What is the Gig Economy? At the dawn of the 2010’s, the world saw a rapid increase in the development of new technologies that changed the world as we knew it. Organisations across all industries started to leverage upon this technology to drive their business further forward into the 21st century. This has not only brought about opportunities for businesses, but for individuals too.In the US alone, nearly 16.5 million people are working in 'contingent' or 'alternative work arrangements'. Increments in such sorts of working arrangement has given rise to what we now know as the Gig Economy. With the Gig Economy, Human Resource processes that have served companies for decades have to be altered. Increasingly, the world economy is highly susceptible to external factors, for instance, COVID-19. Situations like these have forced businesses to reconsider their operations and as such has caused many organisations to look toward newer, mobile technologies to survive adverse working environments. Undoubtedly, there is a new need for greater, and more efficient management of resources and without proper preparation, a once successful company may get left behind in this new digital and on-the-go age of the Gig Economy. What does this mean for HR Operations? Efficient Attendance Tracking As the world continues to digitalise, gone are the days of manual data collection and storage as more companies look towards newer and more innovative measures such as biometrics. This means no more punch-cards, no more sign in-and-out sheets and a reduction in unnecessary administration work. This additionally helps companies reduce their carbon footprint, as consumers and stakeholders grow more concerned about measures of sustainability. At QuickHR, we use our own state-of-the-art Biometric system for attendance tracking, overtime calculation and monitoring store traffic. With the Gig Economy, many employees are working from home or off-site. Manually documenting all these is tough, not to mention a waste of paper, time and other resources. By using a Biometric facial recognition device no matter where employees are working, all data collected will automatically be transferred into the attendance & scheduling function in a HR System, fully integrated with other functions such as leave and claims. Consequently, this means a more efficient way of working, both for general employees, managers and HR staff. Such a method of tracking employee attendance is undoubtedly the way to go to keep up with the fast-paced business world of the Gig Economy. Flexible Payroll Systems In 2020, it was reported that there were 211,000 Gig workers in Singapore, up from 200,000 in 2016. Additionally, 80% of individuals from this group indicated that freelance work was their primary source of income. This suggests that slowly but surely, the popularity of traditional work is on the decline.