You’re the CTO of a mid-sized tech company and you’re gearing up to start a new project. You need all hands on deck to help, but, unfortunately, one of your developers has decided to take a leave of absence. You’re now suddenly short one man or woman at a critical junction.
You have the funds to hire someone, so money is not the main issue. You’d like someone who knows what they’re doing. Most importantly, you have less than a week to find a suitable replacement who can do quality work.
Who do you turn to to make it happen? Do you contact a temp agency or a freelance platform? If you chose a freelance platform, you’re not alone. According to an Oxford Internet Institute report, from 2016 to 2017, there has been a 26% increase in the number of projects sourced through freelance platforms.
Are freelance platforms taking over temp agencies’ traditional domain? We believe so. In this post, we’ll explore why freelance platforms are taking over the space occupied by temp agencies, namely: they provide easier access to freelance talent, are more cost-effective, and connect clients with better quality talent compared to temp agencies.
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Freelance Platforms Provide Easy Access to Talent
Faster Matching
One advantage that freelance platforms have over temp agencies is speed. Unforeseen events happen in business, and time is of the essence when it comes to projects and launches. The faster you can hire a developer when you need one, the better off you are.
Freelance platforms can find clients a freelance developer with less turnaround time than a temp agency. A freelance platform like CodementorX can provide clients with an expert developer within 72 hours. Agencies, in comparison, could take six to eight weeks to deliver a match.
Thus, if you’re the CTO in our introduction, who needs a developer within a week, you’re more likely to go with a freelance platform rather than a temp agency to be able to hire quickly.
Greater Flexibility
Another advantage that freelance platforms can provide hiring managers is greater flexibility when it comes to hiring. By going with a freelance platform over a temp agency, you have increased flexibility when it comes to hiring on-demand and for short-term projects.
Not only do you not have to wait as long to talk to a freelance developer, but you can also hire him or her for however long you need their help.
Read More: Hiring In-House vs Remote Developers: Cost & Competitive Advantages
Freelance Platforms Are More Cost-Effective
Competitive Prices
Freelance platforms offer competitive prices compared to temp agencies, which is why companies are increasingly outsourcing their projects to freelance platforms instead. Because temp agencies pay 25-30% in overhead costs, whereas freelance platforms do not, freelance platforms can pass on the not-insignificant savings to clients.
Freelance platforms can often provide talent for about a third of the cost of temp agencies for the same work — one big reason freelance platforms may be taking over the sphere previously occupied by temp agencies.
Access to a Bigger Candidate Pool
Freelance platforms have a global reach, which means they have access to a wider pool of candidates than a temp agency. Local temp agencies, for example, might only offer you access to local candidates, whereas freelance platforms can find you candidates from all over the world, who may charge very competitive rates compared to someone local to you.
Depending on where they live, freelance platforms can find you experienced developers for an attractive price, bringing you greater bang for your buck thanks to the cost of living in your freelancer’s hometown.
Read More: Contract to Hire: The Flexible Remote Engineering Team Scaling Solution
You can also try Arc, your shortcut to the world’s best remote talent:
⚡️ Access 350,000 top developers, designers, and marketers
⚡️ Vetted and ready to interview
⚡️ Freelance or full-time
Try Arc and hire top talent now →
Freelance Platforms Bring Quality Talent
Specialized Expertise
While temp agencies offer a broad variety of employees for you to choose from, when you need a specialist, freelance platforms have you covered. Freelance platforms offer niche or specialized skills that you can’t always get at a temp agency.
Whereas the technology category on a temp agency’s website may say they can match you with IT professionals, they may not have access to experts who know a specific programming language or framework that you need.
That being said, when shopping for a freelance platform, keep in mind that not all freelance platforms are created equal. Some platforms don’t vet their freelancers at all, while platforms like Arc have a multi-step, rigorous vetting process to ensure that you’re hiring an expert developer.
While freelance platforms with a stringent vetting process can be a little pricier than platforms without, the peace of mind and quality you’ll get in return is worth paying a little extra for.
Better Quality
One big advantage for freelance platforms is access to better quality developers and the expertise to vet their talent base. Even if you could find a specialist on a temp agency site, you may not be getting the best quality expert because the temp agency doesn’t know how to evaluate the developer as a generalist. Many temp agencies are not transparent about how they hire and match, whereas freelance platforms typically lay out their vetting and matching processes.
Participants in the Oxford Institute study felt that freelance platforms provided freelancers who delivered similar or higher-quality work compared to their conventional sourcing channels, felt the cost was similar to that of their original vendor, yet the work sourced through the platform demonstrated higher quality in some cases, and the value added by platforms was being able to get things done right while still being cost-effective.
Read More: Good vs Great Developers: How to Tell the Difference & Hire the Best
The Future of Temp Agencies
While freelance platforms won’t replace temp agencies overnight, they are chipping away at temp agencies’ bread and butter — enterprise customers like Samsung. As the gig economy expands in the near future, the conversion of companies to using freelance platforms to find their contract labor does not bode well for temp agencies.
Unless temp agencies can provide corporate clients access to a larger, specialized candidate pool on an on-demand and more cost-effective basis with a faster turnaround time, they will lose the battle to freelance platforms. While temp agencies can offer enterprises the perk of having an on-site employee, remote work has been eroding that advantage.
The rise of remote work has spawned countless guides to managing remote workers and made telecommuting a viable and convenient way to replace on-site staff. Freelance platforms are more competitive than ever because remote work has become more normalized and, as a result, they’re gaining traction because of their successes.
While larger corporations may have been more reluctant to outsource to a freelance platform in the past for their labor needs, now that they’ve been proven to be a cost-effective choice, freelance platforms are becoming widely accepted as a go-to solution.
You can also try Arc, your shortcut to the world’s best remote talent:
⚡️ Access 350,000 top developers, designers, and marketers
⚡️ Vetted and ready to interview
⚡️ Freelance or full-time
