Despite significant layoffs, almost 90% of tech leaders say that recruiting and retaining talent is a moderate to significant challenge. With highly technical roles harder than ever to fill, many companies are turning to freelancers to fill what were previously employee-shaped skills gaps.
Interested in adding strategy to the way you leverage on-demand tech talent?
Fiverr Enterprise is a Freelancer Management System (FMS) that helps you source, hire, manage and pay your entire freelance workforce.
This article will look at what’s causing the challenges in talent acquisition for tech teams, cover 5 strategies for finding the right people, and explain how a robust technology platform can make all the difference.
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What Is Talent Acquisition?
Talent acquisition is the way that companies find the right people for their teams, including sourcing skilled candidates, interviewing, making an offer, and onboarding new hires. Different approaches of talent acquisition will be needed for varied types of workers. For example, employees won’t require the same strategy as freelancers or agency workers.
When IT companies have a strong talent acquisition strategy in place, it streamlines the whole journey of onboarding new workers, and helps teams get to work faster, with less friction.
What are the Challenges in Finding Talent?
77% of IT leaders are struggling to fill technical skills gaps. One reason is a genuine skills shortage. There is a growing need for competencies in new fields such as AI and Machine Learning. It’s not viable for organizations to wait for graduates to finish 4-year university degrees, and expect them to have the right skills. Big Data, Analytics and Engineering are the three areas most in demand.
With skills in short supply, there is high competition for top talent. While “Big Players” can attract the most skilled employees looking for jobs, smaller tech companies can’t compete with the resume capital or the benefits packages.
For companies who are looking for employees to work in-house, there are also geographic limitations to consider. Not only does an organization have to find top skills when they are in short supply, these skills also have to be from people who are in the right location. Even if you work in a hybrid way, employees usually need to come into the office on a weekly basis, especially if they are more senior and managing teams.
This brings us to one of the biggest problems when hiring talent — the evolving workforce expectations of the talent themselves. Many people no longer want to be tied to a single office or even a single employer. According to the Harvard Business Review, what workers want the most is autonomy.
5 Strategies for Finding Talented Employees and On-Demand Tech Talent
To beat these challenges and more, many companies are changing the way they think about their workforce, and looking towards freelancers and consultants to meet skills gaps and create a new talent acquisition strategy.
In some cases, these freelancers could become employees, but more often than not — the benefits of being able to scale the workforce to meet demand, and the high quality work received from this kind of talent means that a long-term direct relationship with freelancers makes the most sense.
Here are five strategies for getting started:
1. Leveraging Professional Networks
Professional networks can be a great first step in sourcing exceptional talent. These could be on or offline, and be networks you’re already a part of, or those you need to reach out and join. While personal networks could be as simple as your family or your university alumni, strategic networks could involve partnering with other businesses that are downsizing or joining local professional networking groups that introduce you to new talent.
2. Engaging with Educational Institutions
While a lot of fresh skills are evolving too fast to depend on graduates alone, being able to tap university leavers who are looking for graduate roles is an important part of a talent acquisition strategy. Speak to universities, colleges and other vocational schools about coming in and hosting boot camps and workshops, or being part of careers days. That means when grads are looking for their first roles, they’re already on your radar, and you’re on theirs.
3. Utilizing Social Media and Digital Platforms
You never know who you’re already connected to until you reach out! Especially when it comes to freelance talent, the online world offers huge opportunities in talent sourcing. Start by posting a job on LinkedIn or another social media platform, and think about using freelancer marketplaces — especially those that are set up for niche digital and IT roles specifically. Remember, it can be hard to sift through hundreds or even thousands of profiles, so have a process in place for narrowing it down.
4. Embracing Remote Work
Broadening your talent acquisition strategy to fill skills gaps more easily also involves a change in mindset. Instead of thinking about the perfect talent that works within an hour of your office, think about the perfect talent — period. It doesn’t matter where they work, what matters is if they are the right person for the job. Of course, you need to consider time zones and cultural differences, but if it’s a role where they can work solo, and they have the references and experience, embrace the idea of remote work and give it a go!
5. Adopting Innovative Recruitment Technologies like Fiverr Enterprise
Many companies are nervous about turning to freelancers because they simply don’t have the processes or systems in place to make it work. Here’s where a Freelancer Management System (FMS) like Fiverr Enterprise comes in.
Fiverr Enterprise provides an IT talent pool, curated especially for you — one place where you can gain instant access to your own carefully vetted Dev & IT talent, that’s ready-to-hire and able to meet your business requirements.
Hire any tech expertise, eliminate resource uncertainty, reduce hiring costs and maintain a consistent and quality workforce. Our SaaS solution enables you to confidently take on more projects, knowing you have a dedicated talent pool that’s always available.
With Fiverr Enterprise you can:
- Hire any tech expertise, fast: Our white-glove sourcing and hiring service will deliver you top tech talent that’s available to hire immediately in just 48 hours.
- Reduce bench spend: Save time and budget when you no longer have to pay for non-billable workers. No high agency markup fees or new onboarding processes.
- Get access to a global, vetted talent pool: From Data Science and AI to niche Integration or Automation experts, get access to top, vetted talent worldwide.
Interested in finding on-demand tech talent? Speak to one of our workforce experts for a walkthrough of the Fiverr Enterprise platform.