A recent study conducted by Leadup Universe and Work Universe has revealed that around 85% of private sector companies are willing to engage with gig workers for specialist positions.
The study, titled “Employer of the Future 2023,” identified the hybrid workplace culture as a significant trend in non-standard work formats.
The study anchored on the three key aspects of people, systems and innovation; found that the “People First” approach continues to remain at the heart of successful business organisations.
The survey highlighted five factors that enhance the competitive advantage of firms, including knowledge economy, leaders as catalysts, non-standard forms of employment, automation and artificial intelligence, and focused growth through high performance and sustainability.
“In the non-standard forms of employment, the gig economy brings a host of benefits to the table including cost-effective models, minimum hiccups, and quick response to changing customer and market demands,” according to the study.
The study surveyed over 500 employees and 75 organizations across various industry verticals and sizes. According to the research, business leaders who participated in the study emphasized sustainability as a crucial theme, along with other significant aspects such as cost leadership, customer focus, product differentiation, operations, and people.
While speaking about the study findings, Mayank Verma, CEO and Co-Founder, Leadup Universe outlined that the research findings said, “It takes into context different expectations for the organisations – from the view of employees, consumers, and community at large and serves as a guiding tool of policies, strategies and best practices for the organizations who yearn to become pioneers of the future.”
On the first aspect of the knowledge economy, the study found that there has been a considerable shift with more focus now being attributed to tenets of the knowledge economy such as learning, creativity, and openness to attract employees. Respondents to the employee survey which was additionally undertaken rated inspirational characters, walking-the-talk, inclusive decision making, fostering democratic systems, achieving top financial results, and use of technology to drive performance as the top attributes that they aspire to have in their C-suite leaders.
Rashmi Mandloi, Co-Founder Leadup Universe talked about the use of new-age technologies such as automation and AI in the study, said that while emphasising the need for upskilling and reskilling, the survey indicated five emerging opportunity areas where companies must focus—specialist roles, entrepreneurial and intrapreneurial capabilities, soft skill progression, attaining green skills, and career diversification.
“The business leaders who participated in the study highlighted sustainability as a key theme along with other important aspects of performance such as cost leadership, customer focus, product differentiation, operations, and people,” she added.
The last theme of the study is to achieve high performance and sustainability through the focus on growth as participants emphasised over the creation of sustained economic value by identifying strategies for winning markets across their areas of operations.
“While 30% emphasised innovative capability as the most important strategy, 28% favoured a strong focus on core business to win over customers. Further, agility and market insights also find a place in market-facing winning strategies with 26% and 9% of respondents making a case for their adoption,” reads the survey.
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