THE IT and Business Process Association of the Philippines (IBPAP) said it accepts the gig economy as a “challenge” to the industry, saying it was catalyzed by the pandemic.
“That was catalyzed by the fact that we can now work from home. You can’t do gig economy in your day job. And some people really don’t want to work in the office. So you know I mean it’s just an interesting result of our work flexibility. I mean, this is the new world of work,” IBPAP President Jack Madrid said recently.
However, Madrid stressed that the rising talent in the freelance industry is “something that we need to pay attention to,” adding that “it is a force that is hard to stop.”
The head of the flagship organization of the Information Technology and Business Process Management (IT-BPM) also advised workers in the gig economy to weigh the pros and cons of working under such set-up due to “stability” issues.
“But those gig economy people also have to realize what’s the stability of that. Maybe they accepted short-term…benefits or your rights..you have to weigh that versus the flexibility of 100 percent [work from home] WFH,” Madrid said.
“So you just have to weigh,” he added.
The IBPAP chief added, “I think on the investor side, we need to accept it and compete with it. On the employee side, I know [Department of Information and Communications Technology] DICT is supporting it.”
Madrid said he supports the gig economy because it’s still a job and it’s still good for the country’s economy. However, he said, “I want them to also know the pros and cons of working for an unregistered company.
That’s really it.”
At the IT-BPM Talent Summit held last month, the top official of a business process outsourcing (BPO) firm urged the government to “level the playing field” between the gig economy and the IT-BPM industry in terms of complying with government regulations.
Haidee C. Enriquez, CEO of MicroSourcing, noted at the IT-BPM Summit last month that as “the legitimate player, we need to contend with a lot of regulations coming from the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), coming from the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), coming from the National Privacy Commission (NPC), coming from the local government units (LGUs), whereas the freelancers don’t need to contend with that.”
The IT and Business Process Association of the Philippines (IBPAP) earlier noted that it is targeting to create up to 1.1 million direct jobs by 2028.
Of the 1.1-million jobs target, IBPAP said 54 percent will be in the countryside, which the organization said will bring the sector’s total headcount to 2.5 million by 2028.
However, Enriquez pointed out the threat that the industry is facing when it comes to attracting jobs in the countryside.
“A lot of the people who are enticed to move into freelancing or gig economy workers are those in the countryside because not a lot of BPO players are present in their particular location,” the MicroSourcing CEO noted.
Further, the industry practitioner stressed that “How then as an industry can we add to the 1.1 million when internally we already have a huge ‘leaking barrel’…How can we make that much…that one of the things that make us great and economically powerful industry is the fact that for every one job created in the industry, 2 to 3 more indirect jobs are created elsewhere?”
Meanwhile, through the lens of the government, Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) Assistant Secretary Paul Añover said, “When we talk about the gig economy, we’re also looking here at why they’re not being absorbed by the IT-BPM industry.”
Hence, Añover recommended, “Something that we also have to look at is how we recruit talent.”
The DOLE official said the industry should zero in on a skills-based approach because apart from looking at the entrants, it is also important to look at who is already there and who had already developed “significant” experience but who just needs to be reskilled.
In line with this, Payoneer’s 2023 Freelancer Insights Report released in April reported that despite the fears of a global economic slowdown, 46 percent of the freelancers saw an increase in demand for their work.
Monique Avila, the country manager of Payoneer for the Philippines, cited convenience and flexibility among the reasons behind the growing number of businesses relying on freelancers to support their full-time workforce.
“This benefits freelancers, too, since we have seen how they can enjoy a good work-life balance while still sustaining themselves, especially with the convenience, and practicality of earning in USD without leaving the country. We expect this industry to keep growing in the coming year,” Avila said in a statement released by Payoneer in April.