Project-Based Jobs — Is It the Future of Recruitment?

One of our team members recently got back from the vacation. He admitted that instead of visiting family members he stayed for a week in the apartments and binge-watched TV shows. He is interested in the production part and, Hollywood can teach you a surprising amount about teamwork trends.

When a reality tv show is produced, a team comes together to work on one project — and then they move onto separate projects after it’s finished. Despite the feeling that it’s disjoint, this approach in reality allows producers to create the perfect team based on their skills set, working style and main interests. The shared sense of purpose enables the team to create high-quality product.

Behind the scenes

The rise of project-based roles over full-time positions has caused seismic shifts in the recruitment industry. In 2014, The Guardian announced that the influx of casual workers across Australia is growing at a dizzying rate, and fixed-term and project-based contracts now affect an estimated 35% of all workers.

For companies disrupted by technology or coping with change-management processes, project workers are a subset of the workforce that has several significant advantages: mobility, agility, and set of skills. These roles are much more beneficial from the financial point of view, and by implementing them, you can create a faster way to identify talent gaps.

Google organizes much of its work into projects which means project team effectiveness equals productivity. Software developers have been following this “agile working practice” for years now. Developers work in small groups, potentially with people dotted the world over, in a series of sprints with short-term targets that build towards an end goal. When the project ends, the team disconnects, and members join other project teams.

According to Josh Bersin, principal of Bersin by Deloitte, this model is closer to the way we actually work today. A combination of digitization, globalization and increasing VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity) in the world are driving the need for greater innovation, better performance and the ability to become more customer-centric to stay competitive. Rather than fixed, hierarchical silos and departments, companies are increasingly operating in what Bersin calls a “network of teams,” each of which is small, nimble and productive.

Source: Bersin

But will this scheme work in the future? Let’s see why it can

Greater Agility

Business leaders know that competitive edge is on an ability to address skills shortages and quickly implement changes. More and more corporations are adopting a startup mindset when rolling out a major project or launching a new initiative. Hiring a project worker with specific expertise and professional achievements over a full-time employee who needs training is the fastest way to bridge the talent gap while moving quickly towards short-term goals and it also can disrupt an organization’s structure.

Recruitment

In a traditional company, job descriptions are static and well-defined: someone is hired for a particular role with special responsibilities. But in this team-based universe, employees will not stick in one position, but move between teams, requiring HR leaders to rethink who they hire. So when it comes to recruitment, HR needs to create job titles and descriptions that are much broader to show the fact that people may work across different teams.

Instant innovation

Project-based workers often bring skills and experience gleaned from a range of challenging roles. In many cases, they’ve worked across several industries, countries, and projects — a quality that develops flexibility, new ideas and an understanding of the best practice. The value of project workers also derives from their ability to see innovation as a part of their working method rather than a buzzword. Conclusively, this ability to bring new ideas to the table and roll them out quickly is a catalyst for gaining an advantage over competitors. A significantly old article in the Harvard Business Review show that although some temporary workers were facing issues securing full-time employment, others were choosing this option to widen their skill set, broaden their experience or design a career that provided more attractive prospects and fulfills them the most.

To conclude, the rise of project-based work raises interesting questions about the relationship between the employee’s shifting values and the employer’s long-term goals. Personal and professional growth play an essential role in today’s recruitment market, and these shifts are inevitable. People don’t want to stay in one company for a whole life doing the same thing every day, and they want to study, develop new skills and show their progress to the world.

For those, modern and proactive people we created Aworker — the platform that helps to find the most suitable company and job position based on your psycho-type, professional skills, and achievements. Aworkers are no longer tied up to one job, company, city or even continent. The catch here is that you have to prove the data you write about by attaching certificates or other verifying documents. Also if there’s nothing that makes you want to quit the current job that you don’t actually adore, you still can get a reward by recommending a friend or acquaintances for open positions (they’ll be rewarded even if they won’t get a job after the interview). To find out more about the project, visit this page.

Let me know what do you think about project-based and traditional work schemes in the comments!