www.peopleandmanagement.com
No Employment Right
But the reality for most ‘self-em-
ployed contractors’ is that working
in the gig economy means lower pay,
lack of security, and no employment
rights worth speaking of.
The biggest issue here would
be that the self-employed gig work
does not come with pensions, sick
pay, holiday entitlement or parental
leave. You have to be a ‘worker’ or an
‘employee’ to get these basic rights.
for your career. It’s you who will
suffer; if you have not planned your
career, nobody else. So it is in your
interest that you make a proper
career plan.
In such situation, gig economy
offers numerous opportunities for
generation-x as they can always
work as per their skill set without
having to worry about performance
rating.
Gig Economy for Millennials
Opportunities in Gig Economy
However, I believe these
challenges cannot be a deal-breaker
because a self-employed professional,
from doctors to shopkeepers, never
had pensions, sick pay, holiday
entitlement, or parental leave. Gig
economy is here to stay and will
fl ourish. Companies will need to
revisit their plans, be judicious in
using the ‘better’ skilled freelancers
to do regular roles while keeping the
critical profi les in-house.
New Generation Gaining
Expertise
Apart from ecosystem
challenges, the new generation is
gaining expertise in performing a
task so fast that they can do with
higher effi ciency at the same level
of performance which we used to
perform with more experience.
All Times Opportunities for Gig
Professional
Your employability is time
contextual. You may be a blue-eyed
professional at a particular time of
your career but the situation may
not remain the same throughout.
A good career planning is the
need of the hour. Assuming that
you are going to remain employed
throughout your working life span
will not be true. Take responsibility
Colleges and institutes are
intended to prepare students for
their career, but the curriculum
is not enough to develop practical
skills and make them fi nancially
independent until they get into jobs.
However, the new age gig economy
helps them gain more practical
skills and become fi nancially
independent.
Gig economy helps the student
acquire relevant skills as per
the needs of the market. It is the
faster, cheaper, and better way to
get the business education you
need. Gig means small projects or
assignments, which can be done
remotely or on site. These are
usually short termed and can be
done within a limited period of
time. Not all the fi elds of studies
can afford to provide gigs, but most
of them turning towards it. Human
resource, marketing, fi nance,
software development, electronics,
IT, telecom, analytics, fi ne arts, and
languages are some of the areas
where students can expect to get
gigs.
While the student learns
the core of their subject while
performing gigs, they also get much
more in terms of induction to the
professional world. Some of the
practical skill lessons for students as
gig professionals are:
Marketing: The gig economy
professional gets to understand
the need of the customers and
communicate with them in a
compelling way. One can’t just focus
on being good at delivering core
product or service, you also have
to be in charge of sales, branding,
marketing, and new product
development.
Communication: Good
communication is the key driver of
success in freelancing. Networking,
pitching new business ideas,
working with different teams on
regular basis, and keeping the
clients up-to-date, all require
proactive and professional
communication skills, which a gig
economy professional gets to learn
in the process.
Employeeship: While
gig workers are independent
contractors, they have to understand
what a company needs from
someone they hire. Employeeship
is an important point to learn
i.e how a good employee should
behave in an organisation. In the
gig economy, they get to know what
a good professional looks like, how
to work with others, learning to
manage by infl uencing others where
they don’t have direct control etc.
They can also observe how their gig
supervisors are managing them and
emulate those traits to be successful
in the career.
To conclude, I would like to
underline the fact that although
there are challenges in the gig
economy domain, it is not a fad.
It is a new reality and HR has to
incorporate it as one of the means of
Talent Acquisition; it is here to stay
and grow. P & M
Vol. 9 Issue 6 • Sep-Oct 2018, Noida / Pre-Event Edition |
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