Global Use of Talent Marketplaces

The current state of play

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Pre-existing skills gaps. A global pandemic. A rapidly expanding freelancer market. The evolution of hybrid working. More competition for talent. Without dwelling too much on the recent past, it has become clear today that maximizing the potential of the extended workforce is crucial for achieving competitive capabilities in the new world of work – providing agility in the face of market volatility, and providing access to highly skilled talent on-demand, anywhere in the world. If you want to learn more about today's world of work, we’ve got it covered in our Management Insights Guide.

Given this increased demand for engaging more flexible workforces, businesses around the world are exploring tech-driven solutions to address these challenges and compete in the future of work. As such, the use of digital and on-demand staffing technologies has grown exponentially over the last two years.

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Talent Marketplaces like Talmix are the technologies that are making it possible for companies to shape their workforce to respond to changing market needs - allowing businesses to tap into in-demand skills they don’t have internally, expand their capabilities, and improve the organization’s capacity to complete critical projects.

We’ve been conducting our biggest ever data report, and as part of this, we have combed through all of our Marketplace datasets to gauge the levels of growth on our own platform, analyse talent marketplace usage across geographies, and see how businesses around the world are using marketplaces like Talmix to access critical talent and complete on key initiatives.  

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A big increase in the use of Talent Marketplaces

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At Talmix, our number of global clients has almost doubled over the last 24 months. Europe accounts for the highest proportion of our global client base (44%), but we’re seeing major growth across all regions - in APAC alone, Talmix has seen a 200% increase in usage, as more companies have embraced talent marketplaces to tap into in-demand skills quickly and efficiently.

With online talent marketplaces like Talmix and an influx of remote technologies on hand, more and more businesses are looking overseas for more diverse and better qualified talent –  there’s simply no reason to limit hiring locally, when you can be building wider and stronger talent pools, in less time, and with better results. Since the pandemic, 84% of clients have increased their use of non-employee talent. This aligns with our recent data report on remote working practices, where we noted a stark increase in the number of remote hires across all geographies.

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Adding Value

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It's not simply about hiring "cheaper" either - today, external talent is being tapped as an important source of niche expertise by businesses struggling to source on the traditional labour market - the faster businesses are able to recognise this new reality, the faster they can unlock the potential of such a resource. This is reflected in the data – the number of projects posted on the Talmix platform valued at 25k and over has risen by a substantial 25% over the last 18 months. This is an indication that talent marketplaces are not seen as an avenue to cheap labour, but as an epicentre for premium value project support.

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Diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives remain one of the major business drives in 2023 - with more flexible global workforces, businesses are exposed to so many different perspectives and unique skill sets, leading to improved productivity, more resourcefulness and innovation, and greater employee satisfaction. Our data points to an increase in usage of the Talmix marketplace to access diverse talent, and as we have seen in our previous report, to help close the gender gap too.

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Which countries have seen the biggest increase in usage of the Talmix Talent Marketplace?

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Which industries are demanding the most from Talent Marketplaces?

40% global client growth across the financial services sector since 2020 stands out in particular–so why are more and more businesses in the sector turning to talent marketplaces like Talmix to source talent?

For starters, workforce strategy often falls apart at the operational level, and organizational changes are never made, when there’s no mechanism in place to standardize processes, poor data collection processes, and poor visibility into available talent resources.

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Technology has become the true enabler here, and Talent Marketplaces like Talmix are serving as the data-driven platforms that are flexible enough to provide the fast insights and efficient workforce solutions required as organizational structures and directives fluctuate.

In the financial services sector, visibility is key in understanding the greater ramifications of ‘non-traditional’ talent, with the CFO often the leader of visibility enhancement efforts - talent marketplaces are providing that crucial visibility into the extended workforce, so companies can benefit from more cost-effective hires, shorter time to productivity and more successful project outcomes.

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Top Projects on the Talmix Marketplace

Talent On Board Too

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It’s not just businesses turning to talent marketplaces. As expected, our talent network has grown at a similar rate over the last 12 months, as more workers look to forge their own career paths, expanding our 60,000+ global talent network. As a result, Talmix can now boast talent from 181 countries around the world.

Predictably, between February and April 2020 (the start of the pandemic), Talmix saw huge growth in the number of workers registering for the network. This was the pattern in all corners of the globe - in the US alone, 2,401 business professionals joined Talmix in only 8 weeks.

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However, these numbers have certainly not stagnated since those early days of the pandemic (the US network, for example, has continued to grow by 65% as of January 2023). A combination of economic necessity, employer demand and the continued development of tools like Talmix to facilitate independent work, have contributed to a marked uptick in people seeking independent work around the world.

Expectedly, the average number of applications made per project on the marketplace has also increased over the last 24 months (25%), alongside the upsurge in marketplace usage on both the client and talent side.

Why are business talent more engaged with the Talmix Marketplace?

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Many people want to work independently right now for a host of reasons (mostly to do with autonomy, specialism, remote work and flexibility). At the same time, the overall demand for independent services has increased in the wake of the pandemic. The beauty of a technology platform like Talmix, is the distinctive lack of any type of boundary or wall, restricting talent to a specific location or geographic area (unless requested).  That means that no matter where in the world they may be, talent can join the Talmix platform as a consultant and have the opportunity to work with clients who are based either locally, or on the other side of the world. Marketplaces provide better choices, better access to projects, and better support structures.

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The growth in our own talent network over the last few years has highlighted this growth in engagement  – 40,000 independent consultants in 2019 has now risen to over 60,000 members around the globe. And as the use of talent marketplaces by global businesses increases, and demand for independent business talent continues to grow around the world, we anticipate the continued expansion of that business talent network to meet it.

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