How Alternative Staffing Solutions Enable Strong Recruitment

Talent sourcing is and will continue to remain a vital part of any organization. Companies rely on their hiring managers to find the best potential candidates who align with the core values of the business.

For enterprise organizations, talent is your biggest business asset. Enterprise organizations rely on top-class talent to drive innovation and move the business forward. But, nowhere is there a clause etched in stone that says the talent hired by an organization must be in-house.

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way enterprise organizations think about remote work. The majority of offices are shut down due to the pandemic, forcing companies to operate 100% remote. But there’s an entire pool of independent professionals who have willfully worked remote for many years, and their skills and expertise can help companies do more during these trying times. An on-demand talent platform that provides direct access to these independent professionals allows companies to scale up or scale back their number of hires as the needs of the business adjust.

Let’s look into how alternative staffing solutions can improve a company's hiring and work processes.

How organizations can improve hiring practices

The traditional hiring process is very lengthy and cumbersome. For individual candidates, the average amount of time from submitting an application to receiving an offer takes around 23 days. From the perspective of a hiring manager, who is responsible for managing the applications, the process is even longer. It can take a lot of time to screen all applicants that deserve interviews. Now, multiply that entire process by the number of positions that need to be filled in any fiscal year. If it takes a month to make an offer to one qualified candidate, how much time does a hiring manager need to find that diamond in the rough? And how many more months are necessary to fill all vacant positions?

This is not a scalable process when companies need to be more agile at getting things done. Speed, agility, and innovation are how organizations stay competitive. They also provide types of consumer experiences expected in the modern day and age.

In the past, enterprises have partnered with traditional staffing agencies to save time in the hiring process. Unfortunately, these agencies have high markup costs and fee structures that make this an expensive route to go down. It’s not a cost-effective or scalable solution for companies eager to improve the bottom line.

On-demand platforms enable time-efficient hiring processes

Over twenty years ago, enterprise organizations had two principal options to source new talent. They could rely on their internal hiring managers, or partner with a traditional staffing agency. In the case of the former, hiring managers have limited time and bandwidth to make the hiring process as streamlined as possible.

In the case of the latter, staffing firms could take some of the pressure off of the internal team. But there are many deficiencies that come with these agencies.

Companies must pay the fee structures to connect with professional talent through these firms. The quality of talent is also extremely limited. Many staffing firms recruit recently unemployed individuals who are often seeking both temporary and permanent positions. Neither is the most appealing to enterprise organizations eager to innovate and grow.

Since that time, alternative staffing solutions have introduced enterprise organizations to a new talent sourcing process. On-demand talent platforms enable companies to directly connect with individual professionals, thereby cutting out the middleman of an agency. On Upwork, you can review all the information you need to vet a professional within minutes. This makes it far more efficient for organizations to hire remotely and make strategic investments for the future.

Modern solutions to source independent professional talent

The average cost for a new hire ranges anywhere from $1,000 to as high as $5,000. Those are costs incurred by the organization on top of the salary paid to the new employee. Multiply those costs by the number of candidates you’ll hire in any fiscal year, and add the fee structures of a traditional staffing agency if you go that route. You can see how the hiring process can become very expensive.

These days, you should consider a more innovative method of sourcing high-quality talent. Alternative staffing platforms like Upwork carry no excessive or hidden costs that chip away at your hiring budget. Once you’re logged into the platform, you can connect with professional candidates at no additional cost to your company.

Unlike talent sourced by traditional firms, platforms like Upwork source proven talent who have chosen to work as independent professionals. Since these are technology platforms, they include AI and specialized recruitment services to help narrow the global pool of talent down to professionals whose skills best align with the unique needs of your organization.

This is a great way to ensure work continues to get done and the company continues to march the path towards growth. At the same time, you avoid unnecessary overhead and staffing costs that eat away at your bottom line.

Agile, cost-effective platforms that improve team dynamics

Companies have become more willing to establish remote working environments. The COVID-19 pandemic has forced the vast majority of companies to embrace remote work in order to protect the health and wellbeing of employees.

However, accepting remote workers brings more than health benefits. Your company will have a competitive advantage by utilizing remote teams. In fact, by the year 2028, 73% of teams expect to have regular remote workers as part of a shift towards the next-generation of professional talent.

On-demand hiring platforms enable teams to build direct and cost-effective access to a global network of independent professionals. These are skilled, proven, and experienced professionals who have chosen a life of remote work and to be available on-demand. This innovative approach to talent sourcing allows companies to streamline hiring processes and eliminate staffing agencies from the equation. Additionally, the time it takes to vet a remote hire can be completed in one business day as opposed to traditional processes that require up to 5 days. On-demand platforms cut those costly fee structures from the budget. This allows you to allocate more money towards working expenditures.

