Employees today are bold to leave their current jobs in search of new opportunities and align with their changing priorities. And yet, companies are still trying to attract and retain them in the same old ways — resume screening, phone screening, interviewing, and psychometric testing.
But the writing’s on the wall: traditional hiring methods are no longer enough, especially in the dynamic field of marketing.
A 2022 Salesforce study, which surveyed over 6,000 marketers across 35 countries, revealed that one out of every three marketers struggles to find the right talents with the right skills. In fact, this was even referred to as the “worst-ever crisis” when it comes to talent by the World Federation of Advertisers.
And things can only get worse — with an increasingly complex marketing landscape met with soaring customer expectations, staying competitive means quickly and accurately filling these talent gaps.
This has led to companies frantically enlisting support from external partners, freelancers, and independent contractors for an array of services, including branding consultancy, content strategy, AI content generation, digital marketing, media buying, and more.
However, this still raises a few problems: the extensive effort involved in sourcing talents from a broader regional pool, and the question of how to achieve objective talent assessment.
One Singapore-based talent management startup, Independents, might have just the answer — by streamlining the burden of interviewing, recruiting, invoicing, and handling legal contracts. By leveraging AI technology and data since 2020, talent sourcing, matching, and project management of marketing deliverables can all be achieved through a single platform.
Following years of development, Independents’ solutions can now precisely and successfully match their vast database of talents to suitable marketing projects within 48 hours. The best part is that this also results in a cost reduction of 30-50% compared to traditional agencies.
By considering the factors of skills, portfolio references, industry and geography experience, budgets, team dynamics, and client ratings from past projects, the AI-powered platform swiftly identifies the most suitable short-term hire talents for brands and agencies.
Additionally, the platform also offers project management tools, ensuring seamless end-to-end delivery of project deliverables in the quality expected.
In a recent project with the DBS Innovation team for the DBS Xcellerator programme, Independents faced the challenge of securing 250 B2B sign-ups within 14 days for the niche sector of sustainability.
Nevertheless, they were able to match DBS with a team boasting over 25 years of combined experience, delivering the brief within 48 hours. Surpassing expectations, the team also executed a social media campaign within just 8 days, exceeding the sign-up target by at least 50%.
The platform currently has a diverse pool of over 405 talented individuals from Asia. This includes AI specialists, writers, designers, digital marketers, art directors, strategists, and account managers, among others.
Since its inception in 2020, the company has successfully completed over 100 projects across Southeast Asia and China and is looking to further expand within Southeast Asia and the UK by 2024.
