How Platform Sourcing can help Fintechs win the War for Talent

Current State 

The War for Talent had a ceasefire in early 2020 due to COVID-19 but is now back in full swing. The War for Talent is not new, the term was coined by McKinsey and Company way back in 1997. However, this war has evolved due to the increase in digital initiatives and the rise in remote work smashing down the usual geographical barriers. The most in-demand tech roles for companies across the UK are software developers, web designers and data analysts with AI skills quickly catching up. According to Adzuna in April 2021 there were nearly 10,000 vacancies for software developers, compared to 5,630 at the same time last year. Furthermore, the Gartner 2021 CFO survey found that 74% of CFO’s plan to permanently shift employees to remote work after the Covid-19 crisis ends. Many Fintechs including Revolut have rewrote policies to include fully remote work.

The old solution

Historically when skills are in demand there are a number of tactics large organisations deploy which include but not limited to:

• Post more (and more and more) jobs on Linked In
• Create a new Preferred Supplier List (PSL) of agencies
• Hire contractors from PSL when perm hiring stalls
• Referrals schemes
• Recruitment open days 
• Host tech meet ups (obligatory beer and pizza post)
• Expensive PR Campaigns to hype up culture and opportunity
• Increase Salaries

Now these are all perfectly good solutions if you have lots of time and money. However, most digital initiatives have an end goal to generate revenue. With a lack of key talent then projects start to delay and so does the revenue. This is when most CEO’s and CFO’s start to get interested. This is usually when the big digital consultancies get brought in.

The new solution

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, lets 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.

A recent Harvard Business School report about building the on-demand workforce states: 

“COVID-19 has only accelerated the move away from traditional, pre-digital-era talent models toward on-demand workforce models.” 

Also, 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 

Platforms provide access to freelancers with highly specialized skills and expertise, making them an attractive option for organizations to quickly and flexibly complement the capabilities of their in-house employees on an on- demand basis. 

2. Reducing start-up and transaction costs 

Compared to traditional outsourcing vendors and contracting agencies, platforms substantially lower the start-up and transaction costs of a contract. This allows enterprises to quickly hire freelancers to address project needs. 

3. Eliminating conventional hiring barriers 

Platform technologies eliminate or at least reduce geographical, informational, and administrative barriers in the hiring process. This allows their use for projects of shorter length and scope. It facilitates the hiring of freelancers on a more flexible, on-demand basis, and allows managers to bring in new skills and knowledge to the organization that would otherwise have remained outside. 

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 team but can enhance

In conclusion, the next time you are worrying about the impact that losing the war for talent will have on your projects and ultimately revenue then consider a platform approach. There are a number of UK platform companies including Distributed and the Gigged.AI (I am biased as the CEO). Start small and define your outcomes and this could be game-changer.

Candidate Engagement in Fintech Recruitment

I read recently that in the next four years, The Global Fintech Market is expected to grow at a rate of 23.58%. With news emerging that the Scottish Government has appointed an adviser to assist tech, with £7m earmarked for the project, Scottish Fintech has a great opportunity on its hands to grow. 

But this growth will need great talent to sustain it. Talent that will sustain growth and drive innovation – not an easy feat considering the current shortages of candidates across all tech markets. 

This shortage isn’t due to slow in the next few years either. In a recent study, The World Economic Forum pointed out that the global talent shortage in technology, media, and telecommunications alone is due to reach 4.3million workers by 2030. 

What Does This Mean for Fintech Recruitment? 

It means that it’s becoming more difficult to hire top talent and will continue to become harder. We already know that top tech talent hold most of the cards, shortages meaning they have their choice of employers and can command top salaries. 

Businesses that want to continue to innovate and stay at the top of their game need the right people to do so. Which means being able to attract and engage the best candidates. But with many businesses in Scotland at the startup or ramping stage, recruitment often doesn’t come top of their list. 

Getting the right people in place is a combination of being able to access alternative talent pools, and engaging them and your traditional pools. 

How to Improve Candidate Engagement? 

The type of people you’re looking for aren’t usually out of a job. Right now, it’s not just candidates who need to impress employers, employers need to impress candidates too. And that means working on your candidate engagement: 

Working on Your Candidate Value Proposition 

Salary and standard benefits are no longer enough to engage with top talent in the tech space. You need to do more. That means improving your candidate value proposition. What do you offer over and above the competition? 

The easiest way to improve your candidate value proposition is to improve your employee value proposition. Use internal surveys to ask your current team what they like about working for you and what you could be doing better. The happier people are at work, the more likely they are to spread good word of mouth among friends and peers. 

Changes could be more flexible hours, the ability to permanently work from home, better choice of benefits, company shares (particularly for start-ups), or better work culture. Many people are also looking for more social responsibility from their employers, both with charitable efforts or sustainability. 

When you have identified what areas are important to your current team, ensure these are clear on your careers site, on your social media, and in any candidate collateral, you issue. 

Put More Effort into Diversity and Inclusion 

Currently, just 24% of people working in fintech in Scotland are women. Considering women makeup 51.5% of the population, that figure looks low. Just 1.4% of fintech workers are black and 6.2% Asian. (Solutions Driven 2021)

All of these are untapped, diverse markets that businesses should be engaging with to diversify their talent pools and find candidates their competitors can’t. But do you improve candidate engagement in these areas? 

• Talk to the diverse people in your current teams – what could you be doing better to make them feel included? Is there anything you’re doing wrong? 
• Set up diversity groups – is there scope for a women’s panel in the business? Could you set up a diversity workforce? 
• Embed diversity into your KPIs – set targets for diversity and make them part of your recruitment team’s KPIs. 
• Improve diversity branding – make diverse figures visible on your website, your social media, and your candidate content. 
• Improve your language – masculine language using words like “ninja” and “rockstar” turn women off applying for roles. Look at making your language more inclusive. 

Spend More Time Engaging Candidates 

Candidates like to feel sold to. They want to feel as though joining your business will benefit them and you, and that they’d be a valuable member of the team. 

If “candidate engagement” consists of sending a couple of messages or emails, that’s not going to cut it. Much like a sales process, great talent needs multiple touchpoints from your company to attract the candidate. After all, a 2019 survey by Indeed showed that 13% of job seekers have ghosted a business because there wasn’t enough engagement with the hiring manager or recruiter. 

If your own team doesn’t have the time to carry out a longer process like this, you need to ensure your recruitment partner does. They must be well-versed in the complexities of tech talent and spend the time and energy showing them why your business is the right one for them. 

At Solutions Driven, our candidate engagement works alongside our 6F Methodology, where we ensure someone is right for a role and a company by looking at their compatibility in Fit, Freedom, Family, Fulfilment, Fortune and Future. If someone matches with your business in these areas, they’re more likely to feel an affinity with the business, feel fulfilled, and become long-term employees. 

Great candidate engagement has a multitude of benefits for your business. Not only are you more likely to find and attract the talent you need right now, you also build a pipeline of connected talent for the future. If people have a great experience, even if they don’t get the role, they’re more likely to re-apply or be open to an approach further down the line. Word of mouth is vital in smaller sectors and by ensuring your employees, prospects, and potential prospects all have a positive view of your business, you’re setting yourself up for future hiring success, as well as current. 

To find out more about how to connect with alternative talent pools, engage candidates, and power your growth, get in touch with Nicki Paterson at Solutions Driven today on npaterson@solutionsdriven.com.