Work From Home, Hybrid Model, Shift In Hiring Trends – What To Expect in Post-Covid IT world

The onset of COVID-19 and social distancing has made business organizations realize the need to return to the office with a hybrid work model. Many are choosing to have a blended workforce comprising of employees working remotely and working from their own location.

Updated: November 19, 2021 3:21 PM IST

By India.com Business Desk | Edited by Debjit Sinha

Layoffs Continue: After Amazon And Google, This Company Plans to Slash 9,000 Jobs. Deets Here
Work From Home: Google employees resisted the new rules because they said they have been productively working from home.

New Delhi: The work culture in organizations across the globe is changing fast since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. It has brought unprecedented changes in organizations with a paradigm shift in the hiring trends. Companies including small and medium enterprises (SMEs) looked for ways to cut through the crisis in the most efficient manner while keeping the workforce productive even with work from home models, according to Piyush Raj Akhouri, Co-founder & Business Head, Bridgen Tech Consulting.

Just like every other sector, IT has also undergone a tremendous transformation with a sharp rise in contractual hiring. This upward growth has opened up a myriad of opportunities for IT professionals to lead their careers. According to a recent report – the ITBPM sector added 14,486 contractual workforces in FY21, a 42% jump over the levels in FY20. In addition, at least 50,000 professionals are projected to be hired on a contract basis by 2024, showing a substantial increase in the current headcount.

Now that the organizations are adapting to the new normal and as part of the market recovery, employers are evaluating contract-to-hire trends in the post COVID IT world. The instant hiring process that takes lesser time in processing than full-time employment plays a crucial role in growing the number of contractual employees remarkably in the sector and it is forecasted to grow in the coming years.

Flexibility at Work

The onset of COVID-19 and social distancing has made business organizations realize the need to return to the office with a hybrid work model. Many are choosing to have a blended workforce comprising of employees working remotely and working from their own location.

This brings flexibility at both ends – the IT professional/worker hired and the organization by utilizing the capabilities of digital tools. Additionally, it brings the ability for the job seeker to work independently on multiple projects and clients while maximizing their earning. Furthermore, organizations can increase their working hours by deploying contractual employees for different hours, without making it over-time for their full-time workforce.

Emergence of Gig Economy

Traditionally, business organizations considered employees to work for a fixed number of hours. However, the adoption of flexibility in work schedules is giving rise to the gig economy. Many times, the gig economy creates a win-win situation mutually for the IT workers hired on a contractual basis as well as for the organization. On one hand, there is the autonomy of workers that they will not be tied down by any employer while on the other hand, organizations can save a huge cost by not hiring full-time staff for the work that can be handled well by gig workers.

Rise of on-Demand Talent Platforms

On-demand talent platforms have already been growing in the market. However, the pandemic accelerated its demand and a massive number of freelance workers started signing up on these platforms at a fast pace. Further, to meet the rapid digital transformation needs, organizations also started using on-demand talent platforms in search of qualified and highly skilled talent to carry out their job.

The need of having the right talent with the right skills has brought the next wave of online on-demand talent platforms. In addition, the organizations redesigned their workspace strategy in order to be resilient and agile at the workspace in the post-pandemic world.

Advent of New-Age Technical Skills

Rapid automation and digital transformation have resulted in the emergence of new-age technical skills in the talent. Post the pandemic, there is an increased requirement for IT staff for organizations that have strong IT protocols. The demand for freelancers with different skills set has increased considerably from freelance marketing roles, temporary office-level roles to new-age technical roles – data analysts, cloud architects, cybersecurity professionals, AI, IoT, blockchain, machine learning experts. The hiring for a new skill set is already quite common in the startup ecosystem that has expanded to other top and large-scale companies looking for skilled workers for a limited period of time.

Slow Hiring Process and Uncertainty in Notice Periods

The hiring process for full-time employees is usually slow. Traditionally, companies had a culture of taking too long to shortlist the candidates’ resumes, calling them for one on one interviews and briefing them about the organization’s objectives. If an organization has more than two or three interview rounds, it takes a good amount of time and the chances of losing a competent candidate increase.

According to the facts – it takes almost 27 days to fill an open position that negatively impacts the organization’s productivity while increasing the hiring costs. As a solution, new-age organizations are switching to contractual hiring that takes lesser time to find a professional to carry out the job.

Unlike full-time employees, contractual employees do not have to serve long notice periods to be relieved from their previous organizations. Considering this scenario, contractual hiring proves to be highly advantageous for organizations looking for a competent employee for immediate joining.

Summing up

The onset of the pandemic and adoption of technology has accelerated the speed of remote work. This has resulted in the emergence of a whole new post COVID world scenario as organizations are looking to create and maintain a robust IT infrastructure to implement hybrid work models at their workplace. As a result, the trend of contract-to-hire will help the companies attain more efficiency and agility while leading them towards success.

(The article is written by Piyush Raj Akhouri, Co-founder & Business Head, Bridgen Tech Consulting.)

Also Read:

For breaking news and live news updates, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter and Instagram. Read more on Latest Business News on India.com.

Topics

By clicking “Accept All Cookies”, you agree to the storing of cookies on your device to enhance site navigation, analyze site usage, and assist in our marketing efforts Cookies Policy.