There is a recent trend in online outsourcing. This trend is about large corporations and companies joining the crowdsourcing & outsourcing business – by developing online job/project platforms to meet their needs.

Learn more about this blog series ‘Working In The REAL Gig Economy’ here:

Over the past few years, we have witnessed the birth of several new online outsourcing platforms by some of the well-known big corporations, such as PwC.

This post aims to look at some of these new platforms.

PwC Talent Exchange

In February 2016, Price Waterhouse Coopers AKA PwC announced the official launching of their online outsourcing platform, PwC Talent Exchange.

This online intermediation platform (WIP), directly connects independent experts with PwC projects and project teams.

The freelance experts or professionals are first required to register on the platform, and then create profiles describing their job expertise. These professionals are then given access to opportunities that involve them working on PwC projects. On the other end, project teams at PwC have access to a vast collection of talented individuals with a wide range of expertise, experience as well as diverse skills.

PwC describes the platform as a way of connecting the best independent talent with exciting opportunities at PwC.

To get started as an independent worker on this platform, you first, need to describe yourself by sharing your skills, preferences and so on; next you are matched with a role that fits the description you initially gave; the third step is to start with the project, and finally, you share updates on your progress and any new skills or experience you have acquired.

LinkedIn’s ProFinder (currently ONLY US based)

Also sometime in 2015, professional networking company LinkedIn, introduced ProFinder.

They launched LinkedIn ProFinder as a platform for connecting independent workers with clients using LinkedIn’s already huge network of worker profiles. This freelancing platform is just like any other normal outsourcing platform (Upwork, Freelancer, PeoplePerHour), where a freelancer has to sign up, set up his profile, send a job proposal, wait for the proposal to be accepted and then get on with the work.

Others In This Space

Other notable companies which have joined this band wagon, include The Washington Post, which also began to create an outsourcing platform to get, engage and manage freelance Journalists around the world.

Workmarket is also being used by many consulting firms looking to manage their on-demand work. It allows freelancers to add their profile and apply for roles, whilst also managing the company’s entire lifecycle of freelance and contract workers through the platform.

Hubstaff Talent is a free platform and is run by Hubstaff. As they worked with their clients, they realized their client’s biggest problem was finding quality remote staff. So Hufstaff built a directory to help solve this problem. The great thing is that there are no fees on either side (freelancer or business owner)! Hubstaff is maintaining the directory as a free service to the public for two main reasons:  to help businesses find great freelancers to work with and to help remote agencies show their services to the world… for free.

There are numerous advantages of outsourcing their projects and tasks, this is why several companies have decided to go into this business.  Large corporate are now developing their own online freelancing platforms, with several companies already far in the design stage or they are looking into collaborating with the existing online project/job platforms.

From a personal perspective, many of these platforms are amazing to work on, BUT unfortunately – most are only applicable when you work locally in the US! [rarely will these companies look at those working outside of the US]

In the next blogpost, I will be sharing information about working on another online job/project platform – fiverr.com.

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