What is the Gig Economy?

Business Knowledge

Gig Economy is the world of an economy where reputed organizations hire unemployed people (Who want to work part-time based) to meet their special needs or special activities. We can say the gig economy is a system where the unemployed get a chance to cope up with many organizations all over the world. In simple words, these gig workers are also known as self-employment.

Who is the Gig Economy for?

By the way, the gig economy is for everyone who wants to adopt this economy for a professional career but still, this is for those people who want to do their work without any tension and work on the project for global companies from home. I am not saying this, but the same people who adopt the gig economy want to show their interest to different companies for a specific time because Gig jobs are based on a contract, not a permanent basis.

The gig economy is for married women

Those women whose family does not allow them to serve outside because of family culture, rules or who have their child responsibility so in that case, the gig economy is the best for married women who rotate their career interest without going anywhere and earn money by getting hired from companies.

For college students

Those students who want to build their career earlier and need money but they don’t have time because of classes so because of the gig economy, apply for the companies who hire employees on a contract based and pay also for an individual project. They can easily manage their job and get a chance to improve their efficiency, knowledge, skills, competition level, and survive in between competitors. 

For Freelancer

Those professional people who cannot work as a permanent employee in the company, they get a project related to their interest by the company and get a payment after completion of the project under a specific period of time.

For individual contractors

Companies hire individual contractors because they are known for their profession and highly successful contractors who work in an individual not in a team online. Such individual contractors have their interests in various fields and they get hired according to their interest by the corporations.

Why do companies adopt the Gig economy?

In the USA, most companies have followed this economy because they like to do contract-based work from home jobs not permanent work from the office. They think if they do a job as an employee for an individual company so they can’t work for another company in another interest. So that’s why they prefer online jobs based on the contract because, under contract-based jobs, they choose their working hours, the company gives them only the fixed date to submit the project.

Reduce financial burden

Companies hire employees online through social media sites for business or portals for individual business activity on a contractual basis so that they cannot give wages or salary to them on a monthly basis because gig workers work on an individual project for an individual company on a project payment. This helps to reduce the company’s financial burden because sometimes there comes a situation where companies are not able to take a burden of employee’s wages.

Reduce overhead expenses

There are many expenses in the company, but some of them are expenses that can be saved or less such as employees tax, rent, sales and marketing, utilities, insurance, and so on. If a company hires individuals who work as a freelancer, contractors from home so the company can save rent, and business operating activities expenses.

Rent: Suppose a company has a consultancy which provides jobs to the people of indifferent companies so this work can be possible from home. Also, companies can hire employees as a freelancer or who like to do part-time jobs. This helps companies to save on office rent and utilities.

Sales and marketing expenses: Suppose a company wants to launch a product by doing sales and marketing of a product so this process contains a huge cost. In this situation, they can hire a professional sales and marketing analyst who takes payment for a particular project which contains a low cost.

Avoid employee benefits

If you are working in a company as a permanent employee or employer so you receive many benefits such as bonuses on special occasions, gratuity, compensation, etc so these types of benefits contain huge expenses because of employee quantity. That’s why companies prefer some online contract-based employees for extra business operating activities because they are from these benefits.

Advantages of Gig economy

The benefits of Gig economy are for the company as well as for employees.

For employees (Individual contractors, freelancers, married women, etc.)

Free time of work: These employees have free time under the gig economy. This helps to save time and efficiency in extra work.

Independent: These employees are independent who work with their own rules and regulation without anyone’s interruption.

Work for different organizations: These employees can deal with different companies on different projects. As we told, they contribute their interest in different fields because it is a contractual agreement in which the company mentions their time limitation of submitting the project and other things.

Save transportation expenses: These employees can save their transportation expenses because they are active from home, no need to go outside.

Earn enough money: If employees work for different companies on various projects so they earn enough money without any expenses.

For company

Reduce Overhead expenses: There are many expenses in the company, but some of them are expenses that can be saved or less such as employees tax, rent, sales and marketing, utilities, insurance, and so on. 

Reduce financial burden:  This economy helps to reduce the company’s financial burden because sometimes there comes a situation where companies are not able to take a burden of employee’s wages.

Avoid Employee benefits: If you are working in a company as a permanent employee or employer so you receive many benefits such as bonus on special occasions, gratuity, compensation, etc so these types of benefits contain huge expenses because of employee quantity

Avoid risk: This helps to reduce many risks contained in companies related to employees such as robbery of cash, plans, etc.

How Covid-19 has impacted the Gig Economy?

Covid-19 has made a huge impact on the Gig Economy because companies were suffering from losing because at that time they couldn’t earn well, that’s why they had fired many workers. So many companies freed the contractual employees for their extra employees.

On the other hand, During covid-10 many companies also hire contractual employees because they charge the low cost for their services on a project.

Not only the companies but the schools also hired a professional online tutor who used to take salary per class. 

To see more, Covid-19 had a very bad impact but now there is a lot of chance in India of the outbreak of the Gig Economy because till now the craze of this economy in India was not like other countries such as USA, UK. The citizens of these foreign countries are more likely to involve the gig economy because it contains a lot of facilities.

If we look at the Swiggy and Dominos, and other online food platforms which had a bad impact on covid-19 because they hire employees who work on a contract (online order and delivery) and those workers had no job at that time due to stop these services. But before and after covid-19, these online food platform workers are also counted as a gig economy because they get hired temporarily.

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