And How a Freelance Management System Can Help Grow Your Firm

Tech supergiants do it. As do rideshare firms, retailers, and entire marketing departments. The buzzy world of gig work has enabled companies of all varieties to scale and build efficiencies across their workflows.

But what’s in it for insurance firms?

You operate in a world of field service -- inspecting, verifying and processing claims -- in an increasingly competitive space. Maintaining and expanding your talent force is more of a priority, as the insurer labor market is at its tightest in a decade, according to Deloitte. Agility is the name of the talent strategy game as more insurance pros enter the flexible work market.

The time is ripe for your firm to adapt an agile workforce. Here are four ways insurance firms can easily leverage on-demand talent and how a Freelance Management System can help firms grow in the gig economy.

1. Real-time Information

Workforce flexibility bumps up the flow of information to clients substantially. Tapping into an at-the-ready bench of highly skilled contingent workers - or your alumni talent that's retiring at a rapid pace - replaces vendors as well as extends and supports full-time staff out in the field.

With a Freelance Management System (FMS), you can tap into your labor cloud, open work orders and track performance and data all in one central system. Real-time reporting, live walk-thoughs, demos, troubleshooting, can all be submitted instantly by gig workers through standardized digital reports via mobile devices.

2. Claims, 2.0

Let’s say you need to dispatch 5,000 workers in the field. You likely won’t have numbers like that on payroll -- it just wouldn’t be feasible, let alone cost effective -- but you can tap into your FMS labor cloud to get gig workers out there when and where you need them.

With real-time data on hand, insurers are able to verify relevant information and get claims out to clients faster and more efficiently than ever before. Pardon the cliché, but that's a win-win.

3. Customized Data

It’s all in the data, and you’re going to have tons of it, streaming along in real-time. Focus on the data fields that matter most to you and your firm, and standardize and organize them across your insurance operations. These can be automated on an FMS at the gig worker level, across data points like skills, location, experience, contracts, insurance, work frequency, as well as at the project level, across tracking, performance, and completion stats.

By leveraging customization and automation at every level of your workflow, you'll be sure to see the up-to-the-minute data and records you need to mitigate your company's compliance risk.

4. Cost Savings

Turnaround times are not only faster with gig workers, but also more cost effective than solely staffing full-time service professionals. You want to augment and support your existing workforce, optimizing your costs and expanding your service area footprint. An FMS will enable you to tap into a marketplace of highly skilled workers -- or import your own -- and gain those cost efficiencies at scale.

As we enter a new year in the gig economy, is your firm prepared to leverage contingent labor?