Your best talent isn’t always on your payroll

| August 24, 2015

Today we are forced to think more laterally and creatively around how to get work done in our organisations. Bernadette Eichner explains why using freelancers and part-timers is a good idea.

Over the last 20 years, small businesses (that employ less than 20 people) have steadily increased their share of the total private sector employment market and now make up approximately 96%[1] of all registered businesses in the country. The fastest growth has been with sole traders, contractors and freelancers and much of this growth is among home-based businesses.

When we think of sole traders, we tend to think of plumbers, electricians, builders, mechanics and so on – people who are skilled at a particular trade that involves working with your hands. For generations, parents and educators have urged their young charges to aspire to a university education or “learn a trade” and “get yourself a good job” and then stick with it. And employers have rewarded applicants who can demonstrate a stable employment history.

But the changing employment landscape, the rise of technology, the growth of online marketplace business models like RecruitLoop and the desire of participants in the labour force to have more flexibility and greater personal and professional development opportunities has demanded that we start thinking more laterally and creatively around how to get work done in our organisations.

It’s not only people who have learned a trade that are going it alone. In the last few years, doctors, lawyers, accountants, graphic designers, web developers, trainers and recruiters are just some of the professions who have gone “freelance”. Working from home, they work the hours that suit them on the projects of their choice – sometimes they are plugged into an organisation for a defined period, while other times they take on unique projects that can be done from home using various technology to facilitate the consulting process. Their business leads come from a combination of their own professional networking activity, personal contacts and leads generated by the one or more online marketplaces they might belong to. And they are earning good money in the process, sometimes up to $350,000 per annum.

People “freelance” for all sorts of reasons. Up until recently it was predominantly women who went part-time or freelanced from home, seeking to maintain a professional life and some form of income while caring for their children, or middle-aged men who’d been made redundant and were having difficulty sourcing new employment opportunities. In the last eight years or so we have seen this demographic noticeably change to include men and women of all ages. No longer are people freelancing because they can’t get a full-time job; most have made the conscious choice to go it alone and be their own boss, the “master of their own destiny”, so to speak.

Employers have tended to treat freelancers as “flibbertigibbets” who can’t decide on what they want to and are therefore likely to be unreliable. But this is quickly changing. Just as freelancers want (or need) flexibility, so do employers.

The post-GFC corporate world is a different place. Employers are working to much tighter budgets with much greater accountability, and capital investment in redundant office space is declining.  There is no longer an unending supply of money for full-time positions to meet business peaks.  Freelancers provide employers with the skills they need for the period they need them. So they’re only paying people when the business demands it.

Employees no longer need to be tied to their desks to be productive or do the work of the organisation. The internet and the numerous work sharing applications available mean people can work from anywhere at any time. This has been a real boon for freelancers and part-timers and enables employers to have skilled people working on critical projects while maintaining complete transparency without the infrastructure costs.

Companies in Australia must keep pace with the evolving needs of the workforce and take advantage of the flexibility provided by technology if they are to attract the skilled talent they require. Your best assets will not necessarily be found on your employee payroll.

 

SHARE WITH: