Every enterprise needs to rethink how they source talent—or risk falling behind. A cursory glance at what makes well-known digital disruptors tick should tell us one thing: The way we build workforces of the future must change, whether we take the lead from the trials and tribulations of gig-economy poster child Uber or lesser-known innovators supplementing traditional talent models.

There are myriad examples of firms claiming to reinvent talent models for their clients or augment traditional structures. We’ve already dug into the value that Wipro’s TopCoder is adding to client engagements with its crowd sourcing model, but now we have another provider joining the ranks. Customer experience services firm Concentrix is hoping to tap into the gig economy by deploying its new Solv platform, which enables clients to leverage gig workers (Solvers) when they have an issue rather than rely directly on traditional call centers.

By combining Solv and traditional delivery models, Concentrix can put the best of both worlds to work for client outcomes

The Solv model is simple. Clients’ issues each attract a fixed price, of which Solvers can get a chunk when they pick and resolve the client issue. The incentive program makes sense to professionals and de-risks issues that come with a decentralized workforce, meaning Concentrix can pull in professionals, regardless of factors such as location. Where the model can add value to the firm is by offering an alternative to clients, often at a more attractive price-point, that can seamlessly transfer clients over to traditional delivery models when needed.

Not only is this approach about offering fresh alternatives to clients, fresh generations moving into the labor market come with different expectations. According to Concentrix, Solv has been developed to attract a new breed of service professionals who want flexibility and autonomy. Similarly, to the healthily growing WAHA (work-at-home agent) model, proponents of the crowdsourcing model praise as a way to attract more senior, experienced, and highly skilled talent. Concentrix designed this model from the ground up to balance both workforce and client demands.

Flexible talent models are growing exponentially, the US Federal Reserve – which has a relatively relaxed definition of gig workers puts the labor pool at 75 million employees. And some industry experts value the global gig economy at $3.7 trillion. Ultimately, all analysis into the size of the market has its immediate flaws, as some nations and research bodies apply different parameters and measure, while some don’t collect the data at all. In any case, the gig market, crowdsourcing and the array of emerging talent models are responsible for a growing portion of the global labor market.

Carefully managing behavioral economics and quality control is critical for the success of any crowdsourcing initiative

While crowdsourcing is relatively nascent as a driver of innovation in the enterprise when compared with more mature models such as retraining and engaging consultants, an HFS survey found that 45% of Global 2000 respondents are using the crowdsourcing model as a talent strategy in some capacity (see exhibit 1).

The biggest challenge for any firm looking to make a success out of the tumultuous gig economy lays within behavioral economics. Concentrix provides guidance on incentives and sourcing locations to optimise the attraction of tickets across the geographies of Solvers. This removes the need for experimentation, and helps clients understand the success correlation between time and reward so that they are attractive enough for gig workers to pick up and resolve. For some tickets, this may be harder to balance than others; for example, tickets with a long resolution time will undoubtedly be less attractive unless the incentive covers the time expended, which in turn can push some issues outside of clients’ willing-to-pay thresholds. For these issues, Concentrix has the option to fail these over to its other delivery channels, but without careful management and a decent resource pool to experiment with, traditional channels may quickly become more attractive to clients.

Exhibit 1: Almost half of enterprises are accessing talent through crowdsourcing

Source: HFS Research in Conjunction with KPMG, State of Intelligent Automation, 2018
Sample = 590 Business Leaders

Another challenge for Concentrix—and indeed, any firm looking to leverage a decentralized workforce—is quality management. Clients can easily monitor performance data from the Solv platform, and they can block support agents that have not delivered. However, in a competitive market where clients demand consistency and quality, client intervention can only be a last resort, or the firm’s reputation will suffer. However, building a system that balances flexibility with quality is challenging – however Concentrix can double down on tried and tested measures from pioneers in the crowdsourcing and gig working space. Users rating the capability of talent democratizes quality assessments, for example – and has been the mainstay of services KPIs for years. More innovative models include remunerating talent based on ratings – the higher the quality value of output, the greater the rewards, placing ownership of quality at the feet of the professionals themselves. There is no recipe for success, Concentrix must work closely with clients leveraging the system and solve challenges and problems as they emerge.

There is a risk with any crowdsourcing model that companies will be too enamored with the shorter-term cost savings and that brand equity will suffer in the long run. It also runs the risk of marring the perception of the evolution of the contact center into a strategic hub back to its penny-pinching roots with little investment in training and culture. With Concentrix’ investment and focus on culture and talent, though, this provider is betting on the ability to successfully manage these risks and challenges while being disruptive at the same time. This kind of disruption is going to happen in this market either way; Concentrix wants to carefully develop and control its solution rather than introduce a subpar model to the market and gain negative publicity.

The Bottom Line: Implementing new talent models is tough, embedding them in existing labor models is much harder – Solv is a promising example of how this can be achieved, and is likely to become a cornerstone of how the customer experience industry sources talent

Despite its inherent challenges, Concentrix’ Solv platform shows tremendous promise. With 500 Solvers on the platform already, short-term success for Solv is all about internal champions and client adoption. Concentrix’ focus on the development of this solution over the last 18 months is a sign that providers must invest in solutions that leverage the gig economy, or risk losing out—especially as new generations of professionals with different work expectations join the labor pool, and clients look for alternative delivery models to gain competitive advantage.

Solv is a Concentrix trademark.