One Million UK Vacancies: time for a rethink

By

Gigged.AI
March 13, 2024

One Million UK Vacancies: time for a rethink

A recent BBC article reported the number of vacancies in the three months to August rose above one million for the first time since records began in 2001. Technation also stated the impact on tech vacancies:

“The most in-demand tech vacancies for companies across the UK are software developers, web designers, and data analysts. In April 2021 alone, there were nearly 10,000 vacancies for software developers – 9,783 – compared to 5,630 at the same time last year. Currently, software developer roles make up 1.05% of all advertised UK jobs.”

Vacancies for tech skills are at all time high due to new start-ups, scale-ups and large enterprises creating new digital products. Most organisation are adopting the following tactics to try to fill the vacancies:

  • Post more jobs on Linked In and other job sites
  • Use more recruitment agencies
  • Hire contractors from PSL when perm hiring stalls
  • Referrals schemes
  • Recruitment open days 
  • Expensive PR Campaigns to hype up culture and opportunity
  • Increase salaries by 30-50%

These tactics alone will not help companies win the war for talent. Demand is out-stripping supply and it is time to try something different.

There is another way. There is so much talk right now about the “future of work” and there are many debates of what that means. That is for another day, let’s focus solely on the platform sourcing element of the future of work.

There has been a rise in companies using talent platforms to complete projects using platforms such as Toptal, Freelancer, Innocentive and Upwork. Even NASA use platform sourcing for major software development projects. This has been largely in North America with the UK slow to this model.

The well-regarded University of Oxford Report on Platform Sourcing stated there will be rapid growth in the next 5 years on how companies use Platform Sourcing including crowdsourcing and outsourcing platforms. The report focused on research around how Fortune 500 firms are adopting online platforms. The report author Greetje Corporaal found the following benefits:

  1. Providing easy access to a scalable source of manpower, skills and expertise 
  2. Reducing start-up and transaction costs 
  3. Eliminating conventional hiring barriers 

There are factors to be aware of when using platform sourcing:

  • The work needs to be well defined with milestones and outcomes
  • Time zones need to be factored in
  • This does not replace your vacancies but can allow work to happen in the meantime

We have spent the last 18 months building a Talent Platform tailored to the UK market. Key features include:

  • Conversation AI to define work packages
  • Unique matching algorithms to ensure rapid matching of top on-demand talent
  • IR35 determinations and insurance built in
  • Quick and safe payments

Give it a try at www.gigged.ai

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