Human Cloud is a technology concept that has begun to take over when discussing online/digital labour and staffing platforms. Such sites not only help employees find jobs, but they also specialize in handling and maximizing their workforce. Human Cloud workers usually consist of contractors, freelancers, consultants, and other flexible, contingent workforce categories. These workers value flexibility and need to connect quickly and efficiently to job opportunities. As more and more workers choose to work flexibly and on-demand, online staffing platforms are needed to connect employees to employers and help improve the management of these remote workers.
Global experts define the Human Cloud as “an emerging set of work intermediation models that enable work arrangements of various kinds to be established and completed (including payment of workers) entirely through a digital/online platform.” Human Cloud services offer as a technology that supports everything from recruitment and work assignment to time and attendance tracking.
What is the Human Cloud Framework?
There are three main types of Human Cloud systems: CrowdSourcing, Online Work Services, and Online Staffing Systems.
Crowdsourcing
It is an online platform model that allows work assignments to be parsed and performed (often as “microtasks”) by a far-flung “crowd” of independent workers performing (paid or otherwise compensated) work at will. Typically, a crowdsourcing platform client buys “an outcome” (as a service output, not a labour relationship). Crowdsourcing also involves job systems where a “crowd” of staff participate or bid to solve problems or projects, with winners chosen and paid based on the quality of their submissions.
Online Work Services
This is an online business model that enables a community of online employees to provide such specialized services (customer care, translation, writing, taxi rides, etc.) organized/managed by the platform provider. Client buys “an outcome” (as a service output, not a labour relationship).
Online Staffing Platforms
An online staffing platform enables specific hirers and employees to enter, complete, and transact work arrangements most often with resources around the world. There’s usually a clear legal arrangement between hirer and worker that the platform requires.
What are the benefits that we can find in the Human Cloud?
Through the use of technology to control your employees and transfer them to a human cloud, you can dramatically reduce your team’s time spent on manual management processes. Digital staffing platforms that allow you to move your team to the cloud will replace expensive, obsolete structures that you use now. It speeds up the whole hiring and on-board process and allows the managers to spend time on more critical business goals.
The most common reason for using online staffing platforms:
- greater access to talent: a global talent pool
- costs reduction
- expanding skills coverage: employers can contract for micro-tasks, such as copying text from business cards to larger tasks like selling products for a fee, to even more complex projects such as software design and programming.
Moving the employees to a Human Cloud helps managers to take jobs and split them into different shifts while assigning them to top performers precisely when they’re most needed. This way employers can make recruiting decisions faster as workers on-board and execute faster by using a cloud-based workplace management tool to manage their team.
Some companies are building their own custom clouds with specific needs and goals in mind. Others trust in a special recruitment agency who is capable to find that talent anywhere in the world by using data-driven technology. The goal, in both cases, is to find the top talent that can help them stay competitive.
Challenges
The biggest con, it’s that Human Cloud is not (yet) conducive to full-time jobs. So far, on the applicant side, these networks are just about taking up short-term assignments here and there – but ideally, most job seekers would prefer full-time work.
The good news is that some top talent acquisition firms, such as Catenon, are ahead of the curve, using bots and AI to do people screening, delivering to the best results of both worlds – analogue-human touch, and tech-driven agility.
Combining tech with the actual face-to-face is what distinguishes a staffing company from a human cloud model. And, of course, businesses that match the best experience with the best technology will prevail. Want to learn how Catenon can help you find, assess and select the best candidates fast and virtually? Just contact us!
