“Don’t leave it to the last minute”: independent consultants worldwide offer advice to business

The advice to business is loud and clear. “Plan wisely for independent talent to get best value and returns” This comes from the largest global survey of its kind to date conducted among 40,000 consultants by Talmix and IR Connect. Highlights from the study include:

• Increase in use of independent talent in last 12 months and continuing upward trend
• Digital transformation skills most sought-after globally
• Last minute projects command highest budgets
• Independent budgets still a step into the unknown for most businesses

60% of respondents say that use of independent talent had increased in the last 12 months. This trend is expected to continue, and over half expect more businesses to use online staffing platforms to access this talent, taking over from using personal networks.

72% of consultants surveyed believe that companies would benefit from help and advice in budgeting for the independent workforce. Respondents identified the biggest impact on project budgets is the urgency of a project and issues relating to overrunning projects, outweighing strategic and complex projects. There is some concern among the consultant community that they are seen only as a short-term resource to address this, and that better planning would avoid this last-minute panic buying.

Digital Transformation, Organisational Transformation, Operational Improvement, Data Science and more traditional analysis/research skills are the top 5 skills expected to be most in-demand in the next 12 months.

Sandeep Dhillon, Talmix CEO, commented “The continuing uptake of independent talent isn’t a surprise as it’s a fast solution to filling the skills gap which all businesses are encountering. What our consultants tell us most clearly is that companies need to plan to embed this workforce ahead of projects hitting urgent/overrun problems to get the best returns and value.”

“At Talmix, we want to provide practical support to businesses aiming to build independent talent into their plans. Together with the insight on trends from our consultants, we’ve collated over 70,000 data points globally to create rate cards so that companies find it easier to budget for this workforce. We see this as the next step needed to create a fluid workforce mixing the best full-time and independent talent and returning the best value to business”, Sandeep concluded.

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Notes:
1: 1,077 consultants responded to this survey conducted in May/June 2018. 40% of respondents were from the UK/Europe; 20% from the USA; 17% from APAC and 17% from ROW.
2: Full rate card information is currently available to registered users of Talmix.



About Talmix:
London-based Talmix is the home of independent business talent: 40,000 consultants globally provide the ultimate on-demand resource to deliver strategic initiatives. We work with corporates, Private Equity funds and their portfolio companies, and management consultancies and now have over 400 clients globally

For further information and to arrange a conversation with Sandeep:
dorothy.mead@talmix.com
www.talmix.com
+44 20 3176 5615
+44 7971 281699