In the continuing rise of platforms, the global market for temporary staffing platforms grew 190% in 2021 from 2020. Interest in direct sourcing has increased substantially in recent years, with 84% of buyers participating in our 2022 Workforce Solutions Buyer Survey reporting they have a direct sourcing program in place or expect to explore such within two years, up from 67% in 2019. To keep up with increasing demand for talent, staffing companies, staffing technology providers and contingent workforce solutions buyers are engaged in extensive experimentation. Technology and business practices are evolving, with further pressure layered on by persistent talent shortages. Despite ongoing challenges and past missteps, machine learning and artificial intelligence continue to be introduced to staffing functions.
Strategically positioned near the nexus of these trends is SkillGigs. Recently named among the 50 Best Companies to Watch 2022 by The Silicon Review, Houston-based SkillGigs was founded in 2017. The company serves both permanent placement and temporary staffing needs in healthcare and technology staffing. Geographically, the primary market served is the US, while participating talent is global. SkillGigs aims to streamline the process of matching professionals with jobs via AI-controlled automated matching and promotes itself as “the future of direct hiring.”
SkillGigs is as an online staffing platform that, similar to talent platforms, operates as a two-sided marketplace with an auction format. Candidates create a profile and populate their skills, experience and employment type. The SkillGigs AI parses these profiles to create skill indices and skill intensity measures, which it then uses alongside candidate-specified desired compensation and work location to match talent to opportunities. The system shares appropriate openings with candidates automatically and populates candidates into virtual talent pools for employers.
Candidates and employers can indicate interest by sending a bid to their counterpart. For example, a candidate can wait for employers to place bids on their profiles, or candidates can proactively submit bids to openings. The acceptance or rejection of automated matches and the outcome of bids become data for the AI to learn and refine itself. Over time, the quality of opportunities recommended to candidates and of candidates recommended to employers continuously adjust to better match each party’s preferences.
Benefits of the auction system include removal of the traditional and potentially protracted compensation negotiation process and improved transparency. This structure also provides detailed, real-time market intelligence, which is shared with talent and employers.
The Buzz
Amid a persistent labor shortage, swelling interest in direct sourcing and an influx of artificial intelligence in the talent acquisition process, are highly automated, AI-driven auction platforms the future of staffing? SkillGigs means to prove it so.
