SAP Aims to Bridge Gap Between HR and the Gig Economy

Human resources (HR) professionals once upon a time largely confined their activities to full- and part-time employees. But with the rise of “The Gig Economy,” there are now often so many individuals working on various temporary projects that in some organizations they outnumber employees. To help bring some order to that potential chaos, SAP has launched the SAP Fieldglass Digital Network to automate the management of external talent management and services procurement.

Rob Brimm, president of SAP Fieldglass, says the SAP Fieldglass Digital Network addresses everything from managing talent channels to candidate vetting, onboarding, workforce planning and HR management. Digital talent agencies and related services that have signed up to be part of the SAP Fieldglass Digital Network include Catalant, freelance.de, Genesys, MBO Partners, Shiftgig, TalentNet, Talonfms, The Data Incubator, Twago, WorkMarket, and SAP Signature Management by DocuSign.

In most organizations, the hiring of contractors is usually handled by line of business (LOB) executives. But as compliance regulations pertaining to the hiring of contractors become more strict, organizations are looking for a more structured approach, says Brimm.

That structured approach not only creates a mechanism for tapping into the gig economy, Brimm says it also limits any liability that might emerge.

“We’re digitizing HR policies,” says Brimm.

Brimm says the decision to implement an external talent management and service procurement platform usually spans HR, LOB executives and accounting. The goal is to reduce as much of the payment friction as possible by integrating the procurement of external services with the backend payroll and general ledger applications used to pay for them, says Brimm.

Naturally, not every LOB executive might appreciate what could be perceived as an intrusion on their prerogatives. But as hiring of full-time employees and contractors becomes more complex, it’s only a matter of time before they run afoul of one regulation or another. Besides, the organization that has the most frictionless means for both hiring, and just as importantly, compensating individuals, almost always attracts the best talent.