The Accor Group surrounds itself with freelance experts via the Malt Marketplace

Since 2017, the Accor Group has worked with 500 experienced freelancers via the Malt marketplace, for periods of 6 months on average. Today, there are 40 freelance projects underway at Accor with freelancers from a variety of backgrounds. From Product Designers, to Digital Project Managers, Management Supervisors, Business Analysts andMarketing Project Managers, Accor sees value in working with freelancers. Thanks to these experts, Accor is able to continue on its growth path by diversifying its portfolio of brands and reinforcing its leadership in Europe and around the world.

Hotel industry leader Accor, with their fifteen brands worldwide, today offers services ranging from budget to the biggest names in luxury. With its main brands including Mercure, Novotel, Sofitel, Pullman, Ibis, Ibis Styles and Ibis Budget, as of 2022 the French group employs over 160,000 people across the globe and is experiencing sustainable, profitable growth.

In a time of slowing economic growth and recruitment challenges, especially for digital roles, many big groups are turning to freelancers to quickly fill key gaps. Let’s take a look at why and how the Accor group chose to rely on Malt’s marketplace and teams in order to surround itself with highly-qualified talent.

In 2022, as the Covid pandemic began to ease, the Accor group found itself facing two major challenges. On the one hand, hiring was very difficult, notably for experienced IT experts. On the other, the talent marketplace was quite fragmented, with numerous and varied service providers.

So, the French hotel group searched for a provider proposing experienced freelancers capable of pitching innovative ideas and executing them without a hitch. To meet these challenges and to recruit the experts necessary for its continued growth, the Accor group put in place a global strategy. Led by Michael Rivet, Professional Services Procurement Director, the strategy saw them work through four key steps:

1. Analyzing the reasons for the company to call on external resources to fill certain strategic roles.
2. Segmenting external suppliers to find the right provider for each need.
3. Communicating with the providers — a determining factor for a large group with so many communication channels.
4. Carefully onboarding the selected provider to Accor’s internal processes.

After carefully applying this strategy, the Accor decision makers naturally turned to the provider with the most complete marketplace, the best range of  experts and with the best personalized support: Malt .

Malt, the leading freelance marketplace in Europe, is ideal for large groups. Home to thousands of experienced IT experts, it’s a digital platform with reporting and analytics capabilities, backed by a dedicated sourcing team providing personalized support.

The hotel sector is constantly changing, Accor teams do what they can to reinvent themselves every day. Through their proactiveness and varied experience, Malt freelancers bring new ideas and interesting leads to explore.

As HR Product Owner at Accor, Firath Jesuthasan manages talent acquisition, organization and development for the group. For a few years already, his team has been made up of mostly freelancers and consultants, who are included in  regular meetings and strategic discussions. Jesuthasan is aware that their expertise, agility and external points of view are precious advantages for the Accor group.

The Malt marketplace offers several concrete benefits in facilitating the conversation between corporates and verified experts. First, the Malt community  is made up of close to 390,000 freelancers who are verified, qualified and organized based on criteria like skills, years of experience, geographic location and rates.

Next, Malt’s internal account managers are available to help clients in their search for the ideal freelancer. Thanks to our dedicated teams, the time savings are notable and the client only needs to interview preselected candidates to find the right fit. Their freelance status allows independent experts to join the client team in just a few days and start working without delay.

Finally, thanks to the Malt marketplace, corporates can manage billing with many freelancers at once. This digital solution also allows clients to export data, like allocated budgets and freelancer timesheets.

On the freelance side, Malt also offers many advantages, which explains why so many talented experts rely on it. The marketplace gives our freelancers access to diverse projects with total freedom to  choose the projects they accept. Payment is made quickly, ensuring freelancers can manage their budgets sustainably and work with peace of mind. Also, the Malt team continues to create and lead an ever-growing community of freelancers in many cities around Europe.