Ninety percent of C-level executives agree that recruiting and retaining technology talent is a top business challenge, according to a new survey by Appirio, a global cloud services company and leader in enterprise crowdsourcing.

The survey titled, “IT Talent Wars and the Gig Economy” explores how the gig economy is impacting enterprise IT through careful examination of key drivers in the war for talent, and outlining worker expectations for retention and workplace satisfaction.

According to the report, more than half of IT staffers have already worked in the gig economy in some manner, yet C-level executives believe just 28 percent of employees supplement their full-time job with gig-based work.

While the C-Suite admits that finding top talent is a significant barrier to business growth, executives see the shift towards gig-based work as a threat instead of an opportunity, with 77 percent responding that the gig economy will result in the loss of IT staff.

“The intense competition for tech talent has placed a major strain on the enterprise, and its costing companies millions,” said Chris Barbin, CEO of Appirio. “Those in the tech and services industries spend too much time talking about the systems they are implementing, and not enough on the talent needed to architect, develop, or manage those systems.”

In this constant battle against talent turnover, the key findings from the survey indicate impact on overall productivity and innovation. These include:

• More than one-third of HR budgets are dedicated specifically to recruiting and retaining technical talent.
• At least 25 percent of projects are abandoned altogether because of IT capacity limitations, and projects that are eventually finished are delayed an average of 5 months.
• The top three criteria IT staff look at when evaluating new job opportunities are a well-resourced IT department, up-to-date technology, and flexibility.
• Eighty-four percent of C-Suite respondents believe the economy will shift toward gig-based work over full-time work by 2050.

See: Must-Have Checklist for Hiring Managers

To bridge the talent gap and meet demands of both businesses and employees, many companies are embracing crowdsourcing. Nearly 70 percent of enterprises have implemented crowdsourcing within their organization in some capacity as a way to get access to on-demand expertise and modernize their workforce.

Barbin added:  “The way organizations add technical capabilities — such as mobile app development and data science — is changing due to a rise in gig-based employment and the changing demographics of the workforce. This needs to be a bigger topic of discussion among the C-Suite in any size business.”

The Gig Economy: Friend or Foe?

Further complicating the battle for IT talent is the future of work, which has arrived at the enterprise. Highly prized talent entering the workforce are choosing non-traditional paths to monetize their skills.

The rise of the so-called “gig economy” has empowered workers to maximize their freedom and choose journeys over jobs. The C-suite knows the future of work has arrived: 83 percent say that by 2050 the economy will shift toward gig-based work over full-time employees.

The tactics HR and the C-suite are using to fight the talent gap — upping the ante with compensation packages — fail to address what IT talent say they’re looking for: ownership of their job via a flexible, individualized model of what work means. IT workers are diving into this new way of work without hesitation. Disconnect between the management and the new worker is clear.

While the enterprise may admit that the future of work is inevitable, it is still perceived as a threat rather than an asset. The enterprise fears potential downfalls of the future of work, which may not represent the reality of the gig-based economy.

Crowdsourcing Advantage

Leveraging the gig economy through competition based crowdsourcing alleviates the pain points of access to talent, declines in innovation, and backlogs of uncompleted projects due to capacity issues, allowing a business to widen the innovation funnel and churn through projects at an unprecedented rate.

Crowdsourcing not only addresses the pain points of the enterprise; it also addresses the needs of the worker. Participating in the crowd provides individuals with the opportunity to work whenever, wherever, incentivizing continuing education (whether formal or informal) and rewarding innovation and creativity rather than time or effort spent.

Crowdsourcing provides the enterprise with an elastic talent pool, sourcing solutions from the best minds in the world — regardless of geography.

Also read: Social Media Recruitment: Hiring Manager’s New Fad?

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