‘10 per cent of the workforce will be flexible workers by 2025’

Interview of the Day: ‘10 per cent of the workforce will be flexible workers by 2025’

Rituparna Chakraborty, Vice President, Indian Staffing Federation 

What is the scenario of flexible jobs in India? What is the global trend? 

Flexi staffing is evolving in India. India now boasts of one of the largest flexi staffing workforce across the world, just behind China and USA. However, the labor laws of India have failed to keep pace with the fast expansion of this particular segment of the workforce, which is creating a number of problems for the employment service providers in this industry.

Owing to the economic uncertainty in more developed country flexi-staffing has slowed down in these parts of the world. However, four of the BRICS nations – China, India, South Africa and Brazil come in the top 5 positions in flexi staffing market size in terms of number of workers and is growing at a rapid pace. In India the industry currently employs as many as 1.3 million organised flexi-workers, and in term of employment size is already one of the largest across the world. This is projected to touch 10% of the organised workforce in the country by 2025. On the other hand if we consider international trends, the ratio of total flexi staff to total workforce in 2010 was highest in China (11.9%), South Africa (7.1%) and Australia and Cambodia (2.7% each).

How critical is educational qualification for flexi jobs? 

Educational qualification is important depending upon the nature of work especially in sectors like IT, Pharma or engineering. Given the present scenario where decent employment opportunity for people with limited education is scarce, flexi staffing industry becomes an important employment avenue across the world for such people by enabling them to enter the job market, gain valuable experience and have career growth. The general graduates had the largest share (54%) holding flexi jobs, followed by higher secondary certificate (17%), secondary certificate (9%) and diploma holders (3%). Flexi staffing industry in India has high potential to create significant job opportunities for those with average or low academic background.

How can flexi jobs help to boost career opportunities of job-seekers? 

Worldwide flexi staffing is viewed, and is acting as a spring-board for first-time job seekers. The freshers are hugely benefited as they get an opportunity to work for major brands on short-term projects and gain experience, which is difficult to crack otherwise. Flexi jobs can help them to shape and mould their careers in a way they want. This industry is an important avenue of employment for job seekers with graduate degree in general streams (Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Science, Bachelor of Commerce), lower qualifications, youth who are just out of college, with minimal work experience or even college drop outs. Utilising the work experience gained while working in flexi jobs to their advantage, they enhance their skill profile and increase their chances of being absorbed into the regular workforce.

What are the key challenges for the employer and also for the job-seeker who is exploring the area of flexible staffing? 

The biggest challenge is that this sector is over-regulated and under-supervised. Apart from this, there is a huge shortage of skill prevailing in the industry. To be successful, staffing firms need to attract and retain external talent who possess the skills and the experience to meet clients’ staffing needs. Arranging for a suitably qualified candidate in the face of a talent crunch and intensive competition over limited talent poses significant challenges and risks to its business model.  On the other hand candidates who are seeking for flexi jobs need to be extra careful as there are large numbers of unorganised players who often tend to operate beyond the ambit of labour laws which can pose a threat to their career.

How do you foresee the future of flexible staffing in India? Which industries are most active in this area today and who all will be the future leaders? 

Flexi staffing definitely has a future in India, and staffing agencies are likely to be the ‘transition agencies’. One of the areas which require immediate consideration is reforming the existing labour law system in India to bring it more in tune with the unique ‘tripartite’ feature of the flexi staffing industry. Considering that deploying flexi staff increases flexibility enabling allocation of staff as per changing requirements, companies across traditional sectors such as Retail, Telecom, Hospitality, Pharma, Manufacturing, and Agriculture are increasingly shifting to the flexi staffing model. The size of India’s Retail sector, one of the major sources of demand for flexi staff in India, is currently estimated at around US$ 450 billion and is expected to grow at 10-12% per annum. Given this positive future outlook, the sector is expected to witness a strong demand for flexi staff.

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