Friday, November 25, 2016

SERVICESECTOR SPECIAL....... All in a Day's Work

All in a Day's Work


How online startups are reshaping the informal jobs
sector where an estimated 250 million Indians keep at it

For Bharathi, a Class X pass woman with two kids, life has
been tough. The Bengalurubased cook would often start
work at 7.30 am and not wrap up before 8 pm, with
a two-hour afternoon break. Living near the factory of
Bharat Earth Movers Ltd, she would work at seven
houses in the neighbourhood, earning about `15,000 a month.
It was precious money for a family where her husband's
watchman job brought in `12,000 and rent outgo alone
was `7,500. “Working at so many houses exhausted me.
The long hours meant I had no time for my children either,“
says the 35-year-old.
In 2014, helped by her brother, she created a profile on
Babajob, India's largest job portal for blueand grey-collared
workers (carpenters, maids, drivers, etc). “I didn't know
what it was, but I still wanted to give it a try,“ says Bharathi.
Within a week, she found new part-time jobs that paid better
and entailed shorter work hours, albeit not in the
neighbourhood but a 20-minute ride from home.
Now riding a two-wheeler, she works at just two homes
instead of seven and for five-six hours, instead of nine,
taking home about `15,000. “Now I am able to look after
my children.“ With some me free time at hand, she is
looking for some data entry work that she could do from
home. “I had done a short course earlier. It can help bring
some extra money that we badly need.“ There are reasons
why Bharathi's Baabajob story must get attention. Since
the economy opened up in 1991, along with the corporate
landscape, workplaces and jobs too have dramatically evolved.
In a country with a workforce of 487 milillion, these changes
at best impacted a minority, mostly white-collar, educated
workers at the top of the social strata, bypassing millions
at the bottom of the pyramid -casual workers or free agents
like maids, cooks, drivers, carpenters, electricians, plumbers.
With supply aplenty and no policy framework, this part of the
job market remained largely primitive, unorganised and
sub-optimally productive with virtually no mechanism to
connect supply with demand or set expectations around
wages and service standards. That is beginning to change,
thanks to a slew of technology platforms like Babajob,
UrbanClap and Taskbob. “These platforms have the power
to scale. They can aggregate a lot of people, match supply
with demand and shape pricing,“ says Nandan Nilekani,
cofounder of Infosys and architect of the Aadhaar card.
Unlike China, India may not be able to create millions of
manufacturing jobs. The services sector will be a critical
in farm-to-non farm transition for India's 260 million farm
workers.
“These platforms can remove inefficiencies, boost productivity
and create significant value (for the Indian economy),“
Nilekani adds. Points out economist Sunil Kumar Sinha
of India Ratings Research: “In a transparent way, these
platforms will help semi-formalise India's informal workforce.“

The Next Billion
One of the trickiest challenges in understanding India's
job market, especially at this end, is poor or no data,
says Rajiv Kumar, senior fellow, Centre for Policy Research.
For the first time, somebody in India is taking a stab at it.
Babajob began its journey about a decade back.
Cofounded by Sean Blagsvedt and Vir Kashyap, funded by
marquee investors like Khosla Impact, USAID, SEEK and
Gray Ghost Ventures, it today has 6.9 million job seekers
registered on its platform and over 4.5 lakh employers.
“We change to the way people hire and get hired from
lower-income households (maids, cooks, drivers, plumbers),“
says Kashyap of Babajob. In partnership with the World Bank,
Babajob has launched the nextbillion.in index (mostly
targeting over 900 million Indians with no access to internet)
that captures average salaries in five key occupations:
drivers, delivery boys, telecallers, maids and receptionists.
The freely accessible data was rolled out in Bengaluru in
August, and will soon be launched pan India. The city map
will show an overlay of pin codes and average prevalent
salary, and will allow users to post jobs in their chosen
location. “We want to build an ecosystem that improves
the livelihood of the next billion by matching their skills
with the best employers in India,“ says Blagsvedt.
Babajob data from across India (made available exclusively
to ET Magazine) throw up several insights, some predictable,
others not as much. Mumbai is the best paymaster across
categories.
In Delhi, the average monthly salary of a maid (`7,213) is
lower than in Chennai (`7,630) or even Pune (`7,609),
perhaps due to huge influx of migrant workers from
Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
Between 2012 and 2015, in some worker categories,
salaries have consistently risen in n the top five cities
-cooks (`8556 to `11,069), ), drivers (`8,726 to `12,599),
 office help p (`6,258 to `8,212) and
delivery boys (`7,352 2 to `10,795).
Salaries of maids grew the slowest, from `7,491 to `8,123.
And there have been areas where salaries have gone up
and down. For example, salaries of retail sales staff grew
from `10,470 in 2012 to `14,912 in 2014 before dipping
to `13,876. Retail clerk salaries have remained flat, perhaps
a good proxy for the online surge and offline challenges that
Indian retailers are facing. In most job categories, salaries
offered to men are higher than to women for the same job.
The exceptions are sales (there is no gap), receptionists
(women demand better salaries) and house help (the gap is thin).

