Discussing the drought of IT skills in today’s economy can be an intriguing and alarming conversation. Even with the abundance of post-secondary tech-specialized education programs that are now being offered, along with the market’s awareness increasing for the value that is provided by full-time equivalent specialists (FTEs), the gap is still quite significant. In fact, according to Bloomberg reports, approximately 45% of today’s small businesses are unable to find qualified applicants to fill their job vacancies within the technology sector, especially when it comes to cyber security.
The Rise of Professional Freelancing within the Gig Economy
The bulging gig economy
The gig economy is distinguished by a class of employees hired to complete a particular job. These jobs range in duration, but are usually four to six months long. Their workers are recruited based on a special skill-set and industry experience.
The freelance economy is quite large, encompassing roughly 50 million Americans to date. In fact, according to consulting firms such as Deloitte, nearly 42% of questioned gig economy executives revealed that they plan to increase their number of contingent employees in the years to come.
Possible benefits
For firms seeking IT-skilled labor, deciding to hire freelance talent yields a number of advantages. Notably, a significant portion of people shifting to contingent work are usually at a mid-point in their career and are equipped with high skills-sets. Therefore, they are in the most ideal position to offer both educational expertise and on-the-job experience. Also, they are not looking to be tied down to one particular company. Instead, they prefer to bring a project into its fruition before transferring their energy towards a new challenge.
Doing things the right way
In addition to effective orientation, contingent employees also have to sign nondisclosure agreements and promise to adhere to corporate policies when it comes to the basic security practices. However, compliance violations accidentally caused by freelance personnel remains the priority of any firm, and when it comes to compliance requirements, the employee’s status as “contingent” does not serve as grounds for absolution on the side of corporations.
Shifting towards the gig economy
Even though a significant number of companies still prefer the security provided by hiring full-time staff, the increasing gap for IT-skills is making this notion impossible, especially in terms of the ease and affordability of hiring.
Within the new gig economy, enterprises, e-commerce sites and small business are all finding that accessing the expertise they need and when they need it is now possible. Also, as a result of relevant job descriptions, effective on-boarding and fair treatment, the shift towards the gig economy is proving worthy relative to searching out FTEs.