Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is planning a platform for internal 'gigs' for its over 600,000 employees.

The platform, in the initial stages right now, could be expanded to the external workforce as well later.

The move comes at a time when the $227-billion IT industry is grappling with the issue of moonlighting, or the taking up additional assignments by employees usually during non-work hours.

Milind Lakkad, chief human resource officer, TCS says, “We are starting a few proofs of concept (PoCs) on gig models but it is upon our own internal engagement and does not involve any customer engagements. We have a set of activities which can be crowd-outsourced and can be given out to people who are interested. The reward mechanism (for the gig) doesn't have to be (monetary) compensation but definitely something that recognises people.”

India’s largest software services provider by revenue wants to evolve this into an internal gig-operating model for TCS.

Many IT companies have been setting up new models or leveraging previously set-up models to engage their employees on gig-based projects.

“Eventually, for a scale like ours, I see a long-term model where we will use this for even the external workforce,” says Lakkad.

They are doubling down on these projects of late as employees have been indulging in moonlighting, which has been partly fuelled by the flexibility provided due to the work from home option.

Infosys had a platform called ‘Accelerate’ to help employees work on gig projects within the company apart from their main projects.

Lakkad expects attrition numbers for TCS – which has gone above the 20 percent mark - to come down significantly in the next 3-4 quarters.