India's economic reforms are on track and she has a new appointment to meet a heavily delayed “tryst with destiny”. However, there is justifiable disappointment with the lack of new job creation or shift from unorganized employment since reforms began in 1991.
 
Labor reforms are controversial but equating them with firing workers is wrong. The much debated exit policy should be forgotten for now in the interest of moving forward; small steps are better than no progress.
 
We need a “thought world” shift from employment to employability; from giving fish to teaching how to fish; from preserving jobs to creating them. This white paper is our attempt to create background for a debate on one of the many possible solutions to unemployment; temporary staffing.

While a permanent, full-time job may still be the norm, labor markets are changing. A job-for-life is being replaced with life-long learning, multi-skilling, a working life with multiple careers and flexible hours.

For a significant part of public opinion and policy makers, temporary staffing still has the negative connotations of precarious employment. But there is another side of the coin, namely the positive dimensions of flexibility; outsider access, lower unemployment, greater employability, and increased labor mobility.
Current temporary staffing laws, as with broader labor legislation, favors the minority (largely not poor, middle-aged men in organized labor) against the majority (young, old, poor, lower skilled, women, unemployed, unorganized, and self-employed). This is not fair.
 
We make the case that temporary staffing companies address the flexibility needs of workers and companies, and, in the process, create jobs. In this way, staffing companies help in building stronger societies.
 
India’s progress will not be worth the trip if we do not give a majority of our people the strength and self-esteem that comes with a job. Let the journey begin.
 
 
The Teamlease Team