India Inc’s expert freelancers: What do they want? | Economic Times

India’s white-collar gig workers are the new strategic advisors and skilled implementers. India Inc hires them for top skills that are not available internally. The other key reason for hiring freelancers is the need to innovate, according to a report, “Understanding Perspectives of Skilled Freelancers”, by FlexingIt, a tech-driven platform enabling the professional gig economy, that surveyed 70,000 freelancers and consultants.Research by the platform shows that 35% organisations expect that independent talent will comprise 15% of the workforce in five years. However, unstructured compensation and benefits belie the bullish intent to hire.Freelancing is an active lifestyle and professional choice — only 5% of consultants are seeking flexible projects to keep themselves busy between jobs while 21% are looking to build their brand as an independent consultant. However, organisations have a lot of catching up to do — only 25% are ready to employ professional gig workers.Says FlexingIt founder Chandrika Pasricha: “As organisations look to scale up the freelance talent category, the need for structured frameworks to determine compensation are critical to ensure fairness, transparency and gender parity.8632482286324862863248718632487486324879There is also a need to look at benefits offered, which are few, and usually not aligned with freelancer expectations.”For instance, the gap in benefits expected and received is stark — freelancers commonly receive allowances and training, while what motivates them most are benefits like performance bonuses followed by medical insurance. The absence of a structured framework to guide freelancer compensation is a significant gap.Gender disparity, too, is evident in project-based work — in the absence of a framework, gender divide creeps in, especially for jobs that require greater experience and are at higher pay levels.A 2020 McKinsey Global Institute study on Covid-19 and gender equality estimates that women’s jobs are 1.8 times more vulnerable to the pandemic crisis.Freelancing is currently underleveraged as an opportunity for women in India and can be used as a key strategy to address the country’s poor Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR) for women, finds FlexingIt research.Overall, within the pool of consultants surveyed by FlexingIt, one-third are women. However, within the pool of active consultants, only 20% are women, signalling that they are not leveraging this as a career strategy yet.