Flexible working arrangements are on the rise in Australia, with a recent study finding that a third of the workforce are now engaged in contract work, and a further 746,000 people moonlighting as freelancers. Big business are growing increasingly aware of the need to engage with this, at times, specialised and cost-effective workforce. According to Employsure, ‘38 per cent of Australian employers believe offering flexible work is the best way to retain good staff’.
Given the demand from workers for flexible arrangements, as well as an increasing appetite from the market to engage a flexible workforce, large organisations are exploring technology solutions to keep up with this changing dynamic. One such solution are the multitude of online talent marketplaces.
These online talent marketplaces are the gateway between organisational talent needs and a convenient, quality solution; the platforms provide a job board that has access to, sometimes, millions of professionals. These often include marketing and IT skills, but depending on the site, they can run the full gamut of specialist occupations and expertise.
Traditionally, smaller businesses have been pioneers of using this new option for finding workers, as they often have the flexibility and adaptability to use alternative sourcing methods. Larger organisations are only just now starting to realise the potential of this technology and have begun using online freelance marketplaces on a larger scale.
Below, we look at some of the most popular online freelance marketplaces and how they are providing enhanced services for enterprise clients.
Dedicated program management with Freelancer.com
As the world’s largest online talent marketplace, Freelancer provides access to a global workforce of over 29.6 million freelancers. And like most online marketplaces, Freelancer gives professionals a platform to search through posted jobs. Their performance is rated on the quality of their project delivery, which Freelancer tracks through detailed insights and metrics.
While initially focused on small-to-medium businesses, Freelancer has recently launched an option for enterprise clients. The key elements of this program includes:
- A private freelancer cloud of pre-vetted professionals
- Project managers that maintain a high standard of quality and a smooth workflow
- Total compliance management to protect clients from worker classification risks.
This product has been extremely popular for large businesses: currently, 70% of Fortune 500 companies use Freelancer. And get this: Freelancer has held a long-standing relationship with NASA, working with them and freelance talent to design a next generation robotic assistant to support astronauts on the International Space Station.
Providing detailed analytics through Upwork’s Program Owner Experience
Upwork offers a global online talent pool of more than ten million freelancers across nearly 3,000 different skillsets. According to Upwork CEO Stephane Kasriel, “While companies today spend $3.5 trillion on contingent labour, existing models are restrictive, constrained by geography, lack of transparency and prohibitive cost structures”.
To meet the contractor needs of larger organisations, Upwork offers an enterprise solution, which provides a dedicated freelancer portal. Through this portal, companies can hire freelancers, track their work and pay them from a single platform.
This platform is used by General Electric and Proctor & Gamble to obtain flexible talent. Although talent is sourced through UpWork’s online marketplace, this program still works in conjunction with the employer’s human resources, finance, procurement and legal business units.
Additionally, Upwork has unveiled a new feature of its enterprise solution – Program Owner Experience. This feature allows large organisations to analyse their freelance workforce, track their performance and provide tactical guidance. The program also acts as a benchmarking tool, giving enterprises a view of what other companies are doing with regards to contractor spend, resourcing gaps and performance.
Integrating Vendor Management Systems with twago
twago is the largest European freelancer marketplace platform. Specialising in web design, IT services and programming, twago gives clients access to over 500,000 experts across 200 countries. In February 2018, twago launched a Talent Management System for big business. This system integrates into an organisation’s existing vendor management system (VMS), such as SAP Fieldglass.
This integration is a point of difference for twago, allowing them to provide support through the entire project lifecycle. Acting as a direct sourcing channel for organisations, twago provides large enterprise clients with talent pool curation and automated matching of talent to jobs. What a boon!
According to Thomas Jajeh, CEO of twago, “Our goal was to improve the workforce management of large-scale companies and to reduce operating costs over the long term.”
Although in the early stages of development, six Fortune 500 companies have already implemented this solution.
Managing online freelancer marketplaces through a supply chain
CXC Global works with clients to outsource the HR function for non-permanent talent. Working with large clients, such as nbn, Medibank and Origin Energy, we manage the supply of talent from a variety of different sourcing channels, including online talent marketplaces.
Enterprise solutions being developed by Australian and International online talent marketplace providers will save big business time and money, and will lead to more efficient recruitment practices of non-permanent talent.
