Leveraging the Pros of the Gig Economy : How IT departments in manufacturing companies meet their consultant needs

Sammanfattning: The gig economy can be described as a temporary work-environment where an independent workforce uses platforms to find and draw income from work. In 2016, 20-30% of US and Europe’s population took part in some kind of independent work, and the amount of selfemployed in Sweden is growing. However, at what rate it grows differs depending on how these workers are defined. Within the gig economy, the fastest growing areas of work are in knowledge intensive- and creative environments such as consulting. Using gig consultants provides companies access to top talent within IT, which is required in many businesses and industries where digitalisation is disrupting their ways of working. One of these industries is manufacturing, where e.g. servitisation and Industry 4.0 makes the companies more digital and connected. The purpose of this thesis was to understand how manufacturing companies handle their external talent management and demand for consultant hires within IT, both now and in the future as the amount of gig consultants increases. This was done by conducting interviews with representatives from five Swedish manufacturing companies within automotive and machinery. The interviewees had different roles, but were or had been responsible for hiring consultants within IT. The empirics gained from the interviews were combined with theory, mainly on talent management and managing external talent. The main findings from the study were that in most cases, the companies do not choose between a consultant and a gig consultant, they rather look for the right competence. Gig consultants are however seen as more of experts and can specifically be hired when frontedge or niched competence is needed. On the other hand, consultants can be used when a complete solution has to be delivered as the capacity of a consultancy is higher. To ensure successful consultant hires, the IT departments work with preferred suppliers with whom they have framework agreements to access and hire talent. These suppliers include both consultancies and brokers, from where they get both regular consultants and gig consultants. In general, what defines a successful hire of a consultant is that he or she is sufficiently competent and able to quickly adapt to the company. Additionally, a successful hire is when the project or assignment is completed on time with good result. The main advantages with hiring gig consultants are that acquiring competence can be made easier and more flexible, they can also access more niched competencies. The main disadvantage is that it is unclear who takes responsibility if a gig consultant cannot deliver as they are not part of a firm who can send a replacement. However, some brokers seem to replace the gig consultant.