In about 15 per cent of the organisations, the proportion of gig workers in the past two years has increased by more than 30 per cent…reports Asian Lite News
Nearly 65 per cent of Indian firms are currently employing gig workers, a higher share compared to 57 per cent in 2020, a Nasscom report said on Thursday.
However, while the share of organisations employing gig workers has increased, their proportion remains less than 5 per cent of the total workforce (in companies with more than 2,000 full-time employees).
For smaller organisations with less than 2,000 full-time employees, gig worker proportion is more than 5 per cent and none of the organisations surveyed have mentioned a decline in gig hiring, according to the report by Nasscom and job portal Indeed in partnership with financial services firm AON.
“The future workforce will indeed be a blended model wherein the gig economy is expected to play an important role not only as a talent management strategy but also accelerate job creation and boost the country’s economic growth,” said Debjani Ghosh, President, Nasscom.
In about 15 per cent of the organisations, the proportion of gig workers in the past two years has increased by more than 30 per cent.
Globally, India has the second largest annual supply of STEM graduates.
Though the accelerated demand for digital transformation has intensified the talent crunch globally, the gig workforce has emerged as an important talent management strategy for organisations and can play a key role in closing the tech talent demand-supply gap.
The dynamic business landscape and evolving operating models have ushered in an opportunity for the gig economy to become a key talent management strategy for enterprises, said the report.
The gig economy over the last two years has evolved significantly.
Notably, software development, UI/UX design, and data analytics have emerged as the top three in-demand “giggable” skills within the technology sector.
Before the pandemic, gig workers were mostly hired for projects with a duration of up to nine months. However, the duration of projects being offered to gig workers has increased significantly post-pandemic.
About 25 per cent of the surveyed organisations are open to hiring gig workers for projects with a duration of more than 12 months now, the report said.
Over 40 per cent of the surveyed organisations decide on a fixed fee at the initiation of a gig contract.
As many as 53 per cent of organisations have policies to absorb gig workers as full-time employees.
“Moreover, over 90 per cent of the surveyed organisations remain open to re-hiring gig workers in the same or adjacent areas of work based on past performance evaluation,” the findings showed.
Meanwhile, Indian startups are going through steep hiring cuts and hiring of permanent employees has dipped by a significant 61 per cent in the last 12 months, a new report showed on Monday.
The hiring for chief experience officer (CXO) has decreased by a massive 93 per cent since October 2021, according to the annual insights report by RazorpayX Payroll, the business banking platform of Razorpay.
The changing dynamics of the startup ecosystem has resulted in massive shifts in hiring patterns in the last 12 months.
Despite lower hiring, total salary spent on existing full-time employees increased by 64.7 per cent.
However, these rising salaries are not distributed equitably across genders, especially in the top salary bracket, said the report.
“The Indian startup ecosystem has been facing headwinds in the past few months but they have been nothing short of resilient and adaptive to such a dynamic environment. The data indicates that startups have been optimising their workforce by building leaner yet stronger teams, keeping in mind the macro-forces,” said Shashank Mehta, Vice President and Head of RazorpayX.
With many startups facing the chills of funding winter, most of them are cutting back on their hiring.
“While hiring across departments has decreased, hiring in technology seems to have been least impacted. Technology-related jobs have managed to marginally increase their contribution to the overall workforce by 4 per cent while the hiring trend is slowing down in general,” the findings showed.
While hiring permanent employees has seen a fall, gig workers seem to be the preferred way to go for startups.
Payments to gig workers have seen a growth of 153 per cent since Oct 2021. The total number of enterprises who have shifted to a semi-gig workforce model has increased by 15 per cent.
Semi-skilled gig workers who are paid less than Rs 20,000 have the highest contribution to the entire pool of gig workers being hired by startups, followed by those who earn anywhere between Rs 20,000-Rs 40,000, said the report.
“However, these workers are one of the slowest growing cohorts growing at 26 per cent and 52 per cent, respectively. However, skilled gig workers who earn between Rs 85,000 to more than Rs 150,000, although contributing the least to the overall pool, have seen the highest growth in the last one year,” mentioned the report.
