CEO Explains Why He Encourages Employees To Have A Side Hustle And How It Helps His Own Business
With more people trying to turn a side hustle into a full-time job, it would be easy to assume that most employers would frown upon employees having a side gig.
Fortunately, this isn’t the case as more employers are now encouraging staff to find side projects to work on after hours – and they’ll even permit employees to talk about the side hustles during work hours.
Of course, there are rules to follow, and this employer has three simple rules he follows when it comes to employees pursuing passion projects on the side.
Brian Dolan, the founder of WorkReduce, told Business Insider that the unintentional side-hustle culture has flourished at his company throughout the pandemic.
Dolan said he follows three basic rules for a side hustle when it comes to his employees.
Rule 1: Consider Flexibility
Dolan tries to match workers with side hustles with clients who have a smaller workload. This prevents burnout.
Plus, it gives employees without a side hustle the chance to work with clients with a bigger workload, helping them advance in the company quicker than others.
Rule 2: Recruit Doers
Dolan actively looks for employees who can do both jobs – a full-time job and side hustle – and produce results with both.
“We’re hiring for smarts. We’re assessing people’s ability to do quantitative work — high achievers who have a good track record demonstrating aptitude and marketing that really stands out,” Dolan said.
“If you’re smart enough to do this kind of work, you’re also smart enough to balance a side hustle. It comes from that, rather than our people being overly creative. Successful remote work is about getting it done.”
Rule 3: Staff Has To Deliver
This rule for a side hustle is a no-brainer, but if you’re not pulling your weight at work, or the side-hustle is taking too much of your time and focus, it’s time to part ways.
“It was straightforward. Either you show up for work, or you don’t. If you don’t, you’re gone. But we’ve got such a robust screening process that we tend not to run into these cases,” Dolan told the website.
Dolan explained that this philosophy has helped him find the best possible employees in his five years in business.
Dolan told Insider he “understood encouraging side hustles could mean losing staff if their side hustles took off” but said the reward of staff satisfaction is worth the possibility of losing an employee.
Dolan told Business Insider that “you can’t keep people forever,” but he said companies can “provide the best possible working experience” with the mindset that “you don’t own your people, you attract them.”