Sahil Sharma, GigIndia
As the economy bounces back from the pandemic-induced downturn, grey-collar gig workers are in increasing demand, especially in select roles.
In the past year-and-a-half, the number of jobseekers has surged sharply because of job losses and furloughs due to the pandemic. While finding traditional full-time jobs is a difficult proposition, the gig economy has opened a plethora of part-time remote working opportunities. Gig benefits both people seeking work to earn extra income and companies wishing to hire people for short-term contracts or project-based work.
A hot category currently comprises grey-collar workers, who hold positions falling between white-collar and blue-collar jobs. This denotes entry-level roles that can be managed by young graduates, homemakers, or experienced professionals with minimal training. These professionals have specific skill sets backed by a degree or diploma. B2B gig marketplace, GigIndia observed that top roles include lead qualification, customer onboarding, customer engagement, on-demand recruitment, and telemarketing. These fast-growing domains of gigs have seen a surge of more than 2x in terms of inquiry volumes coming from both large & traditional enterprises. GigIndia works with a pool of gig workers who work remotely with large enterprises to enable them to scale rapidly.
Apart from gig platforms, such gigs are available directly in hotels, hospitals, logistics firms, receptions, cab and security services, sales and BPOs, or as IT workers, among others.
The compensation or payout for each of these gigs works similarly. Generally, the gig economy works on a pay-per-result model. A grey-collar gig worker can earn up to Rs 25,000-Rs 30,000 per month, depending on the output generated. On average, if a person dedicates 6-7 hours a day working, they can comfortably earn Rs 15,000 hours per month.
A hot category currently comprises grey-collar workers, who hold positions falling between white-collar and blue-collar jobs. This denotes entry-level roles that can be managed by young graduates, homemakers, or experienced professionals with minimal training. These professionals have specific skill sets backed by a degree or diploma.
These five major roles will help aspirants focus on the jobs more suitable for their profile:
1. Lead Qualification
Pinpointing the best sales leads or the process of sales and marketing teams working in unison to forecast the chances of a prospect finally making a purchase is termed lead qualification. The first step comes during the inbound marketing phase when the team captures the prospect’s details through site visits, email subscriptions, or tracking pixel and social media. Now, the team decides if the lead fits their company’s ideal customer profile.
If so, the next move is the sales rep’s discovery call. Here, the sales rep strikes a conversation to find out the prospect’s requirements, timelines, purchasing authority, and budgetary constraints, if any. This helps in determining whether the prospect is worth a proposal or not. Lead qualification is crucial since it saves time, energy, and unwanted expenditure by allowing speedy assessment of real buying intent, scaling the overall Sales ROI. Without this, time will be wasted on leads that won’t close.
2. Customer Onboarding
This is the process new users undergo before using the product or service. Covering the entire journey from initial sign-up to activation and first product use, customer onboarding is meant to deliver value to users at the earliest; if possible, in the first use itself. It comprises the sign-up process, welcome email, first log-in, integration, invitation and data imports, product walkthrough, and follow-up emails. The ultimate objective is to ensure customers come back to the product.
A good onboarding process keeps customers engaged and explains the value of the product, thereby giving them a reason to use it time and again. Moreover, it helps improve trial conversions. If a free or discounted product trial is offered, users can experience the product’s value and are likely to be converted into paid customers.
3. Customer Engagement
It involves various ways of interacting with customers – online and offline. Such engagements should generate positive feelings in customers towards the business and brand. There are multiple examples of customer engagement such as users receiving an emailed newsletter about a new product launch and then browsing the company’s website to check this. Or a customer calling the helpline to return an item. Or viewing a video on a brand’s social media page about how a particular product is made.
However, businesses concerned about customer engagement should focus on value creation rather than revenue generation as the former facilitates the latter. A robust customer engagement strategy fosters greater sales growth and customer loyalty.
4. On-demand Recruitment
Akin to leasing a recruiter, this service is offered on an hourly or project basis. Designed for flexibility, on-demand recruiters may focus on providing full-cycle recruitment support or building a pipeline of candidates. Working onsite at a client’s business place or remotely from their own office, on-demand recruiters can scale the service up or down conveniently.
Both start-ups and conventional companies experiencing fast growth along with unpredictable hiring and an extremely competitive talent market can benefit from the on-demand service. Besides filling a single role or assisting during hiring sprees, it is useful for a confidential search, providing the in-house talent team ongoing support, and so on.
5. Telemarketing
As demand gradually gets back on track after COVID-related disruptions, organisations seeking to push more sales by boosting their marketing and sales teams are turning to telemarketers. With companies aiming to provide personalised experiences to customers, specialised telemarketers, and telesales experts are attracting heavy demand.
Instead of costly in-house teams that lack relevant experience, today, brands have the option of hiring the top freelancers for more cost-effective and productive outcomes. A specialised gig team ensures enhanced productivity and other competitive advantages. Moreover, it lowers the cost of resources devoted to recruiting and training workers.
Considering the multiple benefits, businesses are now leveraging the gig workforce to complete new projects, cater to their rising business demands, and retain relevance in an ultra-competitive market environment.
Instead of costly in-house teams that lack relevant experience, today brands have the option of hiring the top freelancers for more cost-effective and productive outcomes. A specialised gig team ensures enhanced productivity and other competitive advantages. Moreover, it lowers the cost of resources devoted to recruiting and training workers.
