate this, it is prudent to involve internal technical staff in evaluating work and identifying which portions are readily suited for an external resource. Tasks that involve technologies highly customized to the organization are still candidates for a freelance engagement, but onboarding and management time will need to be adjusted to accommodate the greater complexity.

Expectations around the effectiveness of gig worker resources must also be carefully managed in order to control indirect costs. While a freelancer may bring years of experience to the engagement, time will still need to be invested to educate them as to specifics of the institution’s environment.

Quality control must be maintained which will often require internal review if not outright control of when and how changes are moved into production environments. Circumstances will vary but it is important to identify and articulate the operating and opportunity cost of allocating limited internal resources to engaging and managing the work of a freelancer. This factor becomes increasingly critical as freelancers turnover frequently and the same one may not be utilized over multiple engagements.

"Expectations around the effectiveness of gig worker resources must also be carefully managed in order to control indirect costs"

Additional indirect costs exist in the limitations it creates in building institutional knowledge as the freelancer will take much of what they have learned with them as they leave for their next engagement. Good documentation and knowledge sharing with internal staff helps offset this, but only if built into the agreement and properly overseen to ensure it meets expectations. In a similar fashion, the high-rotation/high-volume world of a freelance worker makes loyalty to the institution and bonding within the team difficult. While not a required construct, loyalty and connection to an organization facilitates better results from all parties. Sending some institutional swag as part of the engagement and spending time around the intrinsic value of the work during onboarding may pay dividends.

Another area to address in effective usage of freelance workers is in lowering institutional barriers of entry. This necessitates rethinking historic and outmoded ways of operating to facilitate the speed and agility that is the hallmark of these engagements. While core precepts of confidentiality and security must never be violated, finding opportunities to reduce or remove obstacles in procuring, onboarding, training, and managing these workers will lower cost and increase efficiency. Some of these will require conversations with and policy changes from partners in Human Resources and Contracts &

Procurement, but quick wins can be found in IT controlled areas such as affiliate management and software development practices. Doing so will not only allow organizations to leverage external resources more effectively, it may also carry over to internal improvements.

Even with these caveats there is distinct value in utilizing freelance workers to augment internal staff resources as a means to execute operational and strategic initiatives. The ability to manage cost, bring specific skills to bear, and rapidly augment internal teams are powerful motivators. Higher Education institutions looking to embrace this approach will need careful engagement management, an understanding of direct & indirect costs, and the insight to apply this method to the right efforts. Doing so will create a modern and blended working environment in which the most talented resources, regardless of their HR designation, are leveraged in solving complex problems and improving student outcomes.

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