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Sometimes change creeps up on us without us realizing how significant they are. I think that the online consulting marketplace may be one such change. It might indeed have ushered in the future of consulting.
Technology has dramatically changed so many aspects of our lives. Do you remember when you watched movies at a theatre, bought a newspaper to read the news, went to the library to research a project, bought reels of film to take photos, had a wristwatch to know the time – and had a telephone handset on the siting room? It’s now hard to imagine life without our current multi-purpose mobile phones!
The same is true for financial services, travel agencies, job recruiters, taxi drivers, postal services, and others. None of these industries has vanished. But all of them have been significantly transformed. Probably what has changed most is the way we think about them and use them. We now routinely order goods and pay for them online. We book our flights, call an Uber or Bolt, send letters via email, and post our CVs to apply for jobs online.
Perhaps this is a good time to look more closely at what is happening in the consulting industry; to study the impact of online consulting platforms; freelance consultants in the so-called online consulting marketplace. Changes in clients’ requirements and expectations are driving the future transformation of the consulting industry.
Agility which was once a catchphrase has become crucial for businesses. Market volatility, changing regulations, and transformative technologies demand a consistent and rapid response from companies. Part of this is the need for quick access to critical and specialized staff. Rather than trying to train, reassign, or employ employees for each change, it makes sense to move to an agile workforce model, tapping into a fluid and dynamic talent pool made up of freelance consultants.
There is a change in thinking required here. While there has been a move towards a more liquid workforce, with a mix of full-time, part-time, and contract workers, this has remained somewhat reactive. Clients have looked for consultants to deal with each problem as it has emerged. They have regarded them as short-term, as-required, contingent workers.
Agile companies take a different view: freelance consultants are included as part of the organization’s long-term strategic staffing model. Rather than the static organizational chart, the goal is to create a talent pool of both internal and external workers with the capacity to respond quickly to new priorities. This means building up and leveraging a network of diverse talents that will be available for any project at any time.
This model allows for placements of any duration, on-site or remote, outcomes-driven, or time-based – depending on the situation. Consultants are no longer notable outsiders. Increasingly they are part of the business’s flexible talent strategy while retaining their independent status.
Research shows that 60% of companies worldwide are turning to agile, remote teams, outside their offices, cities, and even their countries. Hiring managers at large corporations report that the right talent is becoming more difficult to find, with critical positions taking 40 days on average to fill. This will become even more problematic as technologies like artificial intelligence and robotics take hold. As a result, corporations expect nearly 40% of their workforce to work remotely within the next ten years. The COVID-19 pandemic has no doubt accelerated this trend.
There is still a place for traditional consulting firms. But changes in the workplace, driven by technology and the need for agility, are leading to a very different kind of demand for consultants. The knowledge industry is moving online, and the online consulting marketplace is the place to find a growing workforce of independent professionals. There is no doubt that this is the future of work – and it may well be the future of consulting.
Consult Afrika Team
