PARADIGM SHIFT
Alok Nidhi Gupta
Founder and CEO Talent Recruit
W
18
hen people talk about workers employed
in the gig economy, the fi rst examples that
come to mind are of Uber or Ola Drivers
who are working “part-time” or of blue collar workers
on apps such as Urban Clap or HouseJoy who can
help you get your house in order for a fair price. The
prevailing idea is that workers use these “gigs” to
complement their income from other sources to help
improve their fi nancial stability and that there aren’t
many white collar jobs in the Gig Economy. However,
this has radically changed in just the last fi ve years! As training workers to stay
abreast of new technologies has
become a high priority for many,
organizations have realized that
the Gig Economy can offer them
much more experienced labour/
freelancers that are extremely
deliverable oriented.
Although a bulk of the Gig Workforce is still
blue-collar employees, India’s white-collar gig
economy has been steadily gathering speed with
skilled professionals now seeking flexible work
arrangements. A simple keyword search on Google
brings up a list of dedicated websites where white
collar jobs are posted for a set price and workers can
bid for the jobs or “gigs” at hand. Organizations too are adapting, although a little
slowly, to the gig economy as new technological
innovations in fields such as robotics, AI, and
blockchain are disrupting the industry. As training
workers to stay abreast of new technologies has
become a high priority for many, organizations
have realized that the Gig Economy can offer them
| Vol. 10 Issue 2 • FEBRUARY 2019, Delhi NCR