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What has been rated as the fastest growing human
resource trend, the phenomenon of temporary staffing is finally
catching up in India. While industry experts estimate employee leasing
to be $140 billion business worldwide, the domestic staffing industry
is yet to boast of big figures. The scenario is however about to
change considering the fact that in the near future 2.5 to 3 percent
of the workforce in the country will be hired on a temporary basis.
The IT industry being a trendsetter of sorts, will witness a large
percentage of such hirings in the next few years.
A “temp” is a temporary worker with
an organisation who is on a third-party (staffing company) payroll.
A well-accepted norm in global companies, many large Indian organisations
are now hiring a part of their workforce from employee leasing firms.
The reason is not too difficult to guess—as organisations focus
on their core business strengths in a highly competitive environment,
the non-core functions are outsourced. The manpower for the latter
is provided by the employee leasing company. The contracts can range
from three to six months, and there are no hassles normally associated
with recruiting and retaining people.
“While so far, the leasing workforce was
active in order to meet short-term assignments of companies to augment
their workforce during peak periods or replace ‘leave vacancies’
or sudden terminations, the current trend has seen corporates going
for leasing for specialised requirements,” says Ashok Reddy,
managing director of TeamLease, one of India’s largest HR outsourcing
services companies in the space of employee leasing. He adds that
the demand for temporary workers has been fuelled by companies looking
for greater workforce flexibility, faced with fast paced market
changes, including changes in consumer demands and shorter product
life cycles.
The positions
It is a known fact that most companies prefer
temporary staff to permanent ones, furthermore there is a growing
trend of outsourcing non-core functions to outsourced staff. These
range from accounts, front-office, sales, marketing and back-end
operations. TeamLease undertakes outsourcing for diverse sectors,
including banking, telecommunications, FMCGs, IT, manufacturing
and retail, informs Reddy. The service spectrum caters to functional
activities involving office administration, technical support, accounts
and finance, HR support, marketing and sales.
Sunil Gandhi, centre head (Mumbai) of Mafoi Management
Consultants, adds that in the IT industry, positions that are largely
outsourced are people at the entry level like programmers, software
engineers, networking and system administrators.
Types of services offered
Employee leasing companies offer a plethora of
staffing solutions to their clients. Reddy gives detailed explanation
of the services that TeamLease provides. It includes:
Temporary staffing: Enabling the client to respond
to short-term temporary and/or flexible manpower needs with specific
skill set requirements or for supplementing the workforce. These
services could be of a part-time, full-time or job sharing nature.
Temporary-to-permanent services: The client can
hire associates as temporary employees for a trial period of employment;
after a satisfactory trial period, a company has the opportunity
to add a temporary worker to its permanent staff; by moving the
employee from TeamLease payroll to that of the business client.
Long-term contract: Corporates can opt to enter
into assignments for long-term and indefinite periods of time with
TeamLease associates.
Managed services: TeamLease provides the onsite
management of the contingent workforce at the client facility. It
retains the responsibility for the supervision of the leased employees
as well as the accountability for the results of the facility or
function that have been leased.
Mafoi also offers contract staffing, flexi-staffing
and managed services and has more than 6,000 people on contract
employment. The company has 30 offices all over India. Manpower
Inc, a recent entrant in India, also provides a range of solutions
to its clients across the value chain. A world leader in staffing
solutions, it provides workforce management solutions and services
to 4,000 customers in 63 countries.
Benefits to the organisation
The trend of temporary staffing has been popularised
in India by MNCs who have been aware of the benefits in their experiences
in other countries. The advantages are many. “The opportunity
to concentrate on core areas as non-core areas are taken care by
experts, benefits of scale, long-term cost benefits and a responsible
employer image,” states Rohit Mathur, general manager, workforce
solutions India, Manpower. “There is flexibility of employment,
and ease of recruitment and replacements,” adds Gandhi of Mafoi.
He reminds that statutory complexities are also taken care of by
the staffing company.
Most industry experts agree that there are no
flip sides to the arrangement, Mathur however points out that there
is often a misconception that this is an extended payroll service.
The temps
Who constitute the growing number of leased employees?
This question takes special significance in a country like India,
where job security is an integral part of one’s psyche. The
range is
astonishingly varied. “People who want short-term
options, freshers wanting to gain experience, experienced people
for specific experience and of late even top management guys for
interim management options,” answers Mathur, not forgetting
to add that it does provide a reasonable secure and dignified employment
option.
Reddy agrees that the biggest beneficiary of
temporary employment in India have been freshers. “The workforce
available for such temporary employment has existed in excess of
demand in the Indian context; and increasing manifold in today’s
date given the dynamic market conditions, hence corporates are looking
at leasing as the viable option to meet their short-term manpower
needs.” The attitude of today’s workforce, he believes,
is driven by rewarding employment opportunities coupled with career
guidance and flexibility to choose the nature and duration of work.
Furthermore, many employees choose temporary employment as an avenue
to exhibit their talents to the client organisation, which could
be a stepping-stone to a full-time permanent career. Temporary employment
has often been an effective entry route into big companies.
And, is it possible to find top performers among
the temps? “Yes, but one should remember that such people are
employed typically for non-core areas and attracting top class talent
for non-core is an issue, it has nothing to do with temp staffing
as such,” answers Mathur. Reddy however claims that the leasing
model attracts management talent far above the commodity-level.
Different from body shopping
Many often confuse employee leasing with body
shopping. Reddy explains the difference: “Temping cannot be
compared with body shopping as the former requires a much higher
level of involvement by the outsourcing partner with the leased
associates in order to manage and retain them.”
It is also not possible for traditional search
firms to offer the specialised services normally provided by an
employee leasing company. “The temping route requires specialised
talent at the senior level. While traditional placement companies
approach business in a transaction mode; workforce suppliers need
to devote bandwidth through its people and process teams in servicing
customers (the client and leased associates) on a recurring basis,”
he states.
The future
Temporary staffing is expected to grow exponentially
in the country, in the near future. “It is the quality and
ease of availability of manpower that would define the role employee
leasing organisations stand to play, not only in non-core functions
but also certain core business areas of organisations,” points
out Reddy, adding that it is imperative for outsourcing partners
to move from “only” employee leasing to complete end-to-end
“activity management.” It is also necessary for outsourcing
partners to be equipped with vertical and functional specialisations,
with key differentiators customised to the Indian employment scenario.
In a recruitment market where the concept of
full-time employment is increasingly becoming a thing of the past,
temporary staffing is emerging as the viable option.
| Advantages of temporary staffing |
- The opportunity for organisations
to focus on core areas
- Flexibility of employment
- Ease of recruitment and replacement
- Long-term cost advantages
- Benefits of scale
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sudipta@expresscomputeronline.com
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