Temps, anyone? Corporatedom's latest abbreviation could be a path-breaking idea for local companies -- a temporary workforce.
The offer is tempting for companies that do not wish to burden themselves by hiring staff for projects.
TeamLease Services, a human resource firm from India's Silicon Valley, provides companies just that -- to execute specific projects. It's called employee leasing.
A year-and-a-half old entity, TeamLease says it is confident that it would usher in an era of temps, on the lines of those in the US and Europe.
The over 2,000 temps of TeamLease who have been currently placed in some of the biggest companies like Intel, MindTree, Reliance, Lufthansa, Dr Reddy's and Phillips is expected to increase to over 5,000 by the end of this year.
Interestingly, the Indian corporate world is beginning to wake up to this world of leasing employees and the benefits it afford.
Says Ashok Reddy, managing director, TeamLease Services, "With the HR outsourcing industry maturing, there is a clear demand for enhancing productivity and cost effective solutions by corporates. There is a demand for temporary and flexible jobs from employees."
The value addition that a corporate would get by leasing employees through TeamLease would be the most crucial issue that bothers employers -- human resource administration.
This includes regulatory paperwork, payroll and benefits, management and training. In turn, corporates would pay a service charge to TeamLease, which ranges from 10-30 per cent of the employee's total cost to the company.
However, on completion of the project, the employee does not stay on the rolls of the company or that of TeamLease.
Instead, TeamLease would look at matching his profile to another similar project-based requirement. TeamLease has an active database of over 100,000 applicants.
With strategic tie-ups with Monster India, Naukri, Jobsahead and Jobsstreet, TeamLease has access to an additional 1.2 million profiles.
Many employees prefer to opt for this temporary employment route as it would provide them with an opportunity to work with many brands and finally find a permanent job.
Though the global temporary staffing is a $140 billion industry with over five million people employed as temps, officials at TeamLease seem to take pride that they have made an early entry into this field.
According to Reddy, employee leasing shifts unorganised sector employment to that of the organised sector. Developed countries have up to 2 per cent of their workforce in temporary staffing.
The market for this mode of operation is 52 per cent in US, 39 per cent in Europe, 5 per cent in Japan and 4 per cent in other countries. The US market for temporary jobs has been growing by 10-15 per cent every year.
It has been estimated that India's potential for this category is about 8-10 million jobs.
With this new trend emerging, TeamLease hopes to increase its topline to Rs 25 crore (Rs 250 million) from Rs 10.5 crore (Rs 105 million) in the previous fiscal year.
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