Human Resource Management and the Gig Economy: Challenges and Opportunities at the Intersection Between Organizational HR Decision-Makers and Digital Labor Platforms

This work examines the intersection between traditional human resource management and the novel employment arrangements of the expanding gig economy. While there is a substantial multidisciplinary literature on the digital platform labor phenomenon, it has been largely centered on the experiences of gig workers. As digital labor platforms continue to grow and specialize, more managers, executives, and human resource practitioners will need to make decisions about whether and how to utilize gig workers. Here we explore and interrogate the unique features of human resource management (HRM) activities in the context of digital labor platforms. We discuss challenges and opportunities regarding 1) HRM in organizations that outsource labor needs to external labor platforms, 2) HRM functions within digital labor platform firms, and 3) HRM policies and practices for organizations that develop their own spin-off digital labor platform. To foster a more nuanced understanding of work in the gig economy, we identify common themes across these contexts, highlight knowledge gaps, offer recommendations for future research, and outline pathways for collecting empirical data on HRM in the gig economy.