Small Business Labs

JANUARY 11, 2018

" According to the article, the primary driver is skilled gig workers earn a lot more than traditional employees doing the same work.  They blame a combination of skilled labor shortages and the industry not being an attractive employer.      Sterling doesn't see this shift as a good thing. . 

Skills 162

Skills 162

Small Business Labs

SEPTEMBER 17, 2018

  The article's 3 myths, which we agree with, are: AI will totally replace humans. Only stem skills will be important. See the article for more on why these are myths. Our favorite is  These are 3 of the most pervasive future of work myths.  We're entering a work-free future. And see the whole series.

Skills 142

Skills 142

Small Business Labs

APRIL 29, 2019

Deloitte's article The alternative workforce: It's now mainstream is taken from their 2019 Human Capital Trends report. " The data in the article comes from Deloitte's annual global business survey. " The data in the article comes from Deloitte's annual global business survey. We certainly agree.

2019 128

2019 Skills Management 128

Small Business Labs

AUGUST 7, 2018

The chart below, from the New York Times article  Workers Hardest Hit by Recession Are Joining in Recovery , shows this group's unemployment rate is down to 5.1%. The strong economy makes independent work more attractive for those with in-demand skills. This is leading to more highly skilled workers going independent. 

2018 124

2018 2013 2017 Purchasing 124

Small Business Labs

DECEMBER 2, 2019

  The data comes from EMSI's Talent Attraction Scorecard , which looks at six metrics by county: job growth, skilled job growth, net migration, annual openings for skilled workers (per capita), educational attainment growth (based on adults with associate degrees and above), and a broad measure of regional competitiveness. .  

Restaurants 143

Restaurants Collaborate Skills Management 143

Small Business Labs

OCTOBER 9, 2017

  The show is based on a Quartz article that also isn't positive. " The show and Quartz article focus on the downsides of multi-level marketing programs. " The show and Quartz article focus on the downsides of multi-level marketing programs. But those that have these skills and attributes can be successful.

Skills 150

Skills Health Management 150

Small Business Labs

DECEMBER 11, 2018

But it's an important trend and there continues to be a flurry of interesting articles on working in and/or delaying retirement. " The article suggest that corporations need to change their policies to retain older workers instead of losing them and their skills and knowledge.

Retirement 156

Retirement Mentoring Policies AT&T 156

Small Business Labs

NOVEMBER 9, 2017

The article is written by Kalin Anev Janse, secretary general of the European Stability Mechanism (the eurozone’s lender of last resort).   But this article focuses on the potential of these trends to create global strife. would have included the changing nature of work in an article like this.   Now they do.

Social Media 157

Social Media Restaurants Finance Collaborate 157

Small Business Labs

MARCH 31, 2016

Emergent Research Managing Partner Carolyn Ockels and I co-authored this article. But the HBR article expands on a topic we haven't covered in-depth. We believe the release of PwC’s Talent Exchange to be a watershed moment in terms of how skilled external talent is used at major corporations.

International 100

International Skills AT&T Management 100

Small Business Labs

SEPTEMBER 13, 2016

One of the more interesting findings from the Intuit On-Demand Economy (ODE) study is the large number of people who say learning new skills is a key reason they work in the ODE.  These findings are why the Information Age article Rise of the IT Freelancer jumped out at us.

Skills 100

Skills Training Interviewing Learning 100

Small Business Labs

JULY 16, 2015

Several good articles this week about what it takes to be a successful freelancer.   The article chart below lists the 7 questions. See the article for more details. Eight Skills You Need to Succeed from the Christian Science Monitor covers some of the key skill sets a freelancer needs. Want to Freelance?

Negotiating 100

Negotiating Skills Management 100

Small Business Labs

NOVEMBER 24, 2015

Harvard Business Review's Your Company Needs Independent Workers  covers the growing need by corporations to be seen as a "client of choice" by highly skilled independent workers. The second study goal was to understand what makes a hiring organization attractive to highly skilled independent workers.

