Today’s Talent Economy: Evolving Your Hiring Strategy in 2022

Tony Buffum, Upwork Vice President of HR Client Strategy

Many organizations are simultaneously experiencing the same big problem: an extensive talent shortage. This challenge is not limited to locating and securing talent and adding skills while expanding teams. It’s exacerbated by the need to do it ahead of the competition. The Great Resignation, a chief contributor to this dilemma, has given knowledge workers the edge in the labour market. Talent has incredible leverage. Now, more than ever before, they are choosing not only who they want to work for but also where they want to work, and even how—whether that’s with another full-time job, or, in increasing numbers, by carving out an independent (freelance) career for themselves. According to Upwork’s Freelance Forward Economist report, in 2021 more than 50 per cent of non-freelancers say they are likely to freelance in the future. 

So how can organizations beat out their competitors to access the talent they so desperately need, develop a pipeline of professional and skilled on-demand talent and maintain momentum in pursuit of their goals and objectives? 

For starters, they need to go to where the talent is. For so long, workers went where the jobs were, often uprooting their homes, lives and families in the process. The massive rise in remote work has shown us that most work can happen wherever the talent is. Increasingly, people are rejecting the traditional, antiquated work model and employment contract and embracing a model that enables them to make a living doing what they enjoy, wherever they enjoy doing it most. This dynamic is not new, but has certainly increased since the beginning of the pandemic, and at every skill level. The Freelance Forward report also shows that 51 per cent of workers with postgraduate degrees are freelancers, up 6 per cent since 2020. In order to secure the high-demand skills and capabilities organizations need, human resources departments and hiring managers need to embrace a rethinking of their talent strategies; making them less about talent acquisition, and more about talent access. If the talent is going independent, go to the independent talent. 

This means developing a resourcing strategy that recognizes that critical skills can be deployed by accessing independent talent, whether it’s long-term or as-needed. Platforms like Upwork can be leveraged to develop new and ongoing relationships with the talent you need to stay on track both in 2022 and into the future, and to ensure that your teams can continue to thrive. 

There are obvious benefits to this approach: on Upwork, a freelancer can typically be hired within days, forgoing the often months-long process of hiring traditionally. Plus, the platform provides transparency for tracking and reporting on all activities: who a company is hiring, previous ratings, completion rates and experience, compensation expectations, and whether they’re likely to be successful in the role based on work samples and client reviews (instead of just interview assessments and friendly referrals). All the cards are on the table from the beginning. Turnover becomes less of a risk, which is especially important because, as the Great Resignation has taught us, our full-time employees may already have one foot out the door. 

Adopting a hybrid approach to building teams allows you to scale in real-time and grow more sustainably: Upwork clients often see 30 per cent savings or more deploying this strategy. This approach to talent access opens up a global talent pool that can leverage exactly the skills needed, when they are needed and for just as long as they are needed. Leveraging independent talent can introduce new ideas from specialised talent with multi-company experience, alleviate burnout through the use of staff augmentation and virtual support, and prevent skills gaps from sending projects into a tailspin by filling roles quickly. All of this allows companies to experiment while taking on less risk. Experimentation, especially when matched with speed, serves growth and gives organizations the competitive edge they need in this new market. 

There are many other benefits, too. With access to the world’s work marketplace filled with independent talent, teams have the ability to access over 10,000 skill sets in over 180 countries. Companies everywhere are deploying diversity, equity and inclusion strategies.  Upwork’s work marketplace expands the talent pool to include people from all over the world and exposes organisations to incredible diversity—not only in terms of demographics but also in diversity of thought by introducing fresh perspectives from multiple industries and projects. Enhancing diversity and inclusion through hybrid teams can promote collaboration among teams, drive innovation and, according to a 2020 McKinsey report, even improve overall company performance. And, at the same time, your efforts may bring economic opportunities to talent in locations where it may not otherwise be available. 

Transitioning to this approach may seem daunting. A helpful first step is to start by looking around your own organisation—it is quite likely that there are corners where independent talent is already being used: according to our analysis of labour market trends and insights, over 75 per cent of companies used remote freelancers in 2021. Learn from them, and leverage them as a champion. Become an advocate yourself and spread news of the success teams have experienced by going the independent talent route and help others identify areas where such talent can be brought in. Change management is challenging and complex, especially in the early stages and at a time when peoples’ plates are so full already. But when this type of change management and operations are deployed effectively, it is different because it measurably relieves burdens and solves the problem every organisation is facing today: finding and retaining talent. 

Evolving your hiring strategy into a hybrid, talent access approach will help you build an on-demand talent bench, mitigate the risk of unfilled roles and give your HR department the tailwind they need to keep the talent pipeline full and, more importantly, keep your projects and growth on track.