Open-talent 'gig' economy on the rise, but is freelancing future of work?

Gigs represent a culture, a work ethic and even the kind of projects a freelancer undertakes

What do you want to be when you grow up?” Every child has heard this question over the ages. And surely the adult posing this annoying question will not have been prepared to hear “freelance architect and part-time volunteer” for an answer. Akanksha Bansal, a 29-year-old Delhi-based architect, didn’t have this answer ready either — not till she realised that her work schedule at a leading architecture firm was becoming gruelling and she quit to work independently. “I loved the firm I was working for but, after a point, I felt that I wasn’t getting adequately paid for the effort I was putting in,” she says.
 

I loved the firm I was workingfor but, after a point, I felt that I wasn’t getting adequately paid for the effort I was putting in, says Akanksha Bansal, Freelance architect and part-time volunteer

Freelance or “gig” work, till recently considered a between-jobs indulgence, is gradually coming into its own. For skilled professionals, amateur or experienced, it is now an attractive professional path whose benefits seem to outweigh the risks involved. “I worked with a make-up studio for nearly four years before I began freelancing. To date, there’s not a single moment that I regret the switch,” says Shobhita Khurana, a 24-year-old make-up artist based in Delhi. “I love being my own boss. And quite frankly, it’s easy money,” she says. Neither Khurana nor Bansal were particularly unhappy at their respective workplaces. It was the lure of complete autonomy and the ability to switch off whenever they wanted to that made them take the leap from organised employment to their own gigs.
 
Freelance work is far from unheard of in India. Odd jobs and even skilled freelance professionals have always existed. “The plumber or electrician waiting on a busy intersection to be hired by a contractor is not a new phenomenon,” explains Mahesh Vyas, managing director and CEO, Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE). “But ‘gig economy’ has a whole new connotation.” The unorganised workers’ economy of odd jobs like plumbing, car repair or electrical works is not the same as the gig economy of a freelance management consultant, financial expert, digital marketing executive, app developer or even app-based drivers and delivery executives — perhaps in the same way that every new business venture cannot be called a start-up. Gigs are now representative of a culture, a certain work ethic and even the kind of projects a freelancer undertakes.
 

To some people, freelancing seems to be a half-baked profession or something I’m doing till I find something more ‘permanent’, says Kirat Sodhi Freelance writer and owner of a jewellery and apparel brand

Bansal, for instance, is currently an engagement volunteer with Zostel, a chain of holiday hostels, where she interacts with guests and makes them feel like a part of a community in Zostel’s different hostels. Being a gig worker, she can now switch off whenever she wants and for as long as she wants, pick up a project out of her comfort zone, and eventually go back to what she is trained to do.
 
Given this fluidity, Vyas says it is difficult to estimate the size of the gig economy in India at this stage. But some data suggest that the open-talent economy is poised for growth. Insights into the Freelancers Ecosystem, a 2018 report by PayPal based on a survey of 500 freelancers, found that one in four freelancers across the world is from India. In a recent survey by Noble House, a platform for on-demand human resources talent, 73 per cent of its respondents said they would choose a freelance project over a full-time job. The report also said that only 12 per cent of the companies that hire gig workers are MNCs — Indian corporations dominate this space overwhelmingly. Co-working spaces, driven by a plug-and-play workforce, are mushrooming across the country. Just the availability of such research is indicative of a certain amount of streamlining within the freelance ecosystem.
 

I felt there was a need gap among start-ups that wanted expertise but were not capital-heavy enough to hire someone full-time, says Saurabh Srivastava, Freelance marketing and strategy consultant

When the company at which Saurabh Srivastava worked saw a change in management, he felt that it was time to rethink his career as a marketing professional. “I thought this was a good time to go to the hills, read, detox,” he says. But during his sabbatical, his former bosses and colleagues would often get in touch with him about possible consulting projects and gigs. “I realised that there was a conspicuous need gap among early- to mid-stage start-ups, which wanted expertise but were not capital-heavy enough to hire someone full-time,” he says. Srivastava now consults companies on branding and growth strategies, helping them set up senior management teams and even finding boutique digital vendors for targeted projects. His engagement with a project usually lasts between six and nine months, going up to 18 months at times. “In some cases, I almost act as a chief of staff. My arrangement works like a hub-and-spoke model,” he adds.
 

It was different when I was freelancing with a job in hand. I didn’t care about a professional set-up or hiring more resources, Aman Vohra Freelance photographer

But with 15 years of corporate experience behind him, particularly one that came with the reassurance of a comfortable monthly salary, it took Srivastava a while to adjust to the erratic nature of freelance work. Now, he says, “it certainly has become easier to convince companies to hire a freelancer, especially since they end up paying 25-30 per cent of what they would have paid a full-time resource.”
 
“I think a big shift has been in the perception that gig was something one did outside of one’s formal work. Today, gig work is becoming the primary source of income for an increasing number of professionals,” says Sanjay Lakhotia, CEO and founder, Noble House.
 
