Is employer branding the missing ingredient for attracting and retaining freelance tech talent?

by Shoaib Qureshi

Challenging economic circumstances, a dearth of high quality, skilled tech talent and increasing technological change all make it imperative that CIOs and small business owners do as much as they can to attract and retain the best people. One solution to the problem of securing in demand tech skills and niche expertise in a candidate short market is to connect with freelancers and consultants rather than hiring permanent staff.

Why freelance tech talent is a great option for your business

Freelancers are a cost-effective way for you to tap into tech expertise as and when you need it. If you are working on a short-term project or just need to access hard to find skills quickly then a freelance consultant could be the way to go.

Freelancers are experts in their field and are self-motivated requiring less onboarding and help to allow them to get up to full productivity meaning projects will be delivered efficiently.

Finally, finding a freelancer is much less time-consuming than hiring for a full-time position, particularly if you use a platform like Hubbado to connect with pre-vetted consultants.

Hubbado’s top tips for finding freelance tech talent

If you think freelance tech talent might be the right resource for your business or project, then it’s important to know how to find the best contractors for your project. Here are our top tips for reaching the right freelancers for you:

- Know your project constraints inside out
If you don’t have a good grasp on the budget, scope and timings of your projects it can be difficult to know which freelancers best suit your needs. Take time to map out your project and compare the skills you already have in house to the project outline

- Leverage your networks
You already have a fantastic way of reaching freelance talent at your fingertips. Ask yourself ‘who do I know who would be a great fit’ and ask your current teams and freelancers to do the same

- Broadcast on social media
Your social channels can be an ideal way to reach contractors. LinkedIn is a great start but if you think outside the box, you can also reach tech talent on platforms like Twitter, StackOverflow, Reddit and GitHub

- Access a freelance platform
A specialist platform for sourcing freelancers can be a perfect way to find freelancers who you might not be able to connect with elsewhere. Especially if you are searching for niche skills. At HubbaDo we pre-vet our consultants saving you even more time by speeding up the selection process. Discover more ways we can help you find the right tech consultant.

- Build your brand
A strong employer brand can go a long way to helping you appeal to freelance tech consultants. Making it easy for you to attract and retain the skills and expertise your business needs

Employer branding has some serious benefits when it comes to reaching freelance talent

Building a good employer brand isn’t just a PR exercise, it can have tangible, real-world benefits for your business when it comes to finding tech freelancers. Let’s look at some statistics…

  • Your employer brand can impact your bottom line; a bad reputation can cost up to 10% more per hire, whereas good branding can reduce cost-per-hire by 50%.
  • Strong branding makes it easier to reach freelancers; 75% of freelancers consider a company’s reputation before they apply, and a good reputation helps you find 50% more qualified talent – so you spend less time finding the right freelancer to engage!
  • When you do hire great freelancers, your brand helps you hold onto them; businesses that invest in their branding reduce their turnover by nearly 30%! Not to mention, building a strong brand will also improve talent attraction as freelancers consider declining a higher salary just to get a particular brand on their CV.

5 ways you can spice up your employer branding strategy to appeal to freelance tech talent

Tech freelancers, like most consultants in any specialism or industry, want to work for an organisation that values and nurtures their talents whilst giving them the room to work in a way that suits them. However, being a tech business offers you opportunities to think outside the box when it comes to creating employer branding that stands out.

Here are five unique ways to develop your brand strategy to specifically appeal to top freelance talent working in tech:

1. Tweak your brand strategy to reflect industry trends
Appealing to tech talent means understanding what that talent needs, wants, and expects from a role. Keep up to date with industry trends and make changes to your benefits, policies and processes based on those trends to match the needs of the industry. In tech ‘flexibility’ is the current buzzword with nearly 40% of the industry working in contract and freelance roles, your employer brand should reflect that trend. Show how you create a great atmosphere for your consultants and how you help them integrate into your wider team.

2. Offer space for training and development
Those who work in tech are known for their passion and drive to improve themselves. Provide your consultants with the time and resources they need to keep their knowledge and skills up to date. Keeping your freelance talent sharp benefits your business to, giving you access to the latest knowledge and helping you innovate.

3. Get your story out there
Social media and online content are great ways to connect with potential freelancers and establish your company’s workplace culture and values in fun, accessible ways. Multimedia is a great way to share successes, events and projects and allows current employees and consultants to share their stories. Be careful to ensure you are sharing content in the right places for the freelancers you want to attract. Twitter for example is a great place for tech content and your own webpage should be a central space.

4. Be proactive about reviews
Ensure you are active in monitoring reviews on sites such as Glassdoor. Current and former employees and consultants can share their experience as can those who have gone through your recruitment process. 86% of freelancers looking for roles search out company reviews before applying so it’s important to manage your reviews mindfully.

Be proactive by:

  • Taking ownership of your pages and keep information up to date
  • Responding to reviews and acknowledging feedback, both positive and negative
  • Asking employees, freelancers and new hires to leave reviews
  • Actioning feedback and actively seeking to improve processes

5. Streamline your engagement experience
A poor application experience can put off even the most passionate and engaged freelance candidate. The tech industry is notorious for lengthy, multi-stage interviews but is that necessary to determine a freelancer’s ability? Try to keep things short and sweet. Poor experience can begin long before the interview with tech talent having little patience for poorly formatted application forms or websites that don’t work across platforms. Ensure your web portal is formatted for mobile and ditch the repetitive form filling.

At Hubbado we use automation and AI technology to streamline the consultant engagement experience making it easier for you to build positive relationships with contractors.

Hiring freelance tech talent through Hubbado is quick, simple, and effective

Spending too much time sourcing and engaging tech contractors and freelance talent? Hubbado’s easy to use platform can help you source and manage tech consultants effortlessly.

We do all the hard work, using automation to match you with the right talent and our sophisticated back-office deals with timesheets, invoicing, and admin so you don’t have to.

Hire quality resources from just 10% with no hidden fees and total transparency then trust our automated resource management platform to handle all the heavy lifting.

Talk to one of our experts or get started by posting a vacancy.