Tuesday, 18th October, 2022:
With the pandemic driven upswing in job changes, rise in entrepreneurial mindset, and ease of working from anywhere, professional gig-working is becoming a fast emerging trend in the corporate workplace.
IndusGuru (an online curated platform of freelance professionals), recently conducted a research study with more than 50+ companies from diversified sectors like FMCG, Health, Infra, Manufacturing, Professional services etc, on the future of workforce hiring practices in India and organisational trends in hiring gig talent. As per the analysis, the next 2-5 years will see a rising trend of gig professionals being engaged in India –around 50% primarily at Manager & Executive (Mid-Career level) positions.
To further gather inputs, the company hosted a panel discussion event in Mumbai with few industry stalwarts in attendance.
The Chief Guest of the event was Mr.Harsh Mariwala, Chairman, Marico Limited and Founder, ASCENT. He addressed the audience with his inspiring entrepreneurial journey, how he created a world class company from a small part of the family business that was entrusted to him with a strong focus on quality and governance.
Talking about the current trend of hiring professionals, Mr. Mariwala said “As a business owner, your personal integrity is reflected in the way you do business, so the same principle of integrity plays an important role in hiring an employee or a consultant. The “War for talent” today is as serious as war for market share. Engaging professionals better than you will take your organisation to a next growth level. Initiating small project work with an external consultant / expert will help in identifying the professional skills for along term partnership association. Most importantly, organisations should consider the HR and people aspects in every step of the management decision making process, in order to enhance business and employee performance”
The panelists who participated in the discussion were:
Anita Ramchandran – Founder & CEO, Cerebrus
Madhav Joshi – Chief Executive Officer, India Health Fund
Nitu Bhushan – CHRO, South Asia, Pernod Ricard
Sameer Bendre – Chief of Operations, Persistent Systems
Santoshi Kittur – Chief Technology Officer, IIFL Wealth
They spoke about the shift they are seeing in the traditional hiring approach and how they have been sourcing and on boarding gig professionals, what policies and benchmarks they have set so far and what future needs they see emerging in their organization context of gig-hiring.
The research report also describes, how traditionally, companies have relied on contracting agencies or consulting firms where contingent workforce was employed full time. These typically entail bench time overheads and higher margins. But over the last few years, several Freelancer platforms have emerged which cater to different levels and functional skills of the talent market – and are providing a cost-effective alternate.
What the research report says…..
The report says, 65% or 2/3rd of the companies surveyed are already engaging gig professionals -mainly in FMCG, Pharma, BFSI, Services Industry, Manufacturing, Technology & BPO sectors. And that the organisations are willing and keen to engage freelance professionals when they want 1) talent for Interim/project-based roles 2) to build short term flex capacity 3) to build new capabilities.
Several recent reports have projected that the total demand of the gig workforce is expected to grow at a CAGR of 17% in the next 2-5 years.
How are gig– professionals sourced? The findings says it’s still largely an informal process, with ‘word-of-mouth’ playing a large role. 61% of the current gig workforce engaged are sourced through reference/word of mouth and emerging freelancer platforms contribute to 26%
The survey also measured factors that companies should consider to onboard a gig professional. Companies valued Quality and Track-Record as the most important parameters to work with a gig professional. 36% of the participants valued quality of the consultant/expert and 24% valued a track record of clients served.
While projecting the future of the professional gig economy, 60% of company participants believe that Flexible, Part-time and Contractual hiring is likely to be the most prominent future need, followed by consulting projects.
Mr. Deepak Malkani, Co-Founder, IndusGuru said “Our research is aimed at providing insights to organisations on adopting the gig workforce, scaling it in the immediate term and adopting fundamental changes for the long-term sustainability. We held detailed case study interviews which helped us dive deep into the gig-hiring roles and find organisations willing and keen to engage freelance professionals in a wide range of situations today – Interim Management /Back fill roles, Shared CXOs, PMO and Technology Hot-skills to aid Digital transformation, Project Based roles and Senior Industry Advisors”
The survey pointed the fact that companies need to work on a more formalised HR approach while managing the process of onboarding, work-arrangements, engagement and contractual payments. Also, companies need to work on aspects like training, insurance, IT & Data security while structuring the professional gig hiring system.