New Job Exchanges
Beyond these data, a slew of new technology platforms are
also helping reshape a highly unorganised, casual workforce
at the bottom of the pyramid in small but significant ways.
A range of business models are emerging. Babajob is the
oldest, set up in 2007. Its services, available across India,
are free for job seekers; for employers it has free and paid
versions.
Bengaluru-based Avinasha Sastra, 29, is a freelancer techie
who was looking for a parttime house help. He tried three
maids sent by the security guards at his gate. “None of them
worked out,“ he says. Tired, he registered on Babajob for a
`2,000 fee. “I didn't want the headache of vetting and
shortlisting the candidates.“ They assigned him a manager
who did all that. Sastra just did the final interviews.
“It has been three months and it has worked out great,“ he says.
UrbanClap began in 2014 and has 50,000 registered service
providers like plumbers, carpenters, beauticians, along with
more skilled service providers like yoga trainers and
photographers. Cofounder Raghav Chandra sees this as
a $50 billion opportunity. “We manage the end-to-end
experience, hoping to offer standardised service,“ says
Chandra. It tries to standardise everything, from service
and job rates to equipment and products used by the service
providers. Besides police verification and screening, it offers
free training -both hard and soft skills like how to talk to
customers -on an ongoing basis. Beautician Gayatri Lakhpatani,
28, worked at salons for eight years before joining UrbanClap
seven months ago. “They provide us with a kit that costs up
to `50,000 which we paid in three equal instalments,“ she
says. Her income has almost doubled even as her work hours
 have become more flexible.
Aseem Khare's Taskbob, founded in December 2014, operates
only in Mumbai right now and has 350 service providers.
For the top 15% (as ranked by customers), it has an exclusive
arrangement, treats them like semi-employees, offering them
a minimum monthly guarantee if they are available for a
specified number of hours. A combination of incentives and
penalty helps Taskbob control service quality. For example,
there are penalties for not being on time or not taking calls.
The penalty for not turning up after accepting a job is harsher.
Conversely, jobs that get five-star ratings from customers
attract monetary incentives. “Rates for all job are fixed. Our
service providers do not need to negotiate that,“ says Khare.
Housejoy, launched last year, is present in six cities and claims
to have 10,000 service providers. Before coming on board,
they do a police verification in partnership with a third-party
company, Better Places. Most of its hires come through a
referral programme, a tool rarely used in this category.
For each referral, members get `1,0005,000 (depending on
 job categories), paid after three-four months. “Referrals are
 the easiest way to break into such an unorganised market,“
says cofounder Saran Chatterjee. Housejoy has a hybrid
model where 1020% of the service providers are employed
with them. “If they take up more than two assignments a day,
their earnings could well go up to `50,000 per month,“ he says.
 Regular training via app-based video modules helps workers
hone their skills.
There are other unexpected benefits.With digital transactions
and a trackable service history, these platforms help create
digital footprints and profiles for a hypercasual workforce that
will be invaluable for other sectors. “As consumers, it will open
new doors for them. Think of financial products like loans,“
says Nilekani.

