The era of Flexible, Short term skills…Here it comes!

Amanda, an accountant based in Singapore is on top of the world. Juggling a full-time role at office and her toddler at home left her drained, forcing her to quit her much loved job. But today she crunches numbers with a smile and enjoys motherhood without feeling guilty.

Oliver, an experienced programmer was jaded with the long working hours that he had to invest every single day. Sucked into the unending 9–5 monotony, he had no clue of the outside world. With one wise decision, Oliver is a much happy person today.

Amanda and Oliver are examples of the many skilled and experienced professionals in Singapore who have taken the decision to work independently and work on a project and/or flexible basis for a number of reasons and have no regrets. Companies in turn are increasingly looking to bring on skilled professionals for specific skills and deliverables, or to fill in short term resource needs.

So how did Amanda and Oliver make it through this? Are short term projects, consulting roles and flexible roles the next big thing for professionals? What is the scenario in Singapore and other South East Asian regions? Will I have to compromise on my paycheck because I don’t work a regular job? Will my career take a downward course because I work on short projects?

If these are the questions on your mind, we try here to explore what the short term skills and flexible working domain has to offer.

The independent consulting and flexible working scenario in Singapore & other South-East Asian countries

A recent survey conducted in Singapore by Robert Half, the leading global recruitment firm, points out that there is a huge demand for contract staffing due to the shortage of domain expertise to complete vital projects.

33% of finance and accounting hiring managers responded optimistically for hiring skilled candidates just to complete short term projects on time and encouraged flexible working. The survey concluded that an enormous surge for opportunities was seen in Singapore while Hong Kong followed second at 20%.

In fact, this is part of a larger, global trend. The global online work industry — which is a sub-set of the freelance economy –is estimated at close to 2b USD in 2014 and expected to grow to 5b by 2018 giving it a CAGR of over 25%. Independent estimates (from the Bureau of Labour Statistics, Staffing Industry Association, the Freelancers Union and Government Accountability Office) indicate that anywhere from 25–50% of the US workforce by 2020 will be freelance, and Deloitte in a recent report spoke of the move to an ‘Open Talent Economy’ where their estimates indicated that half of the resources a company relies upon to get work done will no longer be on its formal payroll by the end of this decade.

Developing a positive environment around working independently and flexibly

As mentioned above, employers are increasingly looking to bringing on board resources and skills on a need basis, which helps manage staffing levels during periods of market uncertainty. In addition, consultants and part-time workers are also critical tools to obtain efficiency and optimize operational costs. Additional reasons for the attractiveness of this model are the ability to even out excess workload of permanent employees during major projects and/or to plug-in on a temporary basis for core staff, who are on leave of absence and maternity breaks.

Consequently, organizations are putting in considerable efforts to nurture and sustain a variety of flexible working models. This includes making compensation competitive to account for the bonuses, allowances and benefits that consultants often give up while working on a project basis. According to a consultant from specialist professional recruitment consultancy, Robert Walters, contract salaries for IT roles are 35–45% higher when compared to the same for permanent roles.

A growing number of professionals are also looking for short-term and flexible roles, and a recent Kelly Services report showed that, flexible options are especially enticing to Generation Y managers who are keen on balancing their career and personal time. Professionals believe this offers them the opportunity to work in several organizations and projects, work under different teams and leadership styles, obtain and polish skills, be updated with the latest trends, increased productivity, better working hours & services and improved morale.

Apart from this, the Singapore Government has a structured approach to flexi-work and this is taken care by the Employment Act Pertaining to Flexible Work Arrangements of 1968 except for part-time workers. Flexible working professionals earning less than $1,600 per month will be entitled to the act. According to the act, working hours should not go beyond six hours without a break or more than 8–9 hours a day or 44 hours a week. Professionals who work for more than 44 hours a week on a flexible basis would still be eligible for overtime pay.’ The Employment of Part-Time Employees Regulation of 1996 covers the working hours and entitlements for part-time workers and job-sharers.

Getting started

Taking the first step and scoring the first project is the toughest part about getting started with the flexible work arrangement. Tapping deep into your connections is the best thing that you could do to get started. Connect with people, present yourself and get projects. Also there are a few organisations which are trying to organize the short term/ flexible skill market.

Flexing It is one such online curated marketplace that connects organisations to skilled professionals and expertise on a project, consulting and advisory basis using an intelligent heuristic . The focus of Flexing It is to address the need for consulting, strategy, marketing, finance, technology and HR short term/flexible skills of different organizations ranging from multi nations to start-ups.

After starting in India and successfully building a strong community of over 15000 professionals drawn from top-tier educational and corporate institutions, that represent diverse functions and industries and over 1200 organisations ranging from healthcare to e-commerce, Flexing It is taking a big step forward to provide international consulting and research firms an access to skilled consultants based in India, Singapore and SEA with a vision to create a transparent, efficient and effective way to connect the demand and supply of quality short-term, flexible skills in Singapore and SEA.