Technological improvements in recent years have made the labor more flexible in their ways of working. The shift from face-to-face meetings to work through technology utilities has boosted the development of the freelance workforce. In the US, the number of freelancers is surpassing the growth of general labor up to 3 times. So will this growth reflect the trend of the future workforce?
Why do workers choose to be freelancers?
The concept of freelancer – freelance work is a new concept that has appeared recently, before that, workers assured themselves a job at an organization, and turn to other businesses over their career path. Meanwhile, freelancers can work with as many businesses as they want in the same period of time. According to Upwork’s report, ⅔ of the surveyed people said that the number of jobs in the freelance job market has increased significantly within 3 years, and the market view of the concept of free labor has become more positive. In addition, the development of technology and online recruitment platform has enhanced the connection between businesses and freelancers in the market. All of these things show that freelancers are becoming a future trend.
Top 5 reasons for Freelancing
In addition to opportunities from the market, workers choose to work as freelancers because they see the positive sides of this type of work. Accordingly, they have the ability to “be their own boss” instead of always having superiors like working in enterprises, this feature receives up to 81% votes. “To have flexibility in the schedule” also received 81% votes. Following these factors is the ability to choose the project that you want, the freedom of choosing a place to work and the extra money. Freelance also offers an opportunity for some people who can’t work at a business: 42% agree that this job gives them the flexibility they need because of their personal reasons (health problems, take care of small children, …).
Freelancer is suitable for people with personal reasons that cannot stick with the organization
Why does the business choose to freelance?
Strongly developed freelancer trends stem from the needs of businesses. Businesses now have a more positive look and sometimes prioritize choosing freelancers for their projects instead of hiring a fixed position. This can be explained as follows:
- Companies are looking for specialized skills for one-off projects: sometimes businesses don’t need a permanent position for a project that will only happen once, that’s why they use freelancers who possess specialized skills and only work for projects that are appropriate to their abilities. This has become a great advantage of freelance. That is a specialized job. At this point, they just need to focus on their strengths and exploit it without worrying about a process of managing resources, office administrative work takes place around those important projects. Those “unnamed” things, though small and unimportant, take up too much time so employees don’t have time to develop their strengths. From there, businesses save time and achieve cost-effectiveness.
- Enterprise effectively optimizes resources: businesses have a wider talent pool and do not cost much to recruit. Besides, for freelancers, businesses are only obliged to pay in accordance with the contract between the two parties, almost exclusively with wages and not having to spend money on employee benefits. Performance is also better because freelancers are committed and paid on the basis of work results. The results of the job are the reputation of a freelance person and what determines whether you can continue freelancing or not. Therefore, the freelancer is quite serious about the projects they receive and will try their best to achieve the target. This helps businesses because they get what they need, with less money.
- Businesses get new perspectives from freelancer: freelancers are people with specialized expertise and co-operate with many different companies and projects. This makes them experienced in solving problems and can provide creative solutions from their own work experience. Experience from different industries, or even in the same industry, helps freelance have a deeper knowledge and experience which enough to solve difficult projects. In some cases, freelance can play a strategic advisory role, something we seem to only be able to do internally. However, these people with their wisdom and understanding can give us more than we expected.
The freelance market is growing strongly in both supply and demand. Therefore, to ensure the interests of both parties, businesses and freelancers need to understand what they want before making a commitment. The freelancer needs to further improve job-related skills, widen the portfolio with several projects and customers to have regular income and continuous improvement of experience. For businesses, the most important thing is to ensure the quality of work that freelancers provide by building a quality talent pool, close monitoring the job and always being transparent and clear on what you want. Hence, businesses can then take advantage of freelance and focus resources on other things to gradually achieve better business performance.
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