Working On The Side

A recent article in Fast Company explored companies’ willingness to let employees engage in “side hustles,” or doing work outside the company. This has gotten bigger than simply driving for Uber; that outside work can get pretty involved and, in the eyes of some companies, can be very beneficial. Obviously, you cannot allow an outside job or side business to interfere with the job you pay them t do, but at the same time, it could create some value for you.

The company featured in the article, Sylvain Labs, is in favor of allowing this. A number of advantages come to mind:

Employee Engagement Though the specific numbers may vary across borders, every country in Asia reports lower-than-desired rates of employee engagement. One element of employee engagement is employees’ perception of whether or not they are valued as individuals. When you are seen as just a faceless cog in the machine, it’s hard to get excited about giving 110%.

As far as side hustles are concerned, Sylvain says employees are more likely to bring their full game to a company–to give their heart and soul, if you will–if their employers not only recognize that they have outside interests, but even help them to pursue those interests.

Showing your employees that you value them as a whole, not just for what they bring during office hours, helps them feel more connected to the firm.

Innovation Your organizational culture encourages people to work a certain way. Their side hustles give them an opportunity to work in other ways and develop different perspectives, and that can help shake things up in your company. Any firm that wants to be around for a long time needs to adapt to changes in the world, and your employees’ experiences outside the office can help you recognize changes that are coming and adjust to take advantage of them. Consider how an employee writing a book is going to learn a lot, and that knowledge doesn’t sit at home while they are at work; you can make use of what they do outside, so avoid limiting their ability to do so (example: some companies have employment agreements insisting that any intellectual property created by an employee, whether at work or not, belongs to the company – this is a serious disincentive to write a book or do anything else which might teach them a lot).

New Products Your employee may have a great idea for a product, but no ability to scale it and sell it. Could this be a product you could sell? One Sylvain Labs employee loved to cook and had created his own recipes for hot sauces; the company ended up packaging and selling them as a product of their own. Other outside work by employees influenced the services they provided to their clients and the introduction of new products by them, too. If one of your employees writes a book, how about selling it through your company? It can add to your credibility, and also add a little to your bottom line.

Retaining Corporate Knowledge This was not addressed in the article, but in light of the evolving “gig economy,” it’s worth considering. Your work may come in bursts, and your workforce may not be 100% engaged 100% of the time. In this situation it’s easy to rely on contract workers, bringing them in for projects and then letting them go when the need dissipates. That makes it hard, though, to build up a strong body of corporate knowledge, since you keep using temporary workers. Wouldn’t it be better to keep the people you need over the long-term? Side hustles offer a way to keep your employees usefully engaged even when you don’t need 100% of their time, so that when you DO need them, they are ready to go. There needs to be an agreement between you and them about when they can work on side projects and when they need to put those aside, but that’s easier than trying to onboard a bunch of new people every time something big comes up.

As with all the things, the costs and benefits of allowing side hustles depend on your situation. If your company is large, it may not be scalable; if you are understaffed, it may not be feasible; depending on your industry, there may be limited advantages. But you won’t know unless you think about it, so consider how outside work may support or hurt your business, and set your policies accordingly.