How An Employee’s Side Hustle Could Help Your Company

My company, Atom, started as a side hustle. It’s a tale I’ve told many times, and part of both my personal brand and Atom’s own brand story. As such a public side hustle success, it would be hypocritical of me to discourage other people in their DIY second jobs, entrepreneurial ventures, and side hustles. And that extends to my employees.

When I started Atom, I was CTO of a large company. The time I had for my side project was minimal – I coded small parts of the website on the train on the way to work. I was lucky to have the commute as time to myself, so I didn’t have to worry about balancing my side hustle with my day job. But for many of the 39% of US workers who have a side hustle, this presents a real dilemma. It shouldn’t have to. Employee side hustles, when properly managed, can be a boon for your business. Here’s how.

Side Hustles Can Make Employees More Productive

There’s no doubt that building Atom would have been easier if I had a little more flexibility in my schedule. And I believe that wouldn’t have hurt but rather helped my work life – the act of creating Atom was already allowing me to grow as an employee, and a little more time on it would only have sped that process up.

In the knowledge economy in particular, where leaders and managers care more that tasks are done well and by their due date and less about when and where they’re done, balancing side hustles and work should be simple. In fact, an employee using an hour of their day to promote their wedding photography business on social media or fiddle with the mechanics of an app they’re building often means they’re also using their limited work time more efficiently.

This is backed up by studies of four-day work weeks in the UK, which show an increase in productivity without work quality diminishing. Further, we learned during the pandemic that despite skepticism from bosses, employees were more productive when given the freedom to decide where and how they wanted to complete their tasks.

You don’t need to implement a four-day workweek or full work from home to mimic this, but allowing your employees time and freedom to explore passions through side hustles could have a similar effect. Not only will they be using their time at work more efficiently, but as they work on their passion projects, they may find themselves more fulfilled. A Social Market Foundation study found that happy employees are as much as 20% more productive in the workplace, so, it’s a win-win.

Creative Employees May Lead to Higher Revenue Growth

People who start side hustles are inherently creative. They came up with an idea and built a business from it – maybe it’s not poetry or painting, but it is creativity.

According to McKinsey’s Award Creative Score, businesses that encourage creativity are more profitable. In 2022, the report found that 67% of firms deemed creative by McKinsey displayed above-average revenue growth with 74% showing above-average net enterprise values.

Clearly, you want creative employees! Especially as, beyond the numbers, creative employees tend to be adaptable, respond well to challenges and change and are excellent problem solvers.

When Your Employees Have Wide Skill Sets, They Give More to Your Company – A Good Leader Teaches This

As a business leader, you have knowledge and experience to offer anyone launching or growing a side hustle. One example of this? Often, employees can get boxed into the rigid boundaries of their roles and may not be able to see the big picture regarding how their work fits into the business writ large.

When they learn valuable entrepreneurial skills through their side hustles, such as budgeting, marketing, and project management, it’s beneficial to your company. If you take an active role – however small – in modeling entrepreneurship, you can ensure this happens.

Modeling good entrepreneurship can come in many forms, from telling your story, to regular open discussion on your team’s side-hustle worries, or a panel led by the C-suite. It might be a little unconventional but continued development and upskilling should be offered in all workplaces, and this certainly fits the bill.

Setting Boundaries: How to Talk to Your Employees About Their Side Hustles

There are limits to the positive effects of employee side hustles if they aren’t properly managed and communicated about. Working out how to encourage employees to take a leap into the world of the side hustle can also be a puzzle. Here’s a framework for approaching both:

• Make honesty normal at work: To cultivate an honest work environment, you must be honest as a leader. Set clear expectations on what is and isn’t permitted as part of an employee working on a side hustle. If you are going to adopt a side hustle encouragement policy, don’t be afraid to talk about it explicitly, be that in interviews, offer letters, or even on LinkedIn. An honest and transparent work environment will encourage your employees to give you the same courtesy, and according to a UKG survey, the trust it engenders might make them happier and more productive too.
• Draw boundaries around time use: Based on your company or industry, you can set guidelines around the hours during which employees can and cannot work on their side hustles.
• Draw boundaries around resource use: If you don’t want employees to use any office resources for their side project, ensure this is clearly communicated to them. This can apply to subscriptions, stationery, email, and so on.
• Celebrate your employees’ wins outside of work: Whether it’s side hustles, knitting projects, or ironman competitions, you should make time to acknowledge your employees’ lives outside of work. It helps them feel seen, and carving out time to talk about their projects without combining it with other work conversations is a good way to set some of those needed boundaries while also promoting trust.

Whether you Encourage Them or Not, Side Hustles Happen

Judging by the habits of Gen Z and younger Millennials, side hustles and second jobs are only going to become more common worldwide. So, whether they’re being honest about it or not, someone in your company is probably already deep into a side hustle and potentially facing a dilemma about balancing it with work.

As a leader who promotes the side hustle, you’ll be signing up for a whole host of benefits that will not only grow your business but also improve your reputation as a leader. Even if your own story didn’t start with a side hustle, it’s hard to see the downside of encouraging them for others.