2015 100

2015 Skills Goals Management 100

Small Business Labs

MAY 3, 2018

  This data comes the interesting HBR article  More and More Jobs Today Require a License. Examples include doctors, lawyers, electricians and others where you want to make sure the people providing the service are highly skilled. In the 1950's about 5% of full time U.S. workers had a professional, occupation license.

Legal 175

Legal Health Skills Travel 175

Small Business Labs

AUGUST 27, 2018

The courses are also vocational in the sense that they teach a specific skill. This means most of their classes have topics of interest to freelancers interested in learning new business related skills, such as technology, web development and design, creative skills and classes on entrepreneurship.

Learning 100

Learning Skills Networking 100

Small Business Labs

SEPTEMBER 26, 2017

EY also announced EY Badges , a certification program that will allow EY employees "the ability to digital credentials in skills that differentiate them in the market, such as data analytics, AI, data transformation and information strategy."

Skills 150

Skills Learning 150

Small Business Labs

AUGUST 29, 2017

This is due to the outside contractor having specialized skills, or simply being available. These projects often require a team of people with specialized skills to complete a variety of tasks. Please refer to Andrew's article for more details. Increasingly, it's an outside contractor.

Agencies 145

Agencies Skills International AT&T 145

Small Business Labs

MARCH 6, 2018

There have been a number of recent articles pointing out that despite having to compete with several giant beer companies, the craft brewing industry has dramatically expanded over the past decade. Most will be knowledge artisans, relying on human capital to solve complex problems and develop new ideas, products, services and business models.

2008 174

2008 Equipment Goals Skills 174

Small Business Labs

NOVEMBER 15, 2018

The research was based on digging through the data at the knitting community site Ravely.com,  which is known as the "Facebook for knitters" Key quote from a Washington Post article on the study : analyzed almost 100 interviews and 403,168 profiles of knitters and crocheters.

Networking 152

Networking 2009 Facebook Interviewing 152

Small Business Labs

JANUARY 9, 2017

Simply put, the article explains why coworking is working.  Workers in these spaces consistently report making more connections, learning skills faster, and feeling more inspired and in control than their cubicle-dwelling counterparts inside large companies.

Cubicle 100

Cubicle 2014 Networking Skills 100

Small Business Labs

AUGUST 22, 2015

Because of this, attraction and retention of highly skilled independent workers is becoming increasingly important.   The article covers seven tips, which are: Understand what they want. See the article for details. Also at HBR is an article on a related topic - How to Get Feedback as a Freelancer.

Management 100

Management AT&T Skills 100

Small Business Labs

FEBRUARY 15, 2013

Interesting article on Bersin by Deloitte's site on corporate training.  As the chart below (from the article) shows, after a steep decline during the recession U.S.   The reasons given by Bersin for this shift towards investing in training are: The need for specialized skills is increasing. 

Training 100

Training Forms Skills Learning 100

Small Business Labs

DECEMBER 15, 2015

The article is based on studies by the authors and taken from their soon to be released book Agile Talent  (I've already pre-orderd my copy). The article answer this question nicely with a succinct list of the 5 key reasons: The Top 5 Complaints of Executives Regarding External Talent 1.

International 100

International Skills Management 100

Small Business Labs

SEPTEMBER 17, 2015

Key quote from the article, which is written by a MIT engineering professor: I nonetheless believe that the slowdown is due, in part, to an acceleration of “near-shoring,” the practice of producing closer to the customer. The article lists 4 main drivers of the shift to near-shoring: Lower US energy prices.

2007 100

2007 Skills 100

Small Business Labs

MARCH 6, 2014

  The key quote is the summary: Enterprise adoption of the power of the crowd allows specialized skills to be dynamically sourced from anyone, anywhere, and only as needed. The article goes on to describe the major applications of crowdsourcing: 1.  Examples include data entry and picture tagging.

Skills 100

Skills 100

Small Business Labs

SEPTEMBER 3, 2013

The article goes on to discuss "job polarization", which is the idea that the growing use of computers and automation has resulted in job growth being concentrated in both the highest- and lowest-paid occupations, while jobs in the middle have declined. 

