Gig Economy: Overtaking Traditional Employment?
In the last few years, the ‘Gig Economy’ has gained a lot of prominence in India with benefits like remote working, flexible work hours and enhanced income potential contributing to a thriving gig ecosystem. As per a report by ASSOCHAM, India’s gig sector is expected to increase to USD 455 billion at a CAGR of 17 percent by 2024 and has the potential to expand at least 2x the pre-pandemic estimates.
A leg apart from traditional employment, the gig economy offers temporary, part-time or project-based employment opportunities with organisations across all skill levels and roles. With the advent of this new economy, more people want to enter the gig workforce to gain flexibility and tap into opportunities that didn’t exist before.
No longer is traditional employment defined as the ideal way to work. The last five years, coupled with the pandemic snowballing, have seen a massive rise in enterprises engaging with gig partners for core business functions, which has emerged as a solidifying factor for the gig economy.
WHAT IS GIG ECONOMY IN SIMPLE WORDS?
A gig economy is a free market system in which temporary positions are common and organisations hire independent workers for short-term commitments. The term “gig” is a slang word for a job that lasts a specified period of time.
EMBRACING THE GIG
The preference of the Indian workforce is changing to non-traditional ways of working. The independence and flexibility offered by the gig economy to choose projects and work hours has attracted millions of people to join the gig workforce and earn their livelihoods conscientiously.
Take, for instance, Rekha*, hailing from Tirupati. She joined a work fulfilment platform seven months after she had her baby. Yes! Just seven months! Since then, she has been working on multiple digital gigs from the comfort of her home, earning over Rs 3 lakh within just 10 months, while juggling between her newborn, family, and upskilling opportunities.
ADVANTAGES OF MOVING TOWARDS GIG ECONOMY
Earlier, gig partners were not perceived as a ‘cream’ workforce as only 9-5 jobs were considered respected work opportunities. However, the gig economy has evolved from a side hustle to a primary source of income for millions of people worldwide.
People have now started to understand the benefits of flexibility, work-life balance, increased earnings, and the freedom to pursue their passion without being shackled to a 9-to-5 job.
The implementation of social security benefits will also break down existing perception-led challenges of the gig economy. Combining labour law reforms with robust digital infrastructure, and the advent of work-tech platforms, we have an otherwise informal sector streamlining itself.
Not just gig partners, but even enterprises are now experimenting with the gig model to optimise their businesses. Enterprises now regard the gig workforce as an efficient and speedy go-to-market solution that allows them to offload core business functions on-demand while removing hurdles of high fixed costs, long recruitment cycles, and other compliance.
A gig workforce also offers agility to enterprises, making it easy to scale up or down to meet business requirements.
Beneficial as it may be, deploying a gig workforce independently still comes with its own set of challenges. While almost every core business function such as sales, marketing, business development and logistics can be giggified, enterprises find it difficult to identify and execute independently.
Moreover, enterprises find it hard to manage a sizable gig workforce without the right tools and technology. Gig platforms bring their expertise in this regard. A gig platform can, first, solve any problem statement for the client.
Second, leverage technology to enable end-to-end workflow and payroll management customised to business requirements. Third, use technology to maintain quality control and take responsibility for outcomes generated by the gig workforce.
THE CHANGING FACE OF EMPLOYMENT
In a dynamic business environment, enterprises need to rethink their workforce and find efficient ways to meet business requirements. While traditional employment has been resilient for many decades now, the gig economy presents advantages that cannot be ignored.
As the gig economy continues to empower enterprises and working professionals, we cannot deny that the gig revolution will lead to the future of work. Although many have already learned that the right way to scale sustainably is through a gig workforce, others will embrace this future of work in the coming years.
By: Dr. Amrit Das
