Would you offer an agency a bonus to find you a contract? Apparently one IT contractor did exactly that and told recruiters he would pay £1,500 to whichever consultancy secured him a position!
That might be a bit drastic and hopefully will not be a tactic adopted by the majority of contractors. There are cheaper ways to secure a contract!
An increasing number of companies are turning to online jobs marketplaces such as Elance and Odesk when they want to hire contractors. In fact, Elance recently reported that the number of companies sourcing contractors online has more than doubled this year, and it expects a similar scenario next year.
Employers posted 650,000 more temporary contracts on the Elance website in 2011 than they did last year. Fabio Rosati, Elance’s chief executive, said the 120% increase in postings was down to employers moving away from the traditional employment model.
He said traditional 9 to 5 permanent vacancies were becoming a thing of the past as cash strapped employers take advantage of the UK’s flexible workforce.
IT contractors who already use Elance will have seen a large increase in the number of vacancies for HTML 5 software roles this year. The number of graphic design contracts increased by 176%, whilst people with internet marketing skills saw the number of available contracts increase by 132%. Content writers using Elance have also seen demand for their services rise by 72% this year.
Will 2012 be the year when the online jobs market really comes to the fore? Traditional recruiters may have to rethink they’re strategies if they’re going to retain their share of the market.
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Image: schoolroom jobs by woodleywonderworks
