{"id":16167,"date":"2022-06-15T14:19:58","date_gmt":"2022-06-15T14:19:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fieldnation.com\/resources\/three-biggest-myths\/"},"modified":"2025-08-06T10:23:39","modified_gmt":"2025-08-06T15:23:39","slug":"three-biggest-myths","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fieldnation.com\/resources\/three-biggest-myths","title":{"rendered":"Debunking the three biggest myths about on-demand labor"},"content":{"rendered":"

For many service organizations, incorporating on-demand labor into their blended workforce represents a new and unfamiliar way of connecting with skilled technicians.<\/span><\/p>\n

And as with all new and unfamiliar things, this means that there are a lot of misconceptions about on-demand\u2019s strengths and weaknesses.<\/span><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s address the three biggest myths about on-demand labor and debunk them one by one.<\/span><\/p>\n

1. Utilization is the gold standard for measuring technician performance<\/b><\/h3>\n

\u201cIf I have full-time employees who can do the work, and if our technicians are utilized at a high rate, why wouldn\u2019t I just assign all of our work to them?\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

A significant number of field service companies look to utilization (the percentage of a technician\u2019s billable time spent performing a work-related activity) as the north star metric for gauging technician efficiency and value. And to a certain extent, this makes sense: utilization assigns a concrete number to how \u201cbusy\u201d a technician is over a period of time.<\/span><\/p>\n

However, utilization misses an important part of the big picture. <\/span>Because it treats all types of work as interchangeable, utilization fails to account for whether <\/b>what<\/i><\/b> the technician is doing produces enough value to cover (and hopefully exceed) the cost of that technician.<\/b><\/p>\n

High utilization doesn\u2019t always translate into higher revenue. Let\u2019s say a company boasts an impressive 90% utilization rate, but has Level 4 technicians driving 40 miles to do simple tasks like ATM cleanings or preventative maintenance. This work isn\u2019t core to their business and is therefore not contributing to a positive ROI on their labor resources.<\/span><\/p>\n

A different metric\u2013\u2013revenue\/technician\/day\u2013\u2013 helps evaluate whether a given technician is doing the \u201cright kind\u201d of work, i.e. work that lines up with their skill level and cost. Revenue\/technician\/day encourages your organization to ask questions that uncover opportunities for optimizing revenue by allocating work to the most appropriate type of labor resource\u2013\u2013full-time, subcontractor, or on-demand.<\/span><\/p>\n

2. On-demand labor is too costly<\/b><\/h3>\n

\u201cThe hourly rate of an on-demand technician is higher than that of my full-time employee. Why would I use a more expensive resource when I have a less expensive option on staff?\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

It\u2019s natural to think this way. If you only look at hourly rates, it appears that on-demand labor is a more expensive option relative to traditional full-time employees.<\/span><\/p>\n

But In reality, the opposite is true. <\/span>When you compare the two options by the overall cost of work, on-demand workers cost up to 40% less than full-time employees.<\/b><\/p>\n

This is because hourly rates don\u2019t factor in a host of additional costs impacting your bottom line.<\/span><\/p>\n

For example: travel and idle costs. If you send a full-time employee on a job several hours away, you\u2019re compensating them for the time spent traveling to and from the worksite. Tapping on-demand technicians who are based closer to the worksite eliminates this idle cost completely.<\/span><\/p>\n

Full-time employees also incur costs in the form of paid vacations and benefits, which are non-factors for on-demand workers.<\/span><\/p>\n

When you combine these extraneous costs, full-time employees almost always wind up costing more than an on-demand option.<\/span><\/p>\n

3. Controlling the quality of outcomes is impossible with on-demand labor<\/b><\/h3>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t afford to risk my customer relationship by using on-demand technicians. I get better quality with my full-time employees, so why wouldn\u2019t I trust them with business?\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Service companies often think they get better quality from their employees because they \u201cown\u201d the logistical details of their work life. They set their schedule, manage their training, etc.<\/span><\/p>\n

But there are a few blindspots with this rationale.<\/span><\/p>\n

The quality frequently associated with full-time employees is linked to vetting. Service companies interview candidates, confirm credentials, and secure background checks before hiring a technician.<\/span><\/p>\n

Companies can get the same or better quality from on-demand technicians if they apply the same discipline to their on-demand search.<\/b><\/p>\n

By putting the same degree of care into your independent contractor vetting as you would with a full-time hire, you can ensure that your on-demand technicians have everything they need to represent your company.<\/span><\/p>\n

If you\u2019re using an on-site talent platform, platform ratings and job history can help you quickly create a list of prospective technicians. <\/span>Companies can even build talent pools of screened on-demand technicians, which allows them to <\/span>quickly route future work to a group of vetted, trusted professionals.<\/span><\/p>\n

As with full-time employees, arming these technicians with detailed statements of work (SOWs) will go a long way toward securing the highest level of quality.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Many service leaders carry assumptions about on-demand labor (about cost, quality, etc.) that simply aren’t true. Learn why these myths paint a flawed picture of on-demand labor’s real value.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":53,"featured_media":17096,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"xn-wppe-expiration":[],"xn-wppe-expiration-action":[],"xn-wppe-expiration-prefix":[],"footnotes":""},"content-group":[],"class_list":["post-16167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","fldn_content_category-growth","fldn_content_category-cost","fldn_content_category-quality","fldn_content_category-coverage","fldn_content_type-white-paper"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nDebunking the three biggest myths about on-demand labor | Field Nation<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fieldnation.com\/resources\/three-biggest-myths\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Debunking the three biggest myths about on-demand labor | Field Nation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Many service leaders carry assumptions about on-demand labor (about cost, quality, etc.) that simply aren't true. 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