A gig economy is a free market system in which temporary positions are common, and organisations hire independent worker

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A gig economy is a free market system in which temporarypositions are common, and organisations hire independent workersfor short-term commitments. On 31 March 2021, Amitabh Kant, theChief Executive Officer of NITI Ayog, released the report on‘Unlocking the Potential of the Gig Economy in India’ curated bythe Boston Consulting Group (BCG). The report states that theemerging gig economy has the potential to serve 90 million jobsacross non-farm sectors and add up to 1.25% to India’s GDP. Kantwas also quoted as saying, "This is a massive opportunity. I seethe gig-economy as the future of work".This can be further elucidated by the fact that over the lastdecade, the gig economy has channelised millions of jobs, bothglobally and within India. According to a PayPal report, one inevery four gig workers is an Indian. You can read the full reportby BCG here.The Union Budget of 2021 also lays emphasis on formalising the gigeconomy in India. The Finance Minister, while presenting thebudget, was quoted as saying, "For the first time globally, socialsecurity benefits will extend to gig and platform workers. Minimumwages will apply to all categories of workers, and they will all becovered by the Employees State Insurance Corporation".In this background, consider the case of Swiggy, India’s largestonline food delivery platform, which has close to 1.1 lakh gigworkers. The proposal of formalising the gig economy is also beingconsidered as an advantage to attract more women workers. Out ofthe more than 1 lakh gig workers at Swiggy, only about 1000 arewomen gig workers.Swiggy not only has made its place as a consumer-focused companydelivering convenience to its customers but also has beenappreciated for its human resource management policies. In February2020, Swiggy came up with a childcare benefits and parenthoodpolicy for its non-gig employees with a vision to assist a diverseworkforce. Its gender-neutral childcare and parenthood policyemphasises on supporting the primary caregivers of children,including biological parents, adoptive parents, single parents andparents from the LGBTQ+ groups. Its parenthood policy also includesmiscarriage leaves and leaves for medical termination of pregnancy.The policy also extends to providing support during other aspectsof parenthood such as fertility care and surrogacy.For the gig workers, Swiggy has introduced the ‘Swiggy Smiles’program that caters to its delivery partners. Under this program,the gig workers (delivery partners) are provided with benefits,including accidental insurance, on-call doctors for workers andtheir families, education loans and scholarships, rewards such asgift vouchers for shopping and entertainment, and support forupskilling. These rewards and benefits are offered according todifferent levels of the gig workers. According to a report byBusiness Standard, Swiggy’s delivery partners had claimed up to ₹14crore worth of benefits as of 2019. Swiggy offers more incentivesto the delivery partners who work on the busy days when there isgreater demand. The workers get paid and incentivised according tothe number of hours and effort they put in.Fuelling the gig economy means that the nature of jobs itself isundergoing a transformation. This also means that the way in whichhuman resources in organisations such as Swiggy are managed plays akey role in deciding the organisation’s success ratio.Suppose Swiggy is looking to revamp its HR policy to reap maximumbenefits out of the factors such as the announcement by theGovernment of India on formalising gig economies, the future ofwork and the flexibility enjoyed by workers. Keeping in mind thedynamic background against which this economy is emerging, theexecutives of the company have felt that there is still room forimprovement in aligning the HR strategies with its businessobjectives. They have hired your company to send HR consultants toanalyse the gaps and provide solutions.Your firm has chosen you as the principal consultant for thisproject. After evaluating its HR strategies and business objectivesfor internal and external challenges faced by HRM, you are expectedto submit a detailed report to the board of directors for the same.The format of the report has been given in the next segment. Thequestions in the report are given below:1. Outline the link between strategy and human resourcemanagement in the case of Swiggy. 2. Identify three HR functions from the case study based onthe HR functions covered in this course.