Navigating Multi-Stakeholder Incentives and Preferences: Co-Designing Alternatives for the Future of Gig Worker Well-Being

TL;DR

This paper explores multi-stakeholder perspectives on improving gig worker well-being through participatory workshops, revealing gaps in current infrastructure and proposing collaborative, technological, and regulatory solutions.

Contribution

It introduces a participatory co-design approach involving stakeholders to identify solutions for gig worker well-being challenges.

Findings

Existing infrastructures are insufficient for gig worker needs.

Multi-platform collaboration is necessary for effective solutions.

Regulatory and societal changes are crucial for improving well-being.

Abstract

Gig workers, and the products and services they provide, play an increasingly ubiquitous role in our daily lives. But despite growing evidence suggesting that worker well-being in gig economy platforms have become significant societal problems, few studies have investigated possible solutions. We take a stride in this direction by engaging workers, platform employees, and local regulators in a series of speed dating workshops using storyboards based on real-life situations to rapidly elicit stakeholder preferences for addressing financial, physical, and social issues related to worker well-being. Our results reveal that existing public and platformic infrastructures fall short in providing workers with resources needed to perform gigs, surfacing a need for multi-platform collaborations, technological innovations, as well as changes in regulations, labor laws, and the public's perception of gig workers, among others. Drawing from multi-stakeholder findings, we discuss these implications for technology, policy, and service as well as avenues for collaboration.