The telecom industry is changing faster than ever before thanks to the rapid evolution of technology. The growing demand for high-speed broadband, online storage clouds, and mobile connectivity has seen the need for a new kind of service provider – one that can ensure a 24/7 connection between devices and humans. 

That demand has left service providers struggling to keep up. Their current resources of in-house and contracted field engineers are being stretched further than ever before, with consumers being the ones who suffer as a result.  

Thankfully, new technology also brings with it the opportunity of change. Field Engineer, a new online marketplace for employers and freelance engineers, looks set to bring the benefits of the gig economy to the telecom industry in the years ahead. We’ve rounded three of the main reasons why it’s causing quite the stir below: 

Turning the Recruiting Process on its Head 

One of the biggest challenges worldwide service providers currently face is finding the required staff to complete small, emergency jobs or larger, long-term projects.   This can be even more troublesome in remote areas of the world, where qualified staff are at a premium. 

The recruitment process involved in finding short-term staff for any role can not only be time-consuming, but also expensive, with specialized recruitment agencies often charging a small fortune for providing highly skilled staff. 

Malik Zakaria, the founder of Field Engineer, was all too aware of this, having had 20 years of experience in telecom and IT outsourcing before setting up the company. 

While he hasn’t reinvented the wheel with Field Engineer, he has provided an online marketplace purpose-built for the telecom industry, where service providers can directly access skilled engineers from around the world in just a matter of minutes.  

By cutting out the middle men, the cost for both the business and consumer promises to be substantially lower.  

These first major steps into the gig economy for the telecom industry have proved incredibly popular, with the company already boasting of staff in 146 countries after just eight months in operation. 

Responding to the Growing Trend for Flexible Working Schedules 

Over the past 20 years, the number of workers operating as independent contractors, often through apps, has increased by about 27 percent more than payroll employees, according to CNBC. 

This perhaps isn’t surprising considering the growing trend for more flexible working hours, particularly amongst the younger generations.  

A recent study from Bentley University highlights this fact, with 77% of respondents claiming that flexible working hours helped improve their productivity. 

While freelancing has most commonly been linked to more creative industries, it’s thought that by 2020, 50% of the U.S. workforce will be freelance in some form or another.  

FieldEngineer.com is best placed to capitalise on this growing trend, with its platform presenting the ideal solution to connect a digital, 21^st-century workforce with employers. 

Providing a 24/7 Workforce 

Global telecom companies, such as AT&T (News - Alert) and Vodafone, operate on every continent, bar Antarctica. That means that they continually need the services of on-demand staff to help rectify any issues for their hundreds of millions of customers. 

In the past, a small issue, such as the Wi-Fi going down in a public building, could have taken days, if not weeks, to fix depending on the availability of a technicians and other staff. Now, with Field Engineer, a suitable tech can be sourced and hired through the click of a few buttons from anywhere on the planet. 

The speed with which a solution can be provided for the consumer is arguably one of the most important aspects of any business. Consequently, telecom companies that refuse to evolve their recruitment process to match today’s demands face losing out to the competition.   

About the Author

Gareth Mooreland is a full-time writer and a content marketing expert and have previously worked for technology companies in the US, UK and Australia. He is the go-to expert to write about technology and business. When not writing, Gareth enjoys taking landscape photos around the world. His lifetime ambition is to visit every country in the world. Only 128 to go!