Amid job cuts, IT firms are hiring freelancers and part-time employees

IT services firms such as Wipro, Infosys and others plan to adopt a “gig economy” as they explore options for short-term hiring or freelancers for certain projects. 

As the IT services sector sees a shift towards digital resulting in the need for newer skills, these companies are looking to experiment with platforms that can generate new ideas to solve problems of clients and getting certain work done by freelancers. More companies are transitioning from a people-heavy model to an agile model with projects becoming outcome-based. 

Wipro has created an exclusive crowd-sourcing platform called TopGear after it acquired Appirio and considers this as one of top three levers for operational efficiencies. This platform opens up avenues for coders or engineers to generate new ideas which can be implemented on projects. 

The Economic Times reported on Tuesday how companies such as Persistent Systems, Wipro, Infosys are exploring models where people can work based on the demand thereby creating opportunities for freelancing at IT services firms. The ET report said such practices are at a very nascent stage. 

“The second level that we want to look at is - we have engaged with our outsourcing platform within Wipro; the platform that we got as part of Appirio TopCoder. We have leveraged the same platform within Wipro as well we call it the TopCoder for Wipro, TopGear. And utilising that platform we are able to get higher value from Wipro associates for executing our programmes,” B M Bhanumurthy, chief operating officer, Wipro, told analysts after fourth quarter results.  

More people are reportedly taking up short-term works through freelancing on areas such as user experience, and other emerging technology works. 

Infosys said the company would experiment with a “blended workforce” model where full-time and part-time would work together on differentiated needs.