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  • November–December 2020
  • Article
  • Harvard Business Review

Rethinking the On-Demand Workforce

By: Joseph B. Fuller, Manjari Raman, Allison Bailey and Nithya Vaduganathan
  • Format:Print
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Abstract

As companies struggle with chronic skills shortages and changing labor demographics, a new generation of talent platforms, offering on-demand access to highly trained workers, has begun to help. These platforms include marketplaces for premium expertise (such as Toptal and Catalant), for freelance workers (Upwork and 99designs), and for crowdsourcing innovation (Kaggle and InnoCentive). Almost all Fortune 500 firms use such platforms. But most do so in an ad hoc, inefficient way, according to a Harvard Business School/BCG study. Companies need to get much more strategic about their engagement with talent platforms and fully embrace their ability to increase labor force flexibility, speed time to market, and facilitate business model innovation. That will require rewiring policies and processes and redefining working norms. Most important, leaders must inspire the cultural shift needed to realize the platforms’ transformative potential.

Keywords

Talent Acquisition; Platforms; Skilled Labor Recruitment; Gig Economy; Talent and Talent Management; Selection and Staffing; Internet and the Web; Strategy; Digital Platforms

Citation

Fuller, Joseph B., Manjari Raman, Allison Bailey, and Nithya Vaduganathan. "Rethinking the On-Demand Workforce." Harvard Business Review 98, no. 6 (November–December 2020): 96–103.
  • Find it at Harvard

About The Author

Joseph B. Fuller

Entrepreneurial Management
→More Publications

More from the Authors

    • 2025
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    Governors Reshaping Workforce Development: Turning WIOA Challenges into Workforce Solutions

    By: Joseph B. Fuller, Kerry McKittrick, Nathalie Gazzaneo, Ariel Higuchi, Justine Gluck, Zoe Butler, Jack Porter and Malena Dailey
    • 2025
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    Navigating Opportunity: Career Information and Mobility in Low-Wage Employment

    By: Joseph B. Fuller, Kerry McKittrick, Amanda Holloway, Rony Rodriguez Ramirez and Ali Epstein
    • March 10, 2025
    • Harvard Business Review (website)

    How Gen AI Could Change the Value of Expertise

    By: Joseph Fuller, Matt Sigelman and Michael Fenlon
More from the Authors
  • Governors Reshaping Workforce Development: Turning WIOA Challenges into Workforce Solutions By: Joseph B. Fuller, Kerry McKittrick, Nathalie Gazzaneo, Ariel Higuchi, Justine Gluck, Zoe Butler, Jack Porter and Malena Dailey
  • Navigating Opportunity: Career Information and Mobility in Low-Wage Employment By: Joseph B. Fuller, Kerry McKittrick, Amanda Holloway, Rony Rodriguez Ramirez and Ali Epstein
  • How Gen AI Could Change the Value of Expertise By: Joseph Fuller, Matt Sigelman and Michael Fenlon
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