Prakash Arora is an accountant and a trekking buff. He says he works to live his life’s passion. “I work for 4-6 months as a temp, save money, and then opt out for a trekking adventure. When I come back, I use my staffing agency to either work for the same firm or another where they send me.”
A bachelor at 34, Arora says this “gypsy work-style” suits him better than being tied down to one single firm. “The higher pay that one gets with experience is given to temps too, so frankly, there is not much to lose out on,” he says.
Welcome to the growing niche world of temps and innovative hiring agencies who specialise in renting out temps. “We have 10,000 people on our rolls as temps whose pay we give along with social benefits such as provident fund. We place them with our clients and give them alternate avenues once their contract is over or once they wish to move on for some reason,” said Navneet Singh, CEO of Avsar HR Services.
Singh and his co-partners entered the niche market in 2017 and say they aim to do about Rs 500 crore in turnover in the current financial year. The market is crowded with the likes of TeamLease, Randstad, Adecco and Manpower Group, but Singh feels there are “enough opportunities coming up for all to fare well.”
The temp industry used to be limited to clerical and light industrial jobs earlier. However, that has changed. Now, it can range from entry-level jobs in the service sector to whole departments such as accounting and IT or even extremely niche jobs such as drilling engineers. Firms are also increasingly taking on temporary workers as it helps them staff up or staff down as the markets change. Besides, it allows firms the freedom to launch new projects without raising their permanent headcount.
The main opportunities in the space are currently coming from the services and e-commerce sectors. “E-commerce accounted for 51 per cent of all new customers this year,” said Singh, who has expanded from his Bengaluru headquarters to multiple locations like Gurugram, Mumbai, Chennai and Hyderabad.
In 2018, some 300,000 temps were hired and placed by human resources firms, of which 1.2 lakh jobs were created by e-commerce firms. “We have done hiring for Swiggy, Udaan, and Bigbasket and have added new clients like Ola, Flipkart and Amazon,” said Singh.