On-demand talent sourcing platforms, like Upwork, are more agile and cost-effective than traditional hiring practices. Enterprise adoption of digital staffing solutions is on the rise, with Ardent Partners reporting a 300% three year growth rate in adapted use of solutions like Upwork.

Why Upwork is your solution to source quality talent

Now, you’ll want to understand how on-demand platforms impact the bottom line. As with any business case, investing in software requires logical and practical justifications. You need to prove that the benefits of such a platform will outweigh the upfront costs.

‍Ability to scale business as needed

If you can include the word “flexibility” in any business case, and present a rational idea for how an investment will benefit the organization, you’re far more likely to get executives to, at the very least, hear your idea out.

Workplace flexibility is not a new concept. This infographic highlights how, beginning with the Great Recession of 2008, companies became more accepting of remote workforces. The COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 reinforces why these workplace environments are now common practice.

In the case of investing in a platform like Upwork, flexibility is a business benefit. You can choose when and how to hire independent professionals as dictated by your company’s needs. That means you don’t have to pay for annual salaries when there simply isn’t enough work to financially justify such expenditures. Instead, you can hire people on-demand for short or long-term projects, and decide when or how to scale up the workload.

Proven professionals instill confidence in remote hires

The lack of qualified candidates is one of the biggest challenges for enterprise organizations. More often than not, these firms are sourcing people who have been recently unemployed and eager to jump on any jobs that come their way. The massive layoffs and contractions resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic only serve to exacerbate this problem.

Hiring managers at enterprise organizations have decided they want to put an end to relationships with agencies. In fact, in a study of hiring practices that occurred shortly after the coronavirus pandemic spread worldwide, 62% of hiring managers said they prefer to engage with independent professionals directly in order to get jobs done faster.

Alternative staffing solutions like Upwork allow hiring managers to form one-to-one relationships with qualified independent professionals. On-demand platforms source only highly skilled professional talent who have willfully chosen a life of remote work and independence. As a result, companies can have peace of mind in knowing that the candidates they connect with are highly talented and capable of doing the job.

Every top remote professional on the Upwork platform receives ratings, reviews, and success scores based on their previous experiences. Work that was completed during these past relationships is attached to the candidate’s profile that hiring managers can quickly review within only a few minutes of time.

This is a much faster and straightforward screening process. In addition to being more agile, enterprise organizations can have the utmost confidence in the independent professionals they hire. The candidate in question’s past work experience is easy to see, and the reviews from previous employers will validate the skills and professionalism that will be brought to the table.

Access to high-quality professionals “around the sun”

Upwork prides itself as a solution that enables 24/7 “around the sun” coverage. Organizations can hire the most qualified candidates to work jobs in any geographic region with a quick connection through the platform. This is an incredibly helpful benefit for enterprises with offices in multiple countries.

For example, if you're headquartered in New York City and you need to monitor engagement in Tokyo, the time zone difference makes it a challenge. Upwork can eliminate that restriction and help you connect to the best people who are well-suited to represent your interests anywhere. This will enable you to provide more fulfilling global customer experiences, maximizing your earning potential.

An example of how this approach benefits the organization is through the story of Tophatter. By sourcing customer support specialists through Upwork, Tophatter was able to provide quality support in 28 different countries. Ultimately, this approach improved productivity and enabled their CSAT score to rise 30%.

Improved productivity with faster hires and streamlined processes

In the end, enterprise organizations strive to become more productive, more efficient, and more innovative. The quality of talent hired to work with the organization is critical to helping companies take that next step towards sustainable and measurable growth.

Speed and agility are great competitive advantages for any organization. On-demand talent platforms like Upwork provide faster, more efficient, and more confident hires. An entire global pool of professional talent can be filtered down to the most qualified professionals whose skills align with your organization’s needs in just a few minutes of time. Ultimately, this allows for more informed hiring decisions and more forward-thinking business strategies.

Additionally, the time to get remote hires up and running can be streamlined down to a well-oiled process. Onboarding process can be automated, with compliance, payments, and reporting for each project and each professional all in one centralized platform. This ensures projects are properly managed, budgets are efficiently spent, and results are measured to direct the future of the relationship.

Help your organization meet goals with top talent

Talent sourcing is and will remain a very important element of any enterprise organization. Modern technology and work policies are driving the revolution of the traditional hiring process. This revolution is enabling companies to become more agile and cost-effective with how they source talent.

Alternative staffing solutions have an untapped global market of professional talent that your brand can use to your competitive advantage over direct rivals. You can find and connect with top-tier professionals who are ready, willing, and able to put their skills and experience to use for your company. This enables your entire organization to accelerate productivity and move that much closer to the goal of sustained growth.

‍Find Talent With the Skills You Need

With competitive job markets and high demand for expert talent, businesses are rethinking how they find the workers with the skills they need. Access experienced independent professionals with more than 10,000 skills on Talent Marketplace™. Top companies turn to Talent Marketplace to fill skills gaps and scale up and down as needed, while reducing operational costs.