While the creative space — writers, artists, designers, photographers, and so on — have always been visible in the gig space, opportunities for skilled and experienced business consultants are growing rapidly. “When we began this journey over four years ago, I realised that while there was a need for freelance work and workers, there weren’t enough solutions for things like curating the jobs and professionals, determining the fee or even matching potential workers with suitable projects,” says Chandrika Pasricha, CEO and founder, Flexing It, a platform for companies to hire freelance business consultants. Today, the platform has over 60,000 freelance consultants listed on its website. Tools like FeeBee — to calculate remuneration — and the fact that Flexing It also helps its gig workers with chasing payments will have helped in its success.
 

I worked with a make-up studio for four years before I began freelancing. To date, there’s not a moment that I regret the switch, says Shobhita Khurana, Freelance make-up artist

“I have hired freelancers across functions for my start-up. While a full-time resource takes about three months to be brought fully on board, a freelancer is a self-starter,” says Satish Chamyvelumani, founder of Chennai-based Frshly, an online platform for restaurants and other food players. Sowmya Velayudham, CEO of Gray Matters India, a Hyderabad-based education social enterprise, agrees with Chamyvelumani. “While it does take time for gig talent to align with the company’s vision, that time investment is still cheaper than a full-time hire,” she says. Gray Matters has, in fact, even hired senior-level freelancers through platforms like My CFO. “This space is perfect for companies looking for frugal innovations and growth hacks,” she says. Platforms such as Fiverr, Upwork, Wakency and even LinkedIn have all become increasingly popular riding on this new wave.
 
What seems like a win-win for both companies and freelancers comes with its pitfalls, too. “Accountability can prove to be a challenge, as is the fact that there are no back-ups for freelance workers working on a specific project,” says Chamyvelumani. Payments, for instance, are a big challenge. “You do feel in charge of your own career and feel like you’re closer to ‘making it big’. But when it comes to payments, especially with old-school clients, most of them don’t respect freelance work and mysteriously are in hospital or their phones are unreachable when I call to follow up,” says Sohit Khanna, a former investment researcher who quit his job to become a freelance writer.
 
“People also tend to take you a little less seriously when you say you’re a freelancer,” says Kirat Sodhi, a freelance writer and owner of RangRahee, a jewellery and apparel brand. “To some people, this seems to be a half-baked profession or something I’m doing till I find something more ‘permanent’. Which is not the case at all. I want to do this since it’s my choice and I am very happy with it,” she says. Khanna’s father, he says, continues to send him newspaper clippings for management jobs. “For a middle-income Indian family, this does not constitute a well-paying job and which, by extension, means that I am not yet ‘settled’,” he says.
 
A big grey area is also the legal aspect, especially since India has no freelance-specific legislation for grievance redressal. “Being itself a temporary work system based on short-term relationships between freelancers and consumers of their services or skill sets, the gig economy does not possess a mature legal ecosystem similar to that of established industries,” says Harsimran Singh, senior principal associate at law firm Singh & Associates. “Labour laws, formulated and based on the employer-employee relationship as defined under the applicable statute are not extended to freelancers,” he adds. The proposed Labour Code on Social Security, 2017, includes the category of a self-employed individual, but this would not benefit freelancers. “This provision has been introduced to protect the interest of workers in the unorganised sector, especially for issues relating to minimum wages,” says Singh.
 
But legislation is not on the mind of freelancers as much as establishing fair charges is. Aman Vohra worked with an MNC for nearly eight years before he quit his job to become a full-time freelance photographer. “It was different when I was freelancing with a job in hand. I didn’t care about a professional set-up or hiring more resources, or even factor in costs like paying for my own insurance,” he says. “But now, my freelance work has somewhat taken the shape of a business and so my costs have gone up. And it is quite hard to convince clients to pay me more because they think freelancers do cheap work,” says Vohra. This attitude is gradually changing across industries.
 
“The fact that large companies are now placing their trust in freelancers is a sign that better talent is more readily available,” says CMIE’s Vyas. Research by Flexing It showed that between financial years 2016-17 and 2017-18, the demand for freelancers from large Indian corporations and MNCs increased from 17 per cent to 29 per cent. Wakency, for instance, lists apparel brand Manyavar as a company that has hired freelancers through its portal.
 
But is gig the future of work in India? Commonsensically, that’s a bit of a stretch. “I don’t think a company can run entirely on a freelance workforce. There is merit in training and having institutional frameworks that should not be compromised,” says Vyas.
 
Bansal, the architect, believes freelancing has made her a bit of a loner. “I am a people’s person and I miss interacting with like-minded colleagues. Now, my human interaction is mostly restricted to vendors, electricians and other blue-collar workers on the project,” she says.
 
The future of work is perhaps one that adapts more readily to change.
 

 Aashish Aryan contributed to this report