Bridging Supply-demand Gap In Frontline Workforce Pravin Agarwala, co-founder and group CEO, BetterPlace says that the stack offered by the startup has the potential to reduce workforce management costs by enterprises by more than 50%
By S Shanthi
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India, Southeast Asia and GCC countries account for 50% of the global workforce but only 10% of the global GDP. This is largely because 80% of these workers work in the informal sector. This has created problems across the value chain. Less than 3% of the frontline workforce is formally skilled because of which enterprise efficiency is 20-25% lower than the ideal rate and has a labor shortage of more than 20%. Moreover, on average, a midsize enterprise spends close to $3 million dollars every month just to get the right people for the job. This problem is what BetterPlace's goBetter product stack aims to solve.
goBetter is a unified end-to-end frontline workforce management tech stack which is optimized through GenAI. goBetter has product solutions that solve Contract Labour Management (Vendor management and Compliance), Core HRMS(Hire ATS, Onboarding, Verification, Attendance, Rostering and Payroll) and Skilling for very large and complex frontline workforces. These modules manage and optimize the entire frontline worker lifecycle.
"This stack has the potential to reduce workforce management costs by enterprises by more than 50% and increase productivity rates by 100%. This will have a significant trickle-down effect on the entire economy. Firstly, with massive cost savings, enterprises can use that money to scale their business which would lead to more demand for workers and employment opportunities. Secondly, it will bridge the supply-demand gap in the frontline workforce much more rapidly since most of the processes would be optimized. Finally, it would bridge the skill-demand gap significantly, with GenAI automatically creating skilling content for workers to help them upskill and have a career trajectory path," says Pravin Agarwala, co-founder and group CEO, BetterPlace.
The startup claims to have benefited more than 30 million frontline workers so far through its tech stack. "We have unlocked access to credit to more than 4 million frontline workers. Frontline workers on our platform earn 27% higher than the minimum wage. Enterprises have recorded productivity gains of more than 70% and reported cost reductions of about 25%," claims Agarwala.
The Series C+ funded startup ensures it has an edge over others by making sure that it has cognitive and geographical diversity within its teams. "Since we have spent the last couple of years consolidating our position in the market through acquisitions and integrations, we have brought together teams that have expertise across different industries like BFSI, e-commerce, big-tech, SaaS which help us cross-learn and implement best practices and innovations from different industries. Moreover, with operations in India, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, and UAE, we have teams that are always on the frontlines of innovations that are happening globally," he adds.
The company aims to become EBITDA profitable by the end of 2024 and its growth plan for the next two years is consolidation, penetration, and innovation. It also aims to deepen its penetration in Southeast Asian and GCC markets, expanding into more countries in the region. "We already have a presence in Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, and UAE. In the next two years, we aim to expand into Thailand, Philippines, Vietnam, and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia," says Agarwala.
FACTSHEET
- Year of inception: 2015
- No. of employees: 900+
- Revenue for FY 2022-23: INR 552.57 crores As of March 2023
- External funding received so far: $81.7Mn
- Major clients: Reliance Jio, Aditya Birla Capital, Tata Steel, JLL, CBRE, Hindalco, Amazon, Flipkart, OLA, Accenture, Securitas, Iffco Tokio, Myntra, Zepto, Swiggy, Big Basket, others
