The News portals carried the alarming headlines of Microsoft laying off employees and Google slowing down hiring. While things sound gloomy in Silicon Valley, here in India, tech professionals are job-hopping and software companies are devising rules and attractive perks to retain talent and attract new talent. If we were to list the issues facing tech companies and tech employees in the aftermath of the pandemic lockdown which is encouraging them to switch jobs, quit in droves, or be laid off are – 

1. Most employees prefer to work from home because of reverse migration during the pandemic and to avoid the travails of travelling to work.
2. Employees are looking for a better work-life balance which many enjoyed for the first time during the lockdown.
3. Companies are looking to cut costs by hiring new talent and retiring the highly paid senior team members.
4. In this period of uncertainty, many employees are seeking safe working space as they look for other potential sources of earnings.

Internet and freelance job portals have given a strong platform where companies of all sizes from around the world are posting projects that anyone with the right skill sets can apply for. 

Everyone’s a microentrepreneur today

Microentrepreneurs are freelancers who offer a product or service using their specific skill sets. Just like regular entrepreneurs, these professionals must market their abilities, submit proposals, and provide an essential product or service. They work for themselves, having a transactional relationship with their clients. 

With the large number of freelance job portals cropping on the internet, anyone can search for and submit their proposals for projects. The strict non-disclosure agreements and transparent agreements on the administration of the project ensure that everyone’s rights are protected, and the project goes underway in a day and is completed at the fastest time. On successfully completing the project the freelancer moves on to the next project. 

It's the era for a blended workforce

The business may be an MSME, start-up or a large company with many teams – everyone has a demand for freelancers. This is mainly because freelancers are filling an essential skill gap for which it is lucrative for the business to go with temp staffing solutions. Every business needs full-time employees, they cannot manage without them. Some tasks can only be performed by full-time employees, and they know the bigger picture of where the business is headed. 

Freelancers and gig workers are employed mainly for their special skills, which may not essentially be a required skill for the business, but it is a service they need that can be outsourced. This may be website development, designing and installing the ERP solution for the business, offering technical training, etc. 

There is a demand for Freelance Software professionals

While there is a demand for all sorts of skilled professionals in the market, the demand for freelance software professionals in any domain is very high. This could be because most start-up businesses have their markets tied up with the internet. They will get better access to customers and the global markets online. MSMEs who are rapidly expanding their market base is doing so digitally. Every company needs to go digital to survive in the current markets. Digitisation does not just mean having a website and online marketing platform, it also includes –

• Enterprise resource planning
• Customer relationship management
• Online communication system
• Cloud-based database management system

In an age where even GST and tax filing happens digitally, all businesses need some sort of digital solution for their businesses to take off. 

All these factors have created a sharp demand for techies in the freelance market and with extensive advertising with lucrative employment structures, everyone is benefiting. Businesses can get qualified talent for their business who are deploying cutting-edge solutions from experienced professionals they wouldn’t have been able to hire as full-time employees for various reasons. Skilled professionals with vast experience and expertise get the opportunity to work with smaller businesses where they get meaningful projects in which they can flex their skills, take complete ownership, and earn a sizeable income. 

ZoopUp has a vast repository of IT professionals from different domains who are working with many clients. There are interesting projects, and we see many new projects being added every day by clients. The entire hiring process is completed within a week and the project lifecycle is brief. Thus, both freelancer and client can move on to other projects, often working together once again.