Growing by Shrinking: Using Skill Sourcing to Extend Capacity With Smaller Teams

The world is short 85 million workers. As HR departments everywhere scramble to fill empty roles left by the Great Resignation, they’re now dealing with a new workforce trend: boss loss.

Managers are so burned out that they’re twice as likely as their workers to be looking for new jobs, according to the Humu State of the Manager 2022 report. And, according to a Deloitte survey, 70% of C-suite executives are considering leaving their current role for a position that better supports their well-being.

This widespread talent exodus suggests that most businesses have considerable work ahead in creating a culture that better helps employees at all levels feel supported. It’s critical work that should and must be done, but it will take time.

So, what do you do about the talent you need now?

"We will have to get better at utilizing the labor we have," said Ron Hetrick speaking to SHRM about the employment crisis. Hetrick is the Senior Labor Economist at Lightcast, formerly known as Emsi.

Digitally enabled businesses have it figured out. These businesses are adopting a contemporary workforce model that allows them to maintain a small team, even during periods of growth. Then they “skill source” all the other talent required to keep business tracking on plan.

Through skill sourcing, businesses are getting initiatives done on time, extending the boundaries on what they can achieve, increasing diversity within teams, and improving employee retention rates.

What is skill sourcing?

Skill sourcing is a workforce model that enables you to maintain a small, core team of employees by leveraging work marketplaces like Upwork. In this model, your lean team concentrates on work that only they can do or that maximizes their strengths. Then you bring in independent professionals (on-demand talent), who often work remotely, to handle the rest.

This may sound similar to outsourcing, but there’s an important difference. When you outsource, you give up the entirety of the project even if you have some of the skills needed internally. You have higher risk, and employees often feel threatened thinking that their jobs are being given to someone else.

When you skill source, you retain ownership of some aspects of the project. You engage an on-demand professional to contribute where you don't have the skill sets available. Employees are in a relationship with the on-demand professionals you contract and don’t see external talent as a threat to their jobs. Instead, these independent specialists are seen as resources who enable employees to scale and do their jobs better.

Such as how Liz Elliott, Director, Coach and Consumer Technology at PGA of America, regularly skill-sources talent to handle work that’s outside of her core competency. This enables her to deliver her best work and do what fulfills her most. “Having high-quality talent available lets me focus on high-visibility projects,” Elliot said, “while knowing the other projects are getting done and their stakeholders are receiving the support they need.”

Why successful businesses skill source

Traditionally, when you think of hiring someone, you intend to fill a role. When you skill source, you intend to complete a task. Roles can’t keep up with the speed of change—tasks can. Tasks change even faster during disruptive times, making it more important for you to access skills on time.

Scale time

When CompuVision CEO, Ryan Vestby, introduced skill sourcing to employees company-wide, he made it clear that skill sourcing was not about replacing jobs. He told employees, “It’s about changing the way you deliver things, so you can do your best work. There's got to be things in your job description today that you don't like doing. What if you could focus on the work you love? The reason why you're in this role? So now you’re spending 90% of your time doing what you love to do. Then you can have independent talent handle the rest, which expands your capacity and output.”

‍“[Skill sourcing] is not about replacing jobs. It’s about changing the way you deliver things, so you can do your best work.”
—Ryan Vestby, CEO at CompuVision

When Cara Bedford was the Director of Marketing at CompuVision, she became so adept at skill sourcing that her one-person department produced as if she had a staff of 12. Bedford explained, “Using Upwork is a matter of effectiveness and efficiency. It’s all about being smarter on how we manage our time.”

Scale value

Many managers view skill sourcing as an efficient way to scale the value of an employee. Each time an employee skill sources talent, whether it’s one person to analyze research or a team to launch a new product, the employee is shifting some of their time to managing projects. So that in addition to increasing output, employees are also developing soft skills including communication, leadership, working with diverse teams, and time management.