Market Dynamics
At the bottom, finding well-paying jobs is often a challenge.
That is getting sorted. Carpenter Pankaj Sharma lives in
Dwarka in Delhi. A year ago, he joined UrbanClap to find
new clients. He now travels to Gurgaon for work instead of
seeking work in the neighbourhood. “I get less work in my
area. Rates too are better in Gurgaon.“ His earnings have
gone up from up to `15,000 to up to `20,000 a month now.
Also, earlier, his money would often be stuck with clients not
paying on time. “That does not happen anymore.“
Usually, fresh migrant workers are at the mercy of local
networks to find a job, forced into making compromises or
exploited at multiple levels. The online platforms are now
replacing those personal networks. Anita, 25, a fresh hand
at entailed late nights. Through Babajob, she landed one for
`8,000 within days of registering. The 7-to-5 job also gives
her Sundays off. “Online platforms are helping tackle the
 information asymmetry in this end-of-the-job market,“
says Manish Sabharwal, cofounder, TeamLease Services,
a staffing firm.
With better matching of demand-supply, jobseekers can be
a bit choosy. Arjun Dattaray Sanap, 34, a Pune-based driver,
considers himself lucky. Driving for 14 years, he got a job
through Babajob four months back.Now a driver for a private
sector executive, he has to travel about 8 km on bike but he
has no complaints. His salary has gone up from `10,000 to
 `12,000. But more importantly, “this is a cushy job.
My earlier job involved long work hours,“ he says.
With their training programme and differentiation of service,
these platforms are offering a career progression, rare in this
category. Amit Jadhav, 24, was earlier an auto rickshaw driver.
Two years back, he joined Taskbob, which put him through a
training programme. “I learnt how to clean a house, from sofas
to carpets,“ he says. He started as a helper at `12,000. He is now a leader, cleaning two houses a day (within a 5 km radius of his residence) earning up to `30,000 a month.
He is joined by a helper (often a fresher). “I go to these houses
wearing the company dress. It feels good. They treat me with
respect, especially when I do a good job, and offer tea and
snacks,“ he says.
Working for these technology platforms, these workers, though
not employees, become stewards of their brands. “Out of
selfinterest, these platforms will invest in training and skilling
a workforce that has had little access to any,“ says Nilekani.
In the process, it will help highly casual, untrained, unorganised
workers with sub-optimal productivity become better at their jobs.

Boosting Productivity
That should be good news for the economy too. Over 90% of
India's workforce (400 million) are in the informal sector, often
self employed: the ratio is among the highest in the world.
“I disagree that India has had a jobless growth. What we have
is a wage problem; there aren't enough good, well-paying jobs.
It is not self-employment, it is self-exploitation,“ says Sabharwal.
Workforce productivity in India is poor.Half of India's workforce
(farm workers) contribute just 15% to GDP. Compare this with
the US and China. According to data from Conference Board, in
fiscal year 1989-90, India's labour productivity per person
employed (in PPP terms) stood at $4,941, slightly better than
China's $3,323 though sharply lower than the US's $79,437.
But over the last decade and a half, India has lagged behind.
In fiscal year 2014-15, labour productivity for India In moved
up to $13,637 but China's stood at $23,809 and the US's at
$117,970.
“If the Indian economy has to grow well, then boosting labour
productivity is critical,“ says Sinha of India Ratings Research.
The long-term average annual increase in workforce for India
stands at 1.7%. “To attain a GDP growth rate of 9%, India will
need to boost its labour productivity growth by 7.3%,“ he says.
That is far higher than what is currently happening. Labour
productivity growth in India stood at 3.05% in the 1990s, 5.52%
in the 2000s. The best it achieved was in 2005-08 when it peaked at 9%. In 2011-15, it hovered around 3.84%. In a small way, these new platforms will help boost productivity.
“Unlike China where the manufacturing sector helped in
farm-to-non farm migration, in India the services sector
(that these platforms are focusing on) will play a critical role,“
 says Nilekani.
As these platforms grow, expect some of the variables common
in the white-collar job market -like wage inflation, attrition,
service standards, gradation of workers based on skills and
experience -to play out at the bottom-of-the-job market.
But for good and discerning employers, a better service
experience will make up for it.“From `1,500 earlier, I pay
my maid `2,100 now. But I am happy to pay that.
A job well done means my mind space isn't occupied with it.
It is worth it,“ says Bengaluru techie Sastra.
Malini Goyal ET 20NOV16


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