Your employees are working for you—but more of them than you might think supplement their income with a “side hustle.” A side hustle could be anything from driving for Uber on the weekends to selling handmade jewelry online or freelancing after hours.
According to a study from Bankrate, more than 44 million Americans pad out their income with some sort of paid gig like this.
Here’s why you might want to encourage your employees to have a side hustle:
You might assume that employers would frown upon their staff channeling a chunk of their energy toward other types of work, but Aaron Harvey proves otherwise. Harvey, who is co-founder of Ready Set Rocket and Made of Millions, believes that giving employees the flexibility to be creative outside of work drives them to bring their best selves into the office. With this in mind, he has not only given employees the freedom to embark on their own side hustles, but has pushed them to do so.
On Harvey’s team, the side hustles include passion projects ranging from a coffee shop to a mental health advocacy platform. “Side hustles afford you the ‘blue sky’ creativity that you need to grow,” said Harvey. “They bring together passion and purpose, and they help you think more like an entrepreneur.”
Harvey walks the talk. Despite his own intense job at the NYC-based digital agency Ready Set Rocket, where he serves as Chief Creative Director—guiding all creative direction for Ready Set’s campaigns that can range from brand development to campaign ideation to new business development—he is a first-person example of the side-hustle mentality.
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“For me, my work in mental health advocacy on projects like Intrusive Thoughts and Made of Millions, all pro bono and self-funded, helps me keep my creative edge,” explained Harvey. “By nature, they push me to think about new mediums, formats, experiences, and how to execute them with limited resources.”
Professional Development Outside of Work
Harvey adds that because he has personally learned so much from his side hustles, he wants to encourage his employees to do the same. “I think any entrepreneurism helps small businesses,” said Harvey. “We’re a small team of dreamers and doers. So we need people who can take ideas from the abstract, and make them tangible in the real world. People who want to experiment with technology, animation, typography, design—simply because they love it. That energy translates into our work.”
Promoting Work-Life Balance
While agency work notoriously demands long hours from staff, Harvey is undeterred about a side hustle distracting from the intensity of his team’s demanding day jobs. He notes that part of the success of the initiative comes down to a conscious effort to promote work-life balance. “Apart from perks, we do our best to allocate our team responsibly, so that the days are reasonable, and we are not an agency work cliché,” he said. “With side hustles, when you find that intersection between your skills and your passion, you find your purpose. And that’s something that is powerful enough to pursue, regardless of your workweek.”
Empowering Employees
Ready to empower your employees to take on a side hustle? Harvey shared that one challenge to be prepared to address from the outset is that not everyone has a clear vision for what their side hustle could be—which he explained is “absolutely normal.” To help people hone in on a passion project,
Harvey recommends coaching individuals to choose a smaller area to start. “Take your skill as a designer, for example, and research a subject you’re passionate about—animal rescue, environmentalism—and find a place where you can make an impact. It can be something as simple as an infographic that not only makes a positive impact externally, but also stokes your passion for creation, and informs insights into future work.”
He adds that it’s important to encourage workers to take a chance on themselves by telling them: “Trust that you can also find a beautiful intersection between passion and skillset and that might even help your day job, and more importantly, shape your future direction as a creative. It really comes down to timing and inspiration. Once you see that door, you must go through it. It’s transformative.”
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