{"id":33470,"date":"2021-11-10T07:03:32","date_gmt":"2021-11-10T12:03:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/centricconsulting.com\/?p=33470"},"modified":"2021-12-16T10:48:47","modified_gmt":"2021-12-16T15:48:47","slug":"will-on-demand-talent-be-the-next-work-revolution-3-tips-for-building-a-freelance-talent-strategy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/centricconsulting.com\/blog\/will-on-demand-talent-be-the-next-work-revolution-3-tips-for-building-a-freelance-talent-strategy\/","title":{"rendered":"Will On-Demand Talent Be the Next Work Revolution? 3 Tips for Building a Freelance Talent Strategy"},"content":{"rendered":"

In this segment of \u201cOffice Optional with Larry English<\/a>,\u201d Larry discusses three tips for building a freelance talent strategy to boost your on-demand talent.<\/h2>\n
\n

The remote work revolution is already over\u2014hybrid has won<\/a>\u2014but another major shift could be coming.<\/p>\n

The number of platforms for highly skilled freelancers increased over 300 percent since 2009<\/a>, giving rise to new theories on how organizations of the future will use and manage talent.<\/p>\n

The latest theories posit that organizations will have a completely different talent mindset, shifting from headcount to on-demand talent<\/a>, from talent acquisition to talent access.<\/strong><\/p>\n

What does this look like? According to a recent Harvard Business School study<\/a>, many leaders believe their organizations will be operating with a smaller team of full-time employees, supported by a growing ecosystem of highly integrated on-demand talent made up of freelancers and outsourced partner\/vendor firms.<\/p>\n

Benefits of an On-Demand Talent Strategy<\/h2>\n

Businesses that adopt an on-demand approach to talent will become more agile, innovative and productive while simultaneously unlocking a larger universe of minds working in their unique problems. They\u2019ll also be less prone to chronic problems such as headcount creep, the global shortage of talent and what the World Economic Forum refers to as a \u201creskilling emergency\u201d as jobs are rapidly transformed by technology.<\/p>\n

An on-demand approach to talent is also key for businesses wanting to transform into Exponential Organizations, defined by Salim Ismail, Yahoo\u2019s former head of innovation, as disruptive companies with huge impacts. Exponential Organizations (ExOs) scale at the same exponential rate of technology because they harness the power of new organizational techniques and new technology.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In Ismail\u2019s book, Exponential Organizations, he says, \u201cFor any ExO, having Staff on Demand is a necessary characteristic for speed, functionality and flexibility in a fast-changing world \u2026 For any company today, having a permanent, full-time workforce is fraught with growing peril as employees fail to keep their skills up to date.<\/p>\n

Workers Choose Freelancing for Freedom, Project Diversity<\/h2>\n

This growing reliance on freelance talent won\u2019t just come about because it benefits businesses. It\u2019s also increasingly what workers want<\/a>, too.<\/p>\n

Data from MBO Partners says that nontraditional employment reached 51 million this year<\/a>, a 34 percent increase from 2020. Another study from Upwork revealed that 20 percent of U.S. workers<\/a> are considering freelancing as their future career. By one estimate, the number of U.S. freelancers will reach 86.5 million<\/a> \u2014 just over half of the U.S. workforce \u2014 by 2027.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur research shows there are a couple of reasons freelancing is an attractive option,\u201d says Tim Sanders, vice president of customer insights at Upwork. \u201cYounger employees like the diversity of work and the idea of writing their own paycheck. Older workers like the income portfolio diversity as a hedge against recessions, layoffs, a company going out of business or being acquired by a poor employer.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Some leaders may be hesitant to engage freelance talent, worried about the impact to organizational knowledge or culture. But that argument doesn\u2019t hold water in an environment where so many employees are considering a job change<\/a>. Plus, it\u2019s a mistake to equate freelance work with one-and-done small gig assignments<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany freelancers are highly skilled professionals looking for long-term relationships,\u201d Sanders says. \u201cWe have hundreds if not thousands of documented examples of client-freelancer relationships on our platform that have been going on for more than 10 years. The knowledge doesn\u2019t leave \u2014 it\u2019s just on-demand.\u201d<\/p>\n

Building a Freelance Talent Strategy<\/h2>\n

The first step to smartly engaging freelance talent is to make it a strategic growth priority, dedicating budget toward finding and hiring independent workers, Sanders says. Below, he shares additional strategies leveraging real value from freelancers.<\/p>\n

Engage freelancers early.<\/h3>\n

To get real value from freelancers, don\u2019t wait to engage them when a project is in trouble or your team is barely treading water.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t think of freelancers as a downstream band-aid,\u201d Sanders says. \u201cWhen you involve freelancers early in the life of a project, the freelancer relationships are better with your internal team members and the freelancers are more likely to share knowledge from other projects. By integrating freelancers into the whole project journey, they become a collaborative partner and will feel a sense of ownership over the project\u2019s success.\u201d<\/p>\n

As an example of the real impact freelancers can achieve, the book The Human Cloud shares how a large motorcycle manufacturer worked with a team of highly skilled freelance designers, engineers, and developers to accomplish a multi-year digital transformation of their rider experience, resulting in a 5-star rated mobile app with over 150,000 downloads.<\/p>\n

Educate freelancers on your culture.<\/h3>\n

For freelancers to truly integrate into your teams and make a real impact, they need to know what your culture is and how to succeed within it. Educate them on communication norms, your mission and values and how you approach problem-solving. Give them the context they\u2019ll need to dive in and work their magic.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cEvery company should be able to onboard anybody that works with them around the key cornerstones of their culture<\/a>,\u201d Sanders says. \u201cCulture is a conversation about how we do things here. The question is how well have you codified the conversation into something that\u2019s portable and easily consumed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Think of talent access versus talent acquisition.<\/h3>\n

Using highly skilled freelancers means your default doesn\u2019t have to be adding full-time employees every time you hit a growth period. Instead, you can rely on fractional talent to test out how much work there actually is and, if the need is there, then create a full-time role. You\u2019re accessing the talent you need when you need it versus acquiring talent for an unspecified length of time.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen companies have a smaller full-time core and talent is approached on demand, that\u2019s actually a much more scientifically resourced talent pool,\u201d Sanders says. \u201cAgility is not a mindset. Agility is an organizational design issue. Until you change how you think about talent, you cannot truly be agile.\u201d<\/p>\n

Most of us have gotten on board with remote work. Now, it\u2019s time to reimagine how we engage talent. As Harvard Business School wrote in a recent report on the on-demand workforce: \u201cBusiness leaders