Oh, I get it...
The thing is, as the story explains; Sealed Town, or the town the Guild is... Is extremely poor, not only that, but the other towns hate them.
The Guild is not like an Adventurer's Guild from any serie/game, its your a group o people to help or protect the town based on the Hero's decisions and not on contracts or something.
You are a guy who is helping the town via other ways, and when you send the girls to work, you're just sending them to do the same as you; Gather materials for the town.
That's why the Hero gathering materials himself is the main way of progessing. The game will definitely have more stuff for managment, but it will never be around "Stay afk and gain profit". Its more like extra money if you do it right.
In Chapter 1 the guild board is changed, they go twice the speed, but they have a stamina bar, and theh get slower as that stamina bar lowers.