Demand For Gig Workforce Picks Up As Layoffs Create Gaps

IT major Infosys’s gig workforce platform ‘Accelerate’ has seen a surge in demand in the last quarter, wherein over 5,000 employees applied and some 600 were assigned Accelerate projects.

The demand for gig or part-time workforce has shot up in India as several companies, including big tech, have recently laid off thousands of employees, creating gaps in various roles and skillsets. Typically, IT companies employ the readily available gig workforce for short-term projects that land up suddenly and have an uncertain tenure.

India’s gig economy is expected to nearly triple from 7.7 million people in 2021 to 23.5 million by 2029-30, according to a report by NITI Aayog. “The growing gig economy has the potential to change the nature of work in the future by influencing a radical change in the workforce, workplace, and work models. Businesses have the chance to scale up or down their resources as necessary and acquire the skills they need to finish particular tasks and projects,” said Daya Prakash, founder, TalentOnLease, a provider of IT talent on demand.

IT major Infosys’s gig work platform ‘Accelerate’ has seen a surge in demand in the last quarter, wherein over 5,000 employees applied and some 600 were assigned Accelerate projects.

Pune-based Tech Mahindra’s ‘BeGig’ platform, which enables employers to hire freelance workforce, has more than 20,000 freelancers registered with a variety of technical, domain, and management skills. The platform has gained popularity of late as the company is forming policies around moonlighting to allow employees to take up approved side gigs.

HR services firm Avsar has seen a 76% rise in gig employees’ registration after the pandemic. Cost effectiveness, flexibility, and specialisation are some of the key benefits offered by gig workforce, according to Avsar.

“Hiring freelancers can help organisations reduce their overall expenses as gig workers are equipped to work from home, which reduces office costs. Moreover, the organisations are not bound to pay them benefits such as healthcare, retirement, transport, paid leaves, and holidays… They are available round the clock and on weekends. Also, the gig economy enables organisations to have access to highly trained employees as gig workers put continuous effort to upgrade their skills according to market requirements to get highly paid contracts,” said Navneet Singh, CEO, Avsar.

Recruitment firm Spectrum Talent Management has recently seen an 18-25% rise in gig workforce on its platform. “We have created a database of talent who are readily available to join in a span of a week or two at the maximum. This helps the workforce find a suitable job in a shorter span and in turn is beneficial for the companies or clients who are in need of experienced talent,” said Sidharth Agarwal, co-founder and director of Spectrum.

Gig workforce allows IT companies to explore newer models of engagement like hiring resources with “one level lower skill” and a “try and buy” model, according to AR Ramesh, director of managed services, professional staffing, Adecco India. In the “try and buy” model, companies can bring in potential employees on a contract basis before hiring them full-time based on their performance.

“While platform work is challenging and comprises of a complex, heterogeneous ecosystem of businesses and activities, I see that more real gig platforms like Swiggy can be built for IT as well for specific skills that are more ticket-based (like troubleshooting) … contracts will need to be rewritten where gig workers are used across customers like in a platform model,” said Ramesh.

Author: Ayushman Baruah, Article was originally published on financialexpress.com featuring Spectrum Talent Management.