Case Study: MMC - Addressing unmet needs of the Gig Economy

About JLT India

JLT India is a part of Marsh & McLennan companies which is a global leader in risk, strategy and people. With
roots dating back to 1871, MMC today is formed of 4 large global organizations – namely Marsh, Mercer,
Guy Carpenter and Oliver Wyman. MMC is a Fortune 200 Company with presence in over 140 countries,
70,000 colleagues and annual revenue of $15 billion and growing.
JLT India is the knowledge center for the MMC companies with expertise in employee benefits, insurance
broking, reinsurance broking, analytics, research, consulting, financial management and information
technology. It provides services to Marsh, Mercer, Guy Carpenter and MMC through its operations services,
research, investment consulting, analytics, consulting operations, specialized accounting, fiduciary
accounting, management consulting and IT services.

Problem Statement
The world of gig economy is a fast one, allows flexibility in employment and gives opportunities to talented
part timers to work in evolving industries and segments. The "on demand" workforce, freelancers or
independent contractors are growing in size as industries struggle with getting access to trained, full time
employees at appropriate salaries. However, gig economy workers don’t necessarily get all the benefits that
full time employees receive. The traditional mould of employee benefits is structured a certain way
irrespective of which part of the world we discuss. The lack of consistent income, less stability coupled with
lack of benefits isn’t a great proposition for new age workers who are increasingly demanding flexibility.
1. Global view - Understand the gaps in statutory and labour laws surrounding gig workers, the
practical challenges in providing benefits to them and describe your analysis across India, the United
Kingdom, the US and Asia regions.
2. India view - Conduct primary interviews with gig economy workers (Ola, Uber, Swiggy, freelancers)
with a view to identify their real challenges and needs. Compare the benefits offered to employees
in more traditional setting to identify the gaps. Also conduct interviews with employers of gig
workers to assess their challenges in providing benefits to gig workers.
3. India view - Evaluate what Mercer does in this space. Make recommendations on a)what benefits
are easy to offer gig workers b) what kind of support should be provided to gig workers c) evaluate
whether investing benefits into part-time and short term employees is going to benefit employers
and how.
4. India view - Provide your views on future of work and workforce for the future to make a compelling
enough argument for gig workers.
You are expected to provide a 10-12 slide PowerPoint deck that follows the outline above. You are also
required to conduct primary research together with web based research to make the final set of
recommendations. The recommendations need to be implementable and should have a clear plan of
execution.
**Definition of gig workers for the purpose of this case study is limited to contractors in organized industries
like finance, IT, management consulting etc. and/or part timers that work in like drivers for taxi companies,
delivery boys of online ordering websites etc.**

The name of the organization has been changed to protect privacy and confidentiality
3 |C a s e S t u d y -Some facts may have been added/modified to encourage out of the box thinking -