Medical 100

Medical 2008 Expenses Skills 100

Small Business Labs

AUGUST 30, 2018

Key quote from the Wall Street Journal article on the study,  U.S. They attribute this in part to higher earners having more control over their work.

2005 140

2005 2018 Skills Management 140

Small Business Labs

FEBRUARY 7, 2017

It's to increase their business flexibility and agility and access hard to find, highly skilled talent.  " As you can see from the list of titles, most of the freelancers employed by Nimbus are highly skilled specialists.  The WSJ article focused on companies doing this to cut costs. 

Collaborate 100

Collaborate Skills AT&T UPS 100

Small Business Labs

JULY 1, 2013

The article focuses on temps working in low skill industrial or supply chain jobs. According to the article, there are over 800,000 people working in jobs like these - most of which pay less than $25,000 per year.  They almost never get benefits and have little opportunity for advancement.

Temping 100

Temping Skills Stress Health 100

Small Business Labs

NOVEMBER 11, 2014

The article The Contingent Workforce Management Program of 2016 provides their view of how corporate contingent labor programs will evolve over the next couple of years. Key quote from the article: In 2009, the estimated percentage of contingent workforce utilization within the average enterprise hovered around 16% or 17%. The

Temping 100

Temping 2014 2016 2017 100

Small Business Labs

MARCH 7, 2016

We found it in the GigaOm article The Game Changing Economics of Fractional Availability. The article covers the on-demand customer care company Directly. Companies use Directly apps to route support questions to a talent pool of skilled users and reward them with cash or credit when they answer a customer question.

Customer Service 100

Customer Service Skills UPS 100

Small Business Labs

JUNE 4, 2014

The article explains self-employed are worse off because they make less money.   Another article on the same study covered a different set of data.  The article then discusses how bad this situation is. To learn more about this, see the New York Times article Why You Hate Work.

Legal 100

Legal Goals Skills Learning 100

Small Business Labs

MARCH 22, 2016

  Key quote on these agencies: Agencies are typically groups of around three to ten workers with similar skills and backgrounds. The Forbes article  How Airbnb Used Design To Break Through Its Biggest Challenge  describes the efforts Airbnb has gone through in this area. A good example is Airbnb. But I doubt it.

Agencies 100

Agencies AT&T Skills UPS 100

Small Business Labs

JULY 14, 2015

The Forbes article  Six Figure Solo Businesses Grew by 45% in 5 Years, Study Finds reports on the growing number of U.S.   This data shows there's also a substantial number independent workers who are highly skilled and well compensated. independent workers who report earning more than $100k.

Skills 100

Skills 100

Small Business Labs

APRIL 21, 2014

The New York Times article Goldman, Citi, UBS.   The article describes this as the "trend toward merger and acquisition microfirms, or, as in his case, sole practitioners." and a Guy in an Office  describes a successful one man firm that is currently the world's 11th ranked merger and acquisition adviser.

Legal 100

Legal Skills 100

Small Business Labs

AUGUST 21, 2012

Interesting article from John Horton at oDesk  on the Digitization of the Supply Side of the Labor Market. job posts have detailed descriptions about the nature of the work, skills required, location and approximate salary, but the job seekers—the sellers—generally do not create profiles that describe themselves."  

SimplyHired 100

SimplyHired Elance Salary Skills 100

Small Business Labs

JANUARY 22, 2015

The Ardent Partners chart below from the article shows survey data on this shift. According to the article, the big shift is away from traditional staffing firms and towards: Private Talent Pools. Additionally, social media and networks can be used to discover workers with experience in niche industries and hard-to-find skills.

Social Media 100

Social Media 2016 2014 2017 100

Small Business Labs

NOVEMBER 18, 2010

Fun article on lazy locavores in the WSJ.    But lazy locavores either don't have the skills or time to tend to their crops.  "  Key quote from the WSJ article: homeowners who lack free time or gardening skills are teaming up with would-be farmers who lack backyards. . 

2020 100

2020 Purchasing Skills Environment 100