Should MBA Candidates Give Up Hunting For Employment And Instead Work For The Gig Economy?

To begin a discussion on preference for ＆gig＊ versus ＆non-gig＊ work opportunities, we must begin with a caveat that at its core it is a personal choice of any individual, hence this should not be seen as a binary - ＆either employment or gig-working＊ - kind of a question or debate.

The choice to take on gig-work or otherwise is driven by myriad factors such as - personality of the individual; perception and attitude towards formal employment versus gig-work (in the context of the risk quotient of such opportunities); skill-set demand gap at a given point in time; general state of the economy and employment; what kind of and to what extent organizations are open to hire gig workers; etc.

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Who are gig workers?

The NITI Aayog, Government of India, defines gig workers as ※those in livelihoods outside the traditional employer-employee arrangement.§ They further categorize gig-work into ＆platform＊ based and ＆non-platform＊ based work.

The former refers to work based on online software apps or digital platforms, whereas the latter includes casual-wage workers and own-account workers in the conventional sectors, either working part-time or full time.

Gig workers in India

Currently there are an estimated 7.7 million workers in the Indian gig economy, which is expected to grow threefold to 23.5 million workers by 2029-30. About 47 percent of these are engaged in medium skilled jobs, whereas 31 percent are in low skilled and 22 percent are in high skilled jobs.

Trendspotting reveals that although the medium skills type of jobs will continue to be the most popular category of gig-work until 2030, however, it is showing a declining trend. Henceforth, low skilled and high skilled category of gig-work is going to rise.

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How gig economy is changing in India

The nature of gig-work and gig-working opportunities is being fundamentally reshaped in a developing economy like India due to the following factors 每

The advancements in digital technologies and platforms, including enhanced capabilities for distributed global teams working together from anywhere; regulatory requirements allowing such processes. This will further enable high skill jobs flowing into the gig-economy in the Indian context.

Cost of hiring skilled workers and stiffening rules for foreign workers in developed economies 每 which is making it more difficult for corporation especially in developed economies to hire work force with superior and higher order skills. Coupled with technological advantages discussed above, this would increase work-from-anywhere opportunities hence more gig work.

Rising wages in erstwhile less developed economies 每 for instance in India along with traditional and well-known B-Schools, so many other schools are competing successfully in the premium job markets along with the marquee schools. Gig workers compared to fulltime being lower cost may be of preference to companies, especially those with limited resource.

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Gig works and startups

The legacy of work offshoring in the Indian context, which continues to expand in both quality and quantity. Increasingly, the nature of offshoring work coming to India is not only at the lower end of business process outsourcing and maintenance work, but also in the high-end R&D, Consulting, Designing kind of work, which requires more higher end skills.

This has serious implications for business graduates, especially those with work experience 每 to consider higher paying gig-work rather than going for an aspirational employer-brand not willing to match the monetary compensations of the former.

The burgeoning footprint of start-ups in countries like India, wherein fuelled by easy availability of investor capital, start-ups are following different principles and practices of talent acquisition, talent management and workflow management, with clear and positive implications for gig-work.

Gig work and work-life balance

Larger numbers of graduates with professional qualifications and degrees vying for better opportunities who are increasingly less averse to joining lesser-known companies or take on gig-work.

The Employer Brand Research survey 2021, with 22 percent freelance workers in its India sample, revealed that 47 percent of the 25 to 44 year age group ranked salary and benefits as the top criteria for a job, ahead of work-life balance and career progression. Overall, across respondents 77 percent of the white-collar workers put work-life balance as their top priority whereas this was 58% for blue-collar workers. Clearly, younger age groups are aiming at money being very if not most important and if gig work presents such an opportunity, then they may go for it.

For many of the employer-brand conscious aspirants, a Contractor status in a global tech firm may be more attractive than say in many of the Indian tech firms. This again has clear implications for business graduates in general and experienced graduates in particular.

There is anecdotal evidence that in many instances mid and senior level, highly experienced employees with big-ticket compensation packages are forced relieved by employers to cut costs. Such people find it usually very difficult to find new roles with similar or higher level salaries. Many of them then choose to become freelance consultants or contractors, as it is clearly one way in which they are able to maintain their social standing.

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Gig work is the future

The current debate on ＆moonlighting＊ and the public pushback from some companies is also a footnote to this debate. Frankly, if organizations do not have a clearly stated and inclusive policy on this, then their ability to retain the more effective and high-perming employees especially, may increasingly be at peril. There is clearly a rising resentment against this and this might as well push people towards gig work.

Finally, the pandemic ended up being a catalyser of gig work as work from home at first became a necessity and then post-pandemic companies realized how this was actually not a bad option as it clearly had huge cost reduction and operational implications for them. For employees, they suddenly rediscovered the meaning of work-life balance and the importance of family, forcing them to review and reform their value system per se.

Considering the discussion points above, specifically in the Indian context, gig working as an economically rewarding and socially acceptable option of earning a living, is certainly going to rise. There are clear advantages for both the employers and the aspirants and for well-trained and highly skilled business school graduates, gig working may be an equally or differently rewarding option depending upon the prism that one uses to examine such options.

About the author: Umashankar Venkatesh is a Professor of Marketing at the Great Lakes Institute of Management, Gurgaon. All views/opinions expressed in the article are of the author.