The pandemic has accelerated many behavioural shifts in the way we work. Organisations that had been slowly moving to digital are hurtling along the virtual pathway now and overnight employees have had to embrace digital tools and technology.

Covid-19 is also expected to lead to a strengthening of the gig economy and rise in freelance projects. For some years now there have been several projections on how the future of work is moving towards gig. But so far the gig economy was thriving only in the semi-skilled space (think of outfits such as Uber, Urban Co.). However, the pandemic may lead to a shift in the knowledge economy and white collar jobs into gig mode too.

In the near short term of course, freelancers and self-employed are hurting but projections are that they are going to be the big gainers a year from now. All through April, May and June the headlines have been dominated by news of mass layoffs. When the economy revives and the wheels of enterprise start spinning, the first set of fresh talent needs may be met by freelancers. That is because a lot of the barriers inhibiting ‘gigification’ in the knowledge economy have now vanished. Companies are no longer averse to remote work.

Moreover, the bad press that companies have got for sacking employees will force them to look for ways in which to prevent such situations in the future. If 50 per cent of your employees are project-based hires, the burden of responsibility shifts. The cost savings accrued by hiring experts for a project rather than have full-time workers is undeniable.

In a survey on state of freelancing in nearly 100 countries by financial services company Payoneer done in May, 32 per cent respondents said demand had decreased. However 53 per cent felt that demand would surge once the outbreak was under control. Significantly, during the pandemic there was no decline in rates.

If you’ve signed up to drive for Lyft or sell cool crafts on Etsy, you know the drill: Because you’re an independent contractor, you can’t expect the traditional workplace perks like paid vacations and highly-subsidized health care that employees typically enjoy. But that doesn’t mean gig economy workers get no benefits at all. You may be surprised to find that you can still get some sweet extras like sign-up bonuses, discounted phone service and help marketing your goods and services.

Thanks to a strong job market, which means more competition for qualified workers, gig economy companies are sweetening the pot to attract and retain talent that might otherwise be lured away by better offers. Of course there’s a limit to how many extras employers will offer contractors. “The entire reason employers hire contractors is often to avoid providing them with any benefits traditionally thought of as employee benefits,” Kathryn F. Abernethy, an employment lawyer at Abernethy Law, said in an email interview.

The key to making sure you’re getting a good deal is comparison shopping for the best benefits and understanding how to protect yourself. “The single most important thing a gig worker can do to protect their rights and interests in the workplace is to negotiate aggressively for the best contract possible upfront,” Abernethy said. That includes asking about any benefits, including any discounts that will lower the day-to-day costs of plying your trade.

While your expected take home pay is your top concern, you should keep an eye out for red flags. The biggest thing to look out for, according to Abernethy, is a non-compete clause that could make it harder to find another job in the future. “If the employer asks you to sign a contract that contains any sort of ‘non-compete,’ or ‘non-solicitation’ clause, you should really get legal advice before you sign.”

We’ve taken a close look at some of the top incentives offered to gig economy workers to help you choose a company that will best reward you for your efforts. Here are some of the benefits you can expect.

DoorDash
“Dashers” at DoorDash deliver products like restaurant food or items from local businesses. Perks like the use of company’s new fleet of electric bikes, so dashers don’t need their own wheels, as well as weekly paychecks, so they get paid faster than the standard biweekly schedule at many workplaces, Eitan Bencuya, DoorDash’s head of communication, said in an email.

We live in an age of consistent change, a time when technology is increasingly driving the world and everything is digitizing. Hence, the future of development has to be agile, yet robust. Distributed, while interconnected. package, yet customized. Simplified results driven projects. A new Consulting reality is born with freelancers around the globe.

New application development paradigms are emerging. Increasing number of cloud vendors are enabling unprecedented agility and innovation. Fast spreading container technologies and their ecosystem will set a “new normal” for enterprise applications, coded once and running anywhere: in the cloud, on-premises, and on the edge. Experienced Freelancers are developing reusable solutions to fit the market needs and are immediately available for customer use. Identifying the right solutions and implementing them are becoming easier with Nexgis.

Nexgis provides an abundance of experienced freelancers with tools and services for developing and managing projects reducing the project timeline present huge opportunities for enterprises to create and deploy software, using processes that are highly responsive to business needs. Business processes can be highly automated, proactively identifying impact insights and driving action with available solutions and services in the market. Most importantly, this revolution will be fueled by high availability of services, reusable solutions, accelerators , which is becoming the world’s most valuable asset, combining traditional consulting and Freelancers with their solutions.

But these great opportunities also introduce new challenges. The explosion of valuable reusable assets will attract an ever-increasing number of adversaries, seeking to exploit and monetize vulnerabilities. Society will place an increasing demand on companies to protect their rights at all times. Governing, monitoring, and managing the life cycle of a reusable assets, methodologies, and tools across distributed landscapes will be a necessity for enterprises more than ever before.

Nexgis, with our market leading freelances and packaged services, is uniquely positioned in the competitive landscape to serve companies world-wide in transforming their business at scale to thrive in this new reality.

Nexgis allows the professionals not only market their skills but also market their reusable solutions, services, etc allowing them to be more productive to the customers and provide on-time solutions to fit the Agile projects as well as traditional projects