Big Temptation: Firms are hiring on a temporary basis even for highly-specialised jobs

In the last six years, data analyst Smriti Prakash has worked with three different multinational companies including a technology firm, a healthcare company and a financial services behemoth. Her job profile has been more or less same - collating and analysing crucial data to aid in decision-making. Her frequent "job hopping" has been "seamless", all thanks to her real employer, a staffing firm in Bengaluru that has deployed her systematically with various companies, depending on requirements and in turn, provided the companies with a talented resource who is not actually on payrolls.

Temping, once common among blue-collar workers, is becoming common for highly-specialised white-collar roles like data scientists, business analysts, cloud computing engineers and fields of machine learning, Internet of Things (IoT), digital marketing, etc.

According to Suchita Dutta, executive director, Indian Staffing Federation (ISF), with the advent of automation, temp roles such as website design, graphics design, gaming, app design, coding, project management, etc, have gained a lot of traction.

"Initially, temping started off with blue-collar job profiles, moving onto white collar with clerical jobs, and today, it has scaled to niche and highly-specialised roles," says Kapil Sharma, chief sales officer, Collabera.

Around 42% organisations have indicated an intention to employ temp staff in the next few months' time, shows data by human resources firm TeamLease Services. Usually, companies take on temp staff for a period of six months to a year, sometimes stretching up to two years, say experts. Sectors such as information technology, healthcare, banking, financial services, retail, consumer durables and e-commerce are at the forefront when it comes to syncing up with temps.

"But no company will willingly admit towards having temps in office. This is to do with the fact that temping brings in a whole host of benefits and savings which companies do not wish to share with the outside world," said an expert.

Having temp workers is a clever strategy for companies as it cushions them during volatile scenarios and when launching new projects as it allows them to avail new talent without actually adding to their human resource costs. Organisations end up saving anywhere from 10-20% of manpower costs, not only through temp salaries but also via resources that would have otherwise gone into mediclaim, provident fund, insurance and training costs, which are taken care of by the staffing firms.

"The top motivators for employers to hire flexi or temp staff include the added flexibility to try out potential hires, having a back-up for permanent employees who are on a break, ease of hiring and the fact that temps are a quick fix to short-term talent requirements," says Rituparna Chakraborty, executive vice president at TeamLease Services.

ISF research shows that over 60% of the organisations that have been engaging temp staff have accelerated faster from a downturn.

"Temping gives more control on the cost and the desired output. The balance of technology and skill requirement is to some extent upheld by the temping trend for niche skills. It provides flexibility to the employer to use the resource when required and not bear any bench cost," says Sharma.

According to Chakraborty, temp workers account for 10-15% of the actual employee base at IT companies, while constituting 30-40% of the total base in manufacturing and automotive sectors. Retail and e-commerce are witnessing a 20% year-on-year rise in temp candidates.

Professionals working as temps also stand to benefit tremendously. Prakash says she has gained the experience of working with organisations from different sectors and on diverse projects. Salaries are also attractive. According to Chakraborty, temp profiles for data scientists command an average Rs 15-20 lakh per year, while cloud computing engineers can get Rs 11-12 lakh and cybersecurity professionals can take home upwards of Rs 7 lakh per annum.

As per industry estimates, India employs approximately three million temps and is the third-largest employer of flexi staff after the USA and China.

"With a growth rate of 15-18%, flexi staffing will be the largest employment mobiliser in the near future," states Dutta, adding that ISF has over 110 members who represent organised staffing companies and collectively, these members employ close to one million formal flexi staff annually.

According to Chakraborty, TeamLease currently has two lakh associates.

"At Collabera, we have over 12,000 temps who work for our clients across the world. And this count is increasing at 10% year-on-year," says Sharma.

HOP, WORK JUMP

• 42% – Organisations have indicated an intention to employ temp staff in the next few months
   
• 60% – Of the organisations that have been engaging temp staff have accelerated faster from a downturn
   
• 10-20% – Manpower costs tempting saves