Contract workforce platform - Mercer Indigo

Mercer Indigo

It's time to give them access to benefits! How will your organization attract and retain gig and on-demand workers, independent contractors, freelancers, and part-time workers? By providing access to health and wealth benefits through Mercer Indigo > a self-compliant, innovation benefits platform built for this thriving workforce
Gig is BIG… and getting bigger!
The nature of work has changed. The traditional employer-employee relationship  is no longer the single standard.
We have reached a point where free agency has become a far more mainstream career option. It is now common, attractive, and not as sharply differentiated from corporate life as in the past. If the tide is taking us into that world, then the sensible course of action is to learn to swim with the tide.
Ravin Jesuthasan.

Lead the Work - Navigating a World Beyond Employment

The gig economy has arrived with 57M individuals in the US workforce now freelancing.

Business has often been about the big beating the small. Today, however, we can see that it is more about being the fastest to market – and this definitely applies to the boom we are seeing in gig, freelance, contract and sole proprietor businesses in the US and globally.
57M
57 million workers are freelancing
30M
30 million rely on freelance as their primary source of income
Gig is small, they are fast and nimble and can react to market changes quickly. In the US alone, the Bureau of Labor Statistics tells us that over 57 million workers are freelancing, of which 30 million rely on freelance as their primary source of income.
  • Understanding the growing need for this workforce

    All of us are aware of the gig or freelance workforce – specifically accountants, lawyers, Allied Health professionals and so forth – that have historically been sole proprietors. The emergence or acceleration of the gig economy has also created new markets for freelancers. Scientists, researchers and engineers are moving into this space in growing numbers.

    KolabTree claims to be the UpWork or Uber for scientists. KolabTree connects scientists with companies that need temporary help. Founder Ashmita Das shared the following story of a company’s need to hire temporary science expertise. “We’re developing a product; this is a list of ingredients. The pH isn’t right. How do we fix it?” This is just one example of the tremendous expansion in the gig market.

    Fueling the growth for this workforce are a number of on-demand job fulfillment organizations that connect businesses with gig workers, assist with placement, contracting and even handling the unique pay requirements in this space. Some of the obvious gig players such as Uber, Lyft, and Rover, are being joined by the new players like Fiverr, Jobble, UpWork, Freelance.com and GigNow.

  • Understanding this workforce
    Gig workers’ top claim > they love the flexibility or independence of gig work. Some also site the financial advantages of gig work. Businesses utilizing gig workers focus on the flexibility of hiring in this space, hiring for a specific time-sensitive project, hiring for a specific need that is not full-time. It is also interesting to note that many of these businesses are finding that attracting, retaining and bringing back these workers is key to their success. One other interesting note is a large percentage of this workforce are “boomerang” individuals – they have retired and are returning as contractors.
  • 65 percent of gig workers want access to non-medical benefits, and are willing to pay for them

    First, they miss corporate benefits, like health care, as well as ancillary benefits or voluntary benefit programs available from traditional employers. Additionally, a hidden and often forgotten issue for these workers is the legal protections they would have as actual employees (professional liability for errors etc.).

    Finally, these workers need access to compensation data to understand what they are paid, mobility data to understand the impact of a potential move for a gig job and they experience the loss of the social environment of traditional work.

  • So what’s the catch?
    The positives of independence in gig work far outweigh the negatives, but these workers do miss certain aspects of traditional employment. Where and how can a business create these lost traditional benefits? Where can a gig worker access these benefits, social network and compensation data? Enter Mercer Indigo.

The Mercer Indigo Advantage

Providing independent workers the ability to purchase benefits including health, life, disability, retirement, business risk insurance and more:

  • Comprehensive suite of benefits, customizable by type of worker
  • Integrated and intuitive digital experience and personalized journey
  • Turnkey multi-channel marketing and distribution to drive adoption
  • Enables compliance and regulatory monitoring, reducing your administrative burden

Why Mercer Indigo?

No platform provides the benefit options and support that comes with Mercer Indigo. It leverages our entire firm's 65 years of experience in benefit strategies and solutions with intellectual capital, products and services towards the unique needs of this workforce. It also enables compliance and regulatory monitoring, reducing your administrative burden.
Mercer provides benefits solutions to:
5000+
 5,000+ employers
110M+
110M+ individuals.
Marketing techniques use omni-channel approach optimized through working with thousands of organizations.
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