Moonlighting underscores employer-employee relationship rules are changing

The raging moonlighting debate has underscored that this is a crucial moment where the rules of the employer-employee relationship are changing and companies will have to figure out newer terms of engagement with the workforce of the future, agreed the HR experts at the India Today Conclave in Mumbai on Friday.

Calling it a sociological issue, Prabhir Jha, Founder & CEO, Prabhir Jha People Advisory, said moonlighting refers to a fundamental collapse in trust and communication (between the employer and employee) and the ability of the top leadership to mingle with staff and pick these cues in time. “Yes, you can fire people because moonlighting is a violation of the contract as it exists, but you can’t fire 50,000 people. So, the solution is in improving the level of leadership conduct, maturing managerial competence, building greater trust and recognizing that flexible working and working by choice is here to stay and to what extent can we accommodate. It’s about redefining the way we work,” he said at a panel called ‘Moonlighting: Digital Economy’s Bane or a New Reality?’

If you refer to moonlighting as unethical behaviour and sack X number of people, what it also implies that you haven’t taken route to warn, according to NS Rajan, Former Group CHRO, Tata Group. “If you want to take a moral high ground, should you be sacking them without giving them a chance, should you keep compensation disparity at the levels at which they are. If you are worried about your bottomline, the individual is worried about his safety net.”

On the way forward, Sonal Agarwal, Managing Partner, Accord India, said there are two kinds of employees in an organisation – the long-term employee who is building a career within the organization and the young emerging gig workgorce which is not looking it at that way — and organisations have to respond to them accordingly. “Perhaps rules need to be different for them than what it is for the traditional employees.”

Jha also said that the construct of talent staffing is going to change. “There will be a lot more of the gig or part association for the cost economies, or the inability of most companies to offer meaningful learning and career opportunities. You cannot be a uniform career providing employer to 10,000-50,000 people. “Smart management thinking will be to look at providing meaningful careers, string in people who are happier, search for talent beyond the obvious. So, they have to disturb their historical thinking, experiment a lot more, there will be mistakes but the future will give us very different models.”

Rajan also said that youngsters have moved from reverance to relevance. “Is what your offering relevant to my growth and giving room for my aspirations? Those are the things that are really changing.”

However, Agarwal cautioned that there are tradeoffs involved in gig work compared to working in a more structured environment as well. She said that manufacturing and industrial companies are hiring in full steam even amid the choppy waters in the job market amid global headwinds as they have invested heavily in the past few quarters, but services industry tend to go up and down.

Also read: 'Loyalty has gone for a toss': Millennials, moonlighting & start-ups

Also read: Tech Mahindra CEO supports moonlighting, wants employees to take permission before taking side job