India – Companies increasingly turn to contingent workforce to fill immediate talent shortage

By memberservices@staffingindustry.com (Danny Romero)

Contingent workforce use is on the rise in India as freelancers, temporary or contract staff, are being hired by companies more often to fill the immediate shortage of staff, according to a report from KellyOCG.

The ‘Workforce Agility Barometer Report’ from KellyOCG showed project-based assignments are gaining popularity in developing countries and 71% of C-suite leaders expect to maintain or increase their percentage of contingent workers in next two years.

“In today’s challenging business environment, some leaders are already working towards ensuring that they have a nimble workforce. To adapt during times of uncertainty, they are becoming increasingly dependent on contingent workers,” said Francis Padamadan, Country Director, KellyOCG.

The study also showed that the major difficulties companies in India face in attracting talent include a lack of available talent (52%), a lack of a holistic and diversified strategy (57%), a lack of engagement on digital media (52%) and a lack of employer branding (41%).

However, Indian firms have a plan in place to overcome this talent shortage by building contingency plans for a short term (between 1 to 3 years). The report also showed that three-fourths of respondents said they were looking at ways to improve the ability to attract talent. These include implementing higher pay, rolling out good employee benefits, allowing smoother internal transfers, offering strategic talent development and offering ample training programmes.

Meanwhile, 68% of top executives recognised that the contingent workforce gave them ‘access to specialist skills and expertise that lie outside of the organisation’.

Source:: India – Companies increasingly turn to contingent workforce to fill immediate talent shortage