The new product feature allows organisations to get ahead of their capability curve and have access to talent “ahead of demand” to service current and future requirement for project-based work
03 October 2022, Dubai, UAE — Companies often struggle with chronic skills shortages, not least in the MENA region. In fact, nearly 2 in 3 consulting firms are short-staffed and even delaying revenue (i.e., delaying projects) by up to 20% of the time after winning a contract because of a lack of skilled internal talent with adequate experience at the time they need them. To combat this scenario faced by multiple organizations across the globe, the talent-on-demand platform Outsized, has announced the launch of Talent Pool. This is a product feature that helps enterprises visualize and have access to an “always-on” talent pool via a dashboard to quickly be able to deploy skilled, pre-vetted, resources. Through Outsized’s Talent Pool, their clients can have experts join or lead projects in days, not months.
In addition to its bespoke services, Outsized’s Talent Pool enables its customer’s strategy to be more effective and efficient by encouraging organisations to shift from hiring ‘talent on demand’ to hiring ‘talent ahead of demand’- This way, clients can be ahead of their capability curve, without increasing fixed costs. When behind the curve, companies are in a constant state of urgency. According to McKinsey & Company, 87% of businesses report that they are either currently experiencing skills gaps or expect to within the next two to five years. Talent Pool assists business stakeholders in building their capabilities roadmap to service current and future demand for skilled talent. The feature solves the challenge of finding the right talent, within the right time frame, at the right place and with the right experience.
Though > 1 million high-quality independent consultants exist, there is a gap in the discovery and matching process that leads to less than 50% of their available working hours being utilised. Talent Pool narrows down the independent consultants on Outsized to highlight full-time practitioners who work on a single long-term project at a time. These specialists have 5 to 15 years of experience within the required skillset, can execute and manage specific outcomes and seamlessly fit into highly demanding project-based environments. As revealed in its 2022 Talent on Demand report, Outsized’s clients’ top desired skill sets in the MENA region include digital transformation, cards/payments, data governance, analytics, agile methodologies and project and program management.
Azeem Zainulbhai, Co-founder and Chief Product Officer at Outsized commenting on the new feature, said, “There is a noticeable shift in hiring practices in consulting and financial services firms in the region that want to move from the current <5% usage of flexible talent to >30% in the next five years. Specialists who are brought in to deliver specific results, give firms the flexibility to scale depending on project demands. Our aim is to build the foundational infrastructure to help the on-demand economy to thrive. This model is more cost-effective for businesses over the long run vs. adding a full-time, permanent workforce. We’ve seen a phenomenal response to this feature in Southeast Asia and India and are now bringing the same offering to our clients in the MENA region.”
Outsized works with enterprise clients to build pre-vetted talent pools of high-quality independent consultants in the skill segments of each client’s forecasted demand. These are regularly updated with available information as well as newly vetted talent . Additionally, Outsized works with clients to collect feedback and conduct further client-side pre-vetting of flexible talent
Talent Pool benefits both enterprises and talent by proactively promoting talent to the relevant clients. By having access to pre-vetted talent, especially aligned to their needs, organisations save time and have an improved experience as they don’t need to spend time sifting through hundreds of irrelevant options and reduce the risk of turnover through pre-qualification of talent. In addition to the always-on talent access for hiring managers, it also gives CxOs and HR Directors insights on total talent deployment, spend and skills trends that are invaluable for strategic planning. Simultaneously, the product offering works for skilled professionals who are looking for roles — it increases their chances of selection due to better exposure, saves time due to quicker decision-making from the organisation and enhances their experience as well.
With the Talent Pool feature, Outsized clients have seen a reduction in time to deployment from an average of 1 month to 1 week. The platform has already enabled over US$6m of pay-outs to independent consultants in 2022 alone, of which, 25% comes from talent pools and the remaining from bespoke requests (though still within core Talent Pool skill sets).
Experience the new Talent Pool features and learn more about the services offered by Outsized for companies as well as consultants at www.outsized.com.
About Outsized
Outsized is the leading provider of on-demand independent consultants and professional freelancers to the financial services and management consulting sectors in Asia, MENA and South Africa.
Outsized’s independents add both strategic expertise and implementation capacity and capabilities to client teams to accelerate business performance and execute critical initiatives. Vetted top independent talent are matched to relevant projects and contract roles with their clients in insurance, banking, financial inclusion, and management consulting. With offices in Cape Town, Singapore, Mumbai and Bahrain, Outsized is leading the way in enabling the professional freelance market to thrive in Asia and Africa.
