How should Diya handle all the employees who want to follow Ishan? The experts respond. JOHN H. CHUANG is the cofounder, chairman, and CEO of Aquent. It's time for Blackbird to lean into 21st-century management, embrace the gig economy, and let more employees go freelance. Diya and Veer made the right decision with Ishan, and they'll attract more talent, foster greater loyalty, build a bet- ter culture, and produce more-creative work by letting others follow suit. To keep pace with societal and technological change, companies today need to be flexible with-and offer flexibility to-their workforces. Young people, particularly creatives, want the autonomy and variety that gig work offers. And companies like Blackbird can greatly benefit-first, by reducing the danger of having people they can't keep busy on the payroll and, second, by serving clients with curated teams designed for their specific needs. If your employees are almost exclusively full-time, you're stuck with their skills; budgets often won't allow you to bring in extra expertise on projects. It's better to have fewer staffers and access to a network of people who can provide exactly what you need when you need it. Many large ad agencies are moving toward this model, with support from their clients. It's the same approach you see in filmmaking: bring great people together, have them collaborate, then disband. If Blackbird can learn to do that and earn a reputation for corralling just-in-time talent, it could have a huge leg up in the market. Freelancers as well as full-time employees will flock to an organization that offers flexibility, independence, consistent work, and the opportunity to collaborate with many different cowork ers. Clients will love the customized service; if they request cutting-edge work-say, for designing an experience in the metaverse-Blackbird might be one of the few firms able to provide it. I don't think Diya or the CEO should question the loyalty of employees who want to do what Ishan has done. Fidelity doesn't come from a full-time contract. It comes from enjoying the work you do with an organization. I suspect that Veer's team members will be even more committed to Veer and Blackbird if they're allowed to leave and partner with the company. Ishan is already proving that. Management should make good on its promise to invest in entre- preneurial employees and help them spread their wings. At Aquent we employ 10,000 people. but only about 10% are full-time. The majority of our creative work is out- sourced; we have just one in-house global creative director, who orches- trates it all. Our business helps enable the gig economy but also relies on it. and we're trying to improve it-for example, by offering contractors and staffers the same benefits. Blackbird might not be able to go that far right away. But it should take the first step into the future of work. CRAIG MILLON is the chief client officer of Jack Morton Worldwide, part of the interpublic Group of Companies. Diya and Veer should do everything they can to retain Blackbird's creatives on a full-time basis. Clients might come to your agency because of its brand or reputation, but they stay to work with specific people, so you want to own that talent, not rent it. There are many other benefits to having people on staff, always working together, whether in person or virtu- ally. First, it creates a diverse, cohesive community that employees want to be part of. It also strengthens a company's culture, providing differentiation in a competitive market. The work will be consistent because full-timers are more likely to have trust in one another and deep insight into client needs. Everyone will be more aligned and more commit- ted to the same goals. It's hard to maintain those things- community, culture, consistency, and commitment-when you rely heavily on freelancers. You might save on salary, benefits, and development costs, but contracting out core creative work poses too many risks. Your relationship with your key talent becomes purely transactional, leading to more churn, and the work inevitably suffers. For all those reasons, Blackbird shouldn't allow Ishan's colleagues to follow his lead. But keeping the team intact will require more than the carrot of reten tion bonuses or the stick of potentially unenforceable noncompetes. Diya and Veer need to better articulate Black- bird's value proposition for employees- why their experience working for the agency full-time is better than the one they'd have as freelancers. At Jack Morton we start with a purpose-"be extraordinary"-know- ing that's the reason, beyond getting a paycheck, that our people want to work for us. But we also consider and highlight the intangible benefits of being part of our agency, including the opportunity to work on cutting-edge projects all over the world and to collaborate with a diverse group of colleagues at the micro level (in the office and on discrete teams) as well as the macro level (across functions, geographies, and business units in the broader ecosystem of our parent company, Interpublic). As a smaller firm, Blackbird can't yet offer all that. But it can decide what it stands for, communicate that to employ- ees, and emphasize perks like a sense of togetherness, training and development, leadership opportunities, more choice of projects, and the chance to work directly with clients. I'm not against using contractors. We employ many talented ones alongside our full-time team members. Recently, we even helped an employee in business development go out on his own, just as Ishan did. The part of his job that he enjoyed and excelled at-setting up meetings with prospective clients- wasn't something we needed covered full-time, so we agreed that he should start his own firm and became his first customer. Because we couldn't offer him a better experience than he'd get free- lancing, the arrangement made sense. But we focus on keeping talent growing internally and leverage contractors for specific needs or niche expertise. Diya and Veer should make all talent decisions on a case-by-case basis. But I'd steer them toward giving the people that create the most value a reason to stay. Maybe one day in the future they'll even persuade Ishan to come back. HBR Reprint R2202M Reprint Case only R2202X Reprint Commentary only R2202Z