Virtual Workforce Trend Expands to Include Technology Management
The number of professionals hired virtually is drastically increasing. Online marketplaces, such as Elance.com and Guru.com, are reporting a 50% increase in the number of people who have become part of the Virtual workforce in the last year. Elance also reports that the earnings of their virtual workforce increased by almost $10 million in the last year, and now amount to $30.7 million. The Information Technology sector remains the leader in terms of the growth of the virtual workforce. In addition to the demand for programming jobs, which has grown 100% in the last year, fueled by demand for iOS, android and HTML programmers, we are now also seeing offerings for technology management positions as part of a company’s extended virtual workforce. Companies such as the Technology Gurus are, for example, offering Technology Executive timesharing.
This is obviously a result of the slight improvement in the global economic outlook. As the effects of the financial crisis are finally beginning to subside, business owners are once again looking for resources on a contractual basis. In place of hiring full time employees, they are hiring consultants and contractors on a project by project basis. This avoids adding a permanent burden to their payroll. Looking for employees through the Virtual workforce Marketplace, also has the additional advantage of finding a more exact fit to the project requirements. And this does not only apply to specialized technical skills such as a Database Administrator, or a Java Programmer, but can now include even a Vice President of Engineering, or a technology executive.
Yash Talreja, President of the technology executive timesharing company, The Technology Gurus, explains, “When the Technology sector recovered from the last recession, we saw a boost in the outsourcing of software development. Now that companies have become comfortable with outsourcing virtually – whether the outsourcing is conducted by a software team located in Bangalore, or an individual programmer working from home in Minnesota, I see the outsourcing of technology management function as the next logical step. Having a full time Technology executive or VP of Engineering in house is cost prohibitive for many small companies. It is just a lot more economically sensible to get a Technology Executive on a time sharing basis”
The virtual workforce continues to grow, and the technology that helps the recruiting, verification and tracking of it continues to get more sophisticated as well. Instant messaging and social networks allow professionals to be connected to each other, and affordable solutions for background checking and a general increase in transparency, achieved primarily via the rating, reviews and recommendations over both general purpose professional networks such as LinkedIn and specialized marketplaces targeted at Virtual workforce such as Elance.com and Guru.com. One could see this as a natural extension of the trend over the past few decades where people’s relationship to places and belongings, such as homes and cars, and even other people, have gotten more and more transient. The average American moves every five years, only now instead of people moving for a job, there has been an increase in looking for jobs virtually, meaning that now the job moves to them. And this now includes technology executives, sales and marketing chiefs and even C-level officers.
