Indian IT companies have tweaked their hiring curves. After burning cash aplenty to onboard—the coveted tech talent—their focus has veered to gig workers. Battered by the never seen before drop-out rates, tech companies are banking on freelance digital talent to commission unfinished projects and meet burgeoning client expectations.
Staffing firm XPheno estimates that hiring gig workers by tech enterprises has been experiencing a growth in the range of 2-19 percent over the last quarter. Gig workers are professionals who take up makeshift jobs, typically in the service sector, either as independent contractors or as freelancers.
IT companies feel that recruiting gig workers completes pending digital projects, fills in new roles, and creates a dispersed, dynamic, and flexible talent pipeline.
A virtual talent pool, or talent cloud, is what TCS refers to as its gig workforce, which can be accessed from anywhere in the world to fulfill the needs of clients and projects. Infosys expects to see more gig jobs emerge in fields such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Data Analytics, Product Engineering, Cloud Computing, and User Interface (UI)/User Experience (UX) design.
Other IT majors like Wipro and Tech-Mahindra have built their digital gig platforms- TopCoder and BeGig, respectively that help any organization hunt for the right gig talent. An Assocham report released in June this year says India is home to more than 15 million gig workers deployed for tech projects.
But the tribe of gig workers is breaching the boundaries of tech companies and growing beyond. According to Taskmo, over 66 percent rise in gig work was recorded during June compared to May.
Gig economy and its growth beyond side hustle
The gig economy is emerging with the potential to disrupt the future of work. The Indian gig economy is slated to log 17 per cent growth to reach $455 billion by 2024 (Assocham report). And the gig workforce is projected to ramp up to 23.5 million by 2029-30 (Niti Aaayog). Clearly, the gig workforce has evolved beyond the side hustle.
The origin of the ‘gig economy’ can be traced back to 1915, when Jazz musicians coined the term ‘gig’ in reference to their live performances. The gig economy has been steadily expanding with an impact on labour dynamics, payroll and the global economy.
A virulent pandemic reset the way enterprises do their businesses. It accelerated the race for digital transformation, spurring companies to Cloud-ify and SaaS-ify their operations. Enter the dawn of an aspirational economy and flex work where companies are keen to Gig-ify work. Mobility aggregators dominated the gig economy in India with 2.5 million platform job opportunities until 2018. In fact, the need for gig workers has never been greater after nations faced recurring waves of the pandemic since early 2020.
Gig economy has changed drastically the work-worker-workplace equation. It has blurred the boundaries of work, offered more flex to workers and altered the definition of the workplace. In addition, work performance is location agnostic as a gig worker can deliver on a project while operating from anywhere.
In 2022, the contours of the gig map have changed. Low-skilled workers no longer populate today’s Gig workforce. Instead, there is a marked surge in demand for high-skilled white-collar gig workers like engineers, independent consultants, content writers and tutors. About 47 percent of gig work is performed by medium-skilled workers such as electricians, carpenters, beauticians, construction workers, and telecallers, 22 per cent by high-skilled workers, and 31 percent by low-skilled workers such as cab drivers, delivery executives, pickers, and packers.
Among the top countries for gig work, India ranks fifth. However, with cost-cuts and qualified workforces, the firms are shrinking, and start-ups rely more on freelancers and contract service providers. Nevertheless, I believe that the gig economy will be instrumental in achieving India’s avowed milestone of a $5 trillion economy due to its massive growth and its stellar role in plugging the unemployment gap.
In a gig workforce, you have reliable and flexible people.
Today, enterprises acknowledge the gig workforce as an efficient and speedy go-to-market solution that allows them to offload core business functions on-demand while navigating hurdles like long recruitment cycles, training, retention, and other compliances. In addition to cost savings, the gig economy offers enterprises flexibility, allowing them to scale up or down as necessary. With gig platforms at scale, businesses can get work done on-demand while offering partners visibility and income assurance without the need for ‘full-time’ work. In addition, companies can quickly assemble a new team to meet a business need by hiring contingent workers on a project basis.
Gig workers with a specific skill set are also easier to move to different short-term projects. Their take-off began with start-ups, but gig platforms are witnessing accelerated adoption among large enterprises. The gig model is abuzz for widespread adoption with visible advantages like access to a varied pool of qualified on-demand workforce, hyperlocal penetration, and outcome-based pay-outs.
The challenges and what industries can do
Before fast-pedalling its growth, we need to zoom in on the challenges stalking the gig ecosystem. More financial security, upskilling opportunities, social security and insurance covers like health and accidental benefits from enterprises can buoy their gig partners. The future of work isn’t tagged to a 9 to 5 desk but in setting new paradigms for engaging people with flex workspaces. Whether you are a service seeker or a provider, a gig work culture is a win-win scenario—an ambience where brainstorming and blue-sky thinking can commingle.
- Priyadarshi Nanu Pany, Founder & CEO, CSM Technologies Pvt Ltd
About the Author
Mr Priyadarshi Nanu Pany is the President & CEO of CSM Technologies, an IT company that was founded in 1998. He has stewarded the conceptualization and deployment of disruptive technology solutions that have transformed the face of citizen-centric governance. A tech evangelist, Mr Pany is a thought leader who writes at the intersection of policy and technology.
Below are links to some of his published columns:
https://sambadenglish.com/why-co-working-spaces-will-be-the-new-normal/
https://sambadenglish.com/why-navigating-multi-modal-logistics-is-crucial-for-eodb-2-0/
https://www.orissapost.com/work-from-office-back-as-new-normal/
https://www.orissapost.com/work-from-office-back-as-new-normal/
https://sambadenglish.com/why-tech-unicorns-should-avoid-the-ipo-rush/
https://outlookmoney.com/tech-toys/digital-solution-for-last-mile-vaccine-challenge-7527
https://www.csm.tech/blog-details/engage-better-with-alumni-to-combat-the-great-resignation/
https://www.csm.tech/blog-details/web-30-reimagining-the-internets-future-with-blockchain/
