Despite hiring hiccups in 2022, new flexi jobs continued to exhibit growth

One could generally see a typical trend of reduced hiring momentum in the recent past. How is the scenario like when it comes to flexi jobs?

Despite the typical trend of reduced hiring momentum in the last quarter of a calendar year, new flexi jobs continued to exhibit growth. In fact, the Oct-Dec 2022 quarter witnessed a 0.8 per cent increase in new flexible job opportunities, even amidst a cautious employment market. In 2022, Indian Staffing Federation’s member companies contributed an impressive 1.92 lakh new flexi jobs to India's formal employment sector. Interestingly, the newly added flexi jobs spanned across both General Staffing and IT Staffing. The flexi staffing industry has emerged as a significant contributor to India's formal employment pool, with member companies adding nearly 2 lakh new flexi jobs in 2022, reflecting the sector's resilience and agility in adapting to the changing demands of the industry.

How many people are currently engaged by ISF member companies in different sectors? Have you come out of the pandemic shocks and impacts?

As on today as many as 1.4 million workforce is engaged by ISF member companies. See, in 2019, this number stood at 1 million. Then in 2020, it came down to 900,000. And now it has gone up to 1.4 million. So we have already surpassed the pre-pandemic level. Last year alone the number has grown 21.9 per cent compared to its previous year. This year we are expecting the number to grow at 16 per cent. One must remember here that as we keep on recruiting new people, there are attritions as well. But most strikingly, the rate of new hiring is much higher than the rate of attrition.

Which are the sectors that are hiring more?

I would say, they are: Manufacturing, BFSI, retail, tourism, telecom, IT & ITeS, logistics & e-commerce, startups and other industries.

What about IT sector, in particular? There have been reports of retrenchment, lay-offs…..

IT staffing in India mirrored the global trend of IT hiring slowdown in various markets. During the Oct-Dec 2022 quarter, there was a dip of 2.5 per cent in flexi jobs headcount. Although the Oct-Dec quarter is typically a lean hiring period, the IT staffing industry showed a growth of 4.7 per cent in flexi jobs hiring compared to the same quarter in the previous year (Oct-Dec 2021).

While it's natural for there to be fluctuations in hiring patterns during the lean period of the Oct-Dec quarter, we believe that the IT staffing industry in India has the potential for strong growth in the future.

How many member companies do you have at this point in time and are you looking at increasing the number?

Indian Staffing Federation, the apex body representing flexi staffing companies, formed to provide a platform for recognized employment, work choice, even compensation, social security and health benefits for the temporary workforce, at present, has over 110 members, who together have generated employment for over 9 million employees over the last 10 years. Yes, we are certainly keen on increasing the number of our members and we are also actively tapping the tier-II cities/markets for that.

Like in other types of recruitment, is digital hiring process growing in case of flexi jobs?

Yes, many companies are using cutting-edge technology for digitisation of their complete on-boarding process. It’s growing significantly. There are many such technology platforms available. We cannot tell our clients specifically which is to be used, but we can certainly help them generally, in the process.

Introduction of some social security mechanism for flexi staffing industry has been your long pending demands…..

Yes, we have been urging on the Centre to offer social security to the 120 million workers employed in the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs). We have also made an appeal to the government to introduce schemes similar to the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) and Pradhan Mantri Rojgar Protsahan Yojana (PMRPY) for sectors like agriculture, construction and other industries. Mind you that the PMRPY scheme is aimed at incentivising employers for creating new jobs wherein the central government pays the employer’s contribution of Employees’ Pension Scheme (EPS) for the new employment. These schemes are important especially for sectors like MSME which have majority of their workforce in the informal sector and can help spur creation of formal jobs in the country.

What is your focus now?

The principal focus of the Federation's activities shall be to strengthen triangular employment relationships, in which the staffing company is the employer of the temporary worker, who works under the supervision of the user company. The purpose of ISF is to enhance long-term growth of the staffing industry and to ensure its continued ability to make positive contributions to the economy and society.