Utilizing local work force for jobs are that causally or occasionally done is fast becoming a thing of the past as it seems these days more and more companies are utilizing an invisible work force that operates mainly in the “cloud”. FOR translating a 22-minute video from English into Yoruba at short notice, 7Brands Global Content, a professional-translation firm, quoted “approximately N230,000. And what is amazing is that this is an approximate bill that would be charged for similar projects. Not so long ago, paying the local rate was the only option. Today anyone seeking to get this sort of job done is only a click away from the whole world of professionals competing to do it far cheaper.
That same translation job was advertised on Elance.com and oDesk.com, the two busiest among several newish online marketplaces for work, or “talent exchanges”. On Elance it soon attracted 25 bids, from individuals in 15 countries. For around half the bidders, this would be their first job, which raised questions about how good their work would be (especially the Uruguayan who promised to “translate your interview perfetly”). But some seemed competent. According to his Elance page, “oswaldo g”, from Colombia, has already completed 31 jobs, earning a combined $4,193 (N650,000) and a satisfaction rating of 4.9 (out of 5). He quoted a tempting $16.44 an hour—though not as tempting as the five bids on oDesk (three of them by five-star-rated workers), from Argentina, Brazil, Indonesia, Mexico and the Philippines. Each of them offered a flat rate for the completed job, ranging from N5,200 down to just N 3,500.
Such whopping price differences help explain why these and other work marketplaces have been growing fast. Last year the value of this sort of online work topped $1 billion for the first time; it will double to $2 billion in 2014, and reach $5 billion by 2018, forecasts Staffing Industry Analysts, a “contingent work” consultant. ODesk was the matchmaker for 35m hours of work in 2012 (over 50% more than in 2011), divided between 1.5m tasks, at a total cost to the employers of $360m. The value of work on Elance rose by 40% in 2012 to exceed $200m for the first time.
ODesk and Elance claim similar numbers of firms posting jobs, just over half a million each, and of signed-up contractors—3m on oDesk versus 2.5m Elancers. The fiercest of rivals, each claims to be the market leader, even though the monetary value of work done via oDesk is almost twice as great. “We cater to the higher end of the market, and don’t do big commodity contracts with firms like eBay and Facebook,” argues Fabio Rosati, the founder of Elance. Finding innovative ways to meet the needs of bigger companies is one of the reasons oDesk’s lead is likely to continue growing, retorts Gary Swart, its chief executive.
Location, reputation, verification
There are other differences in the business models of the market leaders. oDesk simply takes a cut of all completed jobs; Elance also charges freelancers optional fees for extra services. Both have been trying to improve the quality of the reputation-rating system, and to ensure that work is being done by the person who accepted it rather than passed on to someone potentially less competent.
ODesk wins a lot of praise for managing payments to people in far-flung places, and for absorbing all the payment risk. The company also introduced a way to monitor whether work is being done when it is claimed to be, by taking pictures of the worker and screen at random intervals.
The exchanges are providing opportunities not just to do one-off jobs, but to build a business. In 2009 Josh Warren, an entrepreneur based in Dallas, started earning $15 an hour doing work for e-commerce sites he found on oDesk. Soon he was earning $125 an hour, and had more work than he could do alone. So in 2010 he recruited via oDesk a Polish counterpart, who now runs the Posnan branch of Creatuity, Mr Warren’s web-services company. He now employs 23 people and is earning seven-figure revenues from clients in America, Australia, Britain and even India.
Nice work if you can get it
Opinions differ over how much these talent exchanges will transform the global workforce as a whole. Clearly, they are benefiting from a trend for growing numbers of people to work freelance or on temporary contracts. Depending on the definition, between 5-15% of Nigerian workers are now freelancers, contractors or temps, up from 2% in 1989. Predominantly, IT professionals are leading the pack, more and more IT professionals prefer to work on contract basis and sale their services to the highest bidders for a short period of time.
There is bound to be a limit to the sorts of work that can be offered through online exchanges, but maybe not much of one. So far, most of the jobs on oDesk and Elance require skills in information technology. The top two skills hired on oDesk last year were in web programming and mobile apps. Yet the range of work offered is expanding fast, says Mr Swart. In 2007 just four categories of work accounted for 90% of the dollars billed on oDesk; in 2012, that 90% was made up of 35 sorts of work, with project management, translation and copywriting among the fastest-growing.
Online exchanges are increasingly important even for jobs—such as household repairs and errand-running—that cannot be contracted out to distant workers. Another site that is worth mentioning is jobberman, this is a site that started small and now is booming. It now majority of industries in Nigeria and I can testify to a number of friends who have gained financially rewarding employments (at least N2,000,000 per Annum) through posting their skills on the site. This is good news for both hirers and those looking for work, though it is not yet clear how attractive a business it will be for the exchanges themselves.
Work that brings the employee into the hirer’s home clearly presents greater risks than when it is entirely virtual. Screening out a potential Clifford Orge is not easy. But the websites’ reputation ratings, providing recommendations from a number of previous hirers, are a big improvement on the old method of picking someone at random.
So are you fresh out of school, do you have marketable skills and believe that you don’t need to join the ever growing redundant labour force, I advise that you utilize one of this sites as geographic location is no more a factor, in fact u could practically work right out of bed.
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