Top companies tap freelancers to overcome attrition, talent shortage

Mumbai: Demand for freelance professionals has reached a new high in the country as companies across sectors, from technology and banking to consumer and consultancy, are increasingly relying on gig talent amid rising attrition rates and limited supply of skilled talent.

Several companies, including Hindustan Unilever, EY India, Tech Mahindra, Axis Bank, and Simplilearn, are dipping into the gig talent pool with greater comfort than ever before, thanks to new ways of working since the Covid-19 outbreak.

Access to a wider talent pool and the need for flexibility and specific skills are among the key factors driving this trend, industry insiders said.

Data shared exclusively with ET by Flexing It, a gig platform for freelance work, shows that the average monthly projects/freelance openings on the platform in the first 10 months of this fiscal were nearly 50% higher than those during April-January FY21.

“We are seeing very strong demand for professional gig talent,” said Chandrika Pasricha, founder and CEO of Flexing It. “The increased comfort with remote work and a strong acceptance of the benefits of flexible talent is leading many organisations to plan long-term around distributed teams,” she told ET.

Strategy, technology, marketing, and HR are the top four skills in demand, accounting for 62% of the openings so far this fiscal, as per Flexing It data.

The top use cases include assessing new business models, investing in data science, doubling down on ecommerce, or direct to consumer (DTC), and added support for hiring.

Hindustan Unilever, the country’s largest fast moving consumer goods company, has launched a gig employment model, Open2U, that enables expert freelance talent to work with the company as consultants on fixed-duration projects.

“This allows us to create a new talent pool and expand our capacity on demand,” a HUL spokesperson said.

Hiring freelancers not only gives companies access to a diverse set of skills across value chains and geographies, but also enables them to retain flexibility on costs in an uncertain business landscape.

“Talent supply is limited, and demand is very high. For niche skills, whichever manner a person is ready for work I am ready to engage,” said Krishna Kumar, founder and CEO of edtech startup Simplilearn. “There are no fixed costs involved, and, hence, it (hiring gig talent) is better value for money.”

If companies are looking for flexibility, so are many professionals.

Flexing It data reflects a jump in the number of professionals exploring flexible work options. New gig talent registrations on the platform increased 35% on an average per month during April-January FY22 compared with the year-ago period.

“A lot of highly skilled people want to have mastery of their own time,” said Rajkamal Vempati, president and head HR at Axis Bank. “Organisations have to tap from this pool (of freelance professionals) to harness diverse talent, access specific skillsets, and meet dynamic market needs in a sustainable manner.”

The private bank targets up to 15% of incremental hiring in alternate work models through its ‘Gig-a-opportunities’ initiative.

Tech Mahindra, which hires gig workers for niche skills, has even built an external marketplace called BeGig that enables other employers to hire freelance workforce, its global chief people officer Harshvendra Soin said.

Hiring freelancers is a fast and agile way to meet talent gap, said SV Nathan, partner and chief talent officer at professional services Deloitte India. “If you are operating in a market with moving skills, it is better to tap into a pool of skilled resources where you can use and re-use as necessary,” he said.

Sandeep Kohli, partner and talent leader at EY India, said, “We have seen a steep rise in freelance roles, especially with the tech innovations coming in…There are roles across businesses wherein we welcome gig/freelance talent including technology, acquisition, brand marketing, communications, etc.”

Freelancers in India are also getting more international work. The average hourly rate for international assignments has increased to $26 in 2022 from $21 in 2020, according to a survey by Payoneer, an American digital payments services company.