Why Don’t We Share Our Workforces?
We’re always resource-hungry — and yet over-resourced at the wrong times.
Why keep paying for people to wait for work?
WHAT IS A SHARED WORKFORCE MODEL?
A shared workforce model lets organisations lend or borrow employees across non-competing firms. It helps monetise underused capacity, access extra resources without permanent hires, retain control and recall rights via SLAs, and cut contractor reliance and unnecessary costs.
COST MODEL EXPLANATION
KEY STATISTICS SUPPORTING WORKFORCE SHARING
UNDERUTILIZATION & IDLE TIME
UNDERUTILIZATION & IDLE TIME
UNDERUTILIZATION & IDLE TIME
- 78% of employees report involuntary idle time at work (Harvard Business School)
- UK businesses lose an estimated £37 billion+ annually to underused staff (ONS)
- Average employee productivity remains 30–40% below optimal levels across the UK and US (HBS / ONS)
JOB MARKET SHIFTS
UNDERUTILIZATION & IDLE TIME
UNDERUTILIZATION & IDLE TIME
- Over 1.25 million UK workers and 9 million Americans hold more than one job (ONS / US BLS)
- 38% of US workers now take on side gigs or additional income streams (Upwork)
- Job vacancies are down 20% YoY in both the UK and US (ONS, BLS 2024)
- Attrition in service and support roles is over 35% in the UK and 47% in the US
AI AND WORK RESHAPING
UNDERUTILIZATION & IDLE TIME
AI AND WORK RESHAPING
- 29.5% of total work hours are expected to be automated by 2030 (McKinsey)
- Only 12% of UK employers have a strategy to redeploy people impacted by AI (CIPD 2024)
- AI adoption is freeing up capacity across HR, finance, and operations — without a plan for what happens next