Employees are cloning themselves in a way and not threatened by it because the more the employee delivers, the more valuable they become. “You often don’t have the budget, head count, time, or support to find job satisfaction as a full-time employee,” said a manager at Microsoft. “But I’ve been at this company for five years and I haven’t lost a single person. Part of that is because working with Upwork creates the opportunity for individuals to grow in their careers and makes for a more satisfying work environment.”

Scale speed

Skill sourcing empowers employees to work at their own pace. In the past, the marketing team at Singularity University couldn’t move on opportunities fast enough. But after employees were granted access to the Upwork platform, they had the resources to rapidly test new ideas and execute on the winners. The team also processed leads two times faster and raised output by 30%.

Working through a work marketplace enables Singularity University to move with speed and stability. Overnight, the marketing team gained access to millions of on-demand professionals with in-demand skills. And the work platform was customized to meet the company’s security and onboarding requirements. Adam Hofmann, the VP of Marketing at the time, said, “I don’t have to be a bottleneck because I know the right systems are in place for them to go find somebody great, get them hired, and start working with them quickly.”

Scale creativity

There are a lot of talented people in the world, and they don’t all work for your company. While you may not be able to hire all the top talent, through skill sourcing you can still work with them.

One reason Moadh Bukhash, Chief Marketing Officer at Emirates NBD, relies on skill sourcing is because, “In marketing, it’s all about coming up with that unique idea... When you have access to millions of individual freelancers and agencies around the world with different backgrounds, different experiences, different mentalities, and different cultures, you generate more ideas and can tell more impactful stories.”

‍“When you have access to millions of individual freelancers and agencies around the world, you generate more ideas and can tell more impactful stories.”
—Moadh Bukhash, Chief Marketing Officer at Emirates NBD

U.S.-based Amway saw the impact of procuring diverse perspectives when producing a global video series in five countries. In the past, the company’s process was to send an American production team to each location. But Adrienne Young, Lead Art Director at Amway, had to work with a limited budget, during the travel restrictions of a pandemic.

Young overcame these challenges by skill sourcing local videographers in each of the five countries. She said the resulting videos generated high social media engagement from global audiences because, “We were able to break through cultural barriers in a way we never had been able to before, and with such authenticity and quality.”

Scale capabilities

Riot Games is a video game developer with more than 3,000 employees working from 20 offices worldwide. When the company was building out its Middle East/Africa office, the lean team had to move with the speed and flexibility of a start-up. “We had to take action and make changes quickly, but we didn’t have time or budget to add headcount” explained Kemal Uysal, Head of Business Development and Operations at Riot Games. His solution: Fill skills gaps with on-demand professionals.

“Working with on-demand talent gives us agility and a pool of nearly unlimited knowledge as we always have the correct experts at hand,” said Uysal. His team skill sources UX/UI designers, business analysts, and copyeditors. “Our employees trust the independent professionals they work with. Now we're more agile and flexible. Our product outcomes are more professional and pristine, and employees are under less pressure.”

“Working with on-demand talent gives us agility and a pool of nearly unlimited knowledge as we always have the correct experts at hand.”
—Kemal Uysal, Head of Business Development and Operations at Riot Games

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Turning talent from a fixed to variable cost

Traditionally, talent is a fixed cost; salaries, technology, and recruiting costs don’t change based on the volume of hires. Skill sourcing turns a fixed cost into a variable cost in that you pay according to use, which creates a variable cost structure for talent. Thus enabling you to free up cash and expand capabilities on demand.

“I can plug experts into my team when I need them. So, why would I want to hire someone full-time when there’s only maybe a few months of real work?” said Bukhash of Emirates NBD. “It is not just for cost efficiency, but it also enables teams to be agile. They can turn things around and dial up and dial down relatively quickly.”

Optimizing for a win-win

In the past, getting better at using the labor you have might have meant heaping more responsibilities on employees and having them work longer hours. Digitization, in the form of work marketplaces and online collaboration tools, enables you to choose a more effective and sustainable solution.

Skill sourcing removes many of the talent challenges that hamstring business success. But the benefits aren’t one-sided. The model enables your entire workforce—both internal and external—to deliver at their potential, and perhaps enjoy greater well-being.