Vineet Arya is the Founder of COHIRE, a pioneering “Experts On Demand” platform based on the Gig CXO concept. While mainstream HR Tech organizations focus on providing the right candidate – full-time – in every role, to an organization, the COHIRE concept focuses on making available C-Suite professionals or Experts instantly or at a short notice, temporarily. Vineet has worked with some of the most-sought-after MNCs, including AMD, SanDisk, Tata Power Solar at senior marketing positions in his corporate avatar. During his career span of 23 years, he has managed entire marketing bouquet right from brand building and PR to ATL, BTL and Digital marketing.
Are you a talent acquisition manager, human resource manager, a start-up, an entrepreneur looking for specialized guidance from an expert-on-demand? Somebody who has all the essential knowledge, expertise and experience to identify the risks and opportunities associated with your business and provide you with the right guidance to deal with corporate challenges?
Then, the solution lies in hiring a Gig CXO.
Who is a Gig CXO?
As the name suggests, the concept of the Gig CXO means that Young businesses, start-ups and consulting firms are hiring experts-on-demand, the Gig CXO professionals who are typically in their late 40’s, wealthy in experience and highly skilled. They are not fixated with designations and are willing to provide valuable guidance on short-term assignments instead of struggling in the corporate rat race.
The CXO hired for a short-term leadership role gets a flexible work environment and attractive packages. The added advantage is that the CXO can be associated with multiple organizations at a given time and share its expertise.
Countries like the USA and The UK have adopted the gig economy almost for a decade now and the analysis of the recent official data reflects that number of people taking up short term gigs shows double the growth since 2010. The analysis also showed a 33% rise in business and start-ups with no employees and completely rely on the Gig CXO for project-wise consultation.
According to a report in Tool Hr, in the year 2018, Google had hired more gig consultants than permanent employees which itself is a record move made by Google in 20 years of its existence. Many companies are making a shift towards the gig economy model owing to the agility, flexibility, adaptability and no strings attached kind of set-up. It focuses mainly on the talent, expertise, experience and leadership of the expert-on-demand.
Companies that have adopted the gig economy
Companies like Uber, Lyft, Uber Eats, Instacart, Care.com, Upwork, DoorDash are household names that have adopted the Gig Economy.
According to a report by Insider Intelligence,
- Uber and Lyft comprise a market share of 65% and 29.8% respectively.
- During the pandemic, even Uber Eats achieved sales of $12.2 billion, almost 107% on the higher side as compared to the sales in 2019.
- Instacart – an online grocery shopping service gained a market share of 21.5% of all the groceries that were purchased online during the lockdown.
Certainly, the companies that have adopted the gig model have shown growth in their sales and registered profits, during a time when conventional businesses were shut.
Duplicating the gig economy in India
After the outbreak of the pandemic, Indian corporates are realizing that adopting the Gig CXO model can prove beneficial for business organizations for several reasons.
Corporates in India are bending towards outsourcing business processes to ensure specialization and the right talent working on the job. As per the 2021 Deloitte Global Resilience Report, leaders now understand the importance of having versatile employees; especially after 2020. Hiring an experienced Gig CXO to lead the operations sped decision-making, reduced the risks and gave space for more innovative concepts.
The development of platforms like Zoom, Google Meet have helped C-suite professionals conduct meetings and lead their teams remotely from their homes. The pandemic was also the time when many professionals gave up their top-level positions which gave rise to an extremely talented and experienced pool of CXO’s.
The valuable knowledge and the experience of these CXO’s can be utilized to attain the organizational goals.
How does hiring Gig CXO benefit an organization?
- Organization can analyse the Gig CXO: –
When an organization hires a C-suite professional on an assignment basis for a limited time frame, the organization gets an opportunity to monitor the skills of the professional. Based on the leadership style and decision-making skills, you can release or hold on to the Gig CXO for a permanent position in the organization.
- Low cost and zero liability: –
A corporate that hires a Gig CXO on an assignment basis can decide the terms of the contract based on their requirement and discussion with the professional. Beyond that, the organization is not liable to pay for the training, insurance and other costs related to the up-gradation of skills of the CXO.
- Control over the workforce: –
Organizations can have control over the number of employees. Depending on the projects and the requirement of the workforce the organizations can increase or decrease the workforce.
- Low infrastructure costs: –
The expenditure related to the office space and utilities comes under control. Once the purpose of defined task is attained, the expenditure is reduced.
Adopting the Gig CXO model has more pros than cons. Currently, India has a talented pool of highly skilled C-suite professionals and hiring them for interim corporate gigs provides opportunities for growth to the Gig CXO and the organization. The Gig CXO economy has immense resources and scopes to flourish in India. With proper policies in place, the transition to the gig economy can benefit the Indian corporates and Gig CXO’s.