IT industry headed for Uberisation of workforce: Capgemini India CEO

Capgemini, the third-largest global IT employer in India with a workforce of around 125,000, says going forward it would accept more and more gig workers in India. Capgemini India’s Chief Executive Officer Ashwin Yardi talks to Bibhu Ranjan Mishra and Sai Ishwar about the impact of Covid-19 on business. Edited excerpts:
 

You have been at the helm for past 18 months. What has changed during this period?
 

Immediately after I took over, we launched a transformation programme at the India level and set four to five priorities. First, we wanted to go beyond the delivery side driven by home-grown innovations. A chief innovation officer also joined by the time I took over.
 

We also started our Applied Innovation Exchange platform where we work with over 200 start-ups and global clients to enable innovations for them. Earlier, the digital and front-end information technology work was more onshore centric. So, our focus was to drive many of those to offshore, to here in India. I think we have made quite a bit of progress in all aspects.
 

Around 96 per cent of your employees are working from home. Where do you see this (WFH) equation heading?
 

There will be a change in the model. But what is the reality if you ask me, frankly, everyone is still defining it. I would say it is too premature to define a number today. Even before this (pre-Covid time), we had 15-20 per cent people working from home, but in an unstructured way.
 

What I foresee is, this would settle somewhere between 20 and 90 per cent. So, though, it is proved that over 90 per cent can work from home, the real answer is at the centre of that range.
 

Do you mean to say, it could be around 50 per cent?
 

Yes, but again it may vary from client to client.
 

Are the clients now more comfortable and flexible about embedding WFH formally in their contracts?
 

Absolutely. Many clients had not embraced work outside even to their offshore development centres (ODCs), let alone WFH. They have now understood this can not be ignored. Several clients look at this as a slightly moderated working model.
 

Also, there is a new model which is picking up. Part-time or freelancers. How is Capgemini leveraging it?
 

(We have) very few people who work as part-time employees. Probably, it will become prominent in India going forward. A flexi-work or a gig-based model will emerge where one doesn’t want to be a full-time employee or go to the office every day. It’s like ‘Uberisation’ of the workforce. Companies will explore it much more than before because remote work is finding acceptance.
 

But, how can one track employees; especially when they handle client sensitive data?
 

They do accept it in Western countries. That is exactly something we are working on. We have to define what is the new operating model with a gig economy? How to manage pay, and get the security needs addressed? We haven’t solved it yet.
 

Are you seeing any decline in demand or project ramp downs because of the pandemic?
 

There is no generic answer. Some industries are severely impacted, like transportation, hospitality and parts of manufacturing.

There has been deferment of discretionary spends in these industries. On the other hand, there are a lot of deal activities despite the pandemic. They either want bigger and bolder managed services and outsourcing to save costs. Some companies see this as a big opportunity for agile, e-commerce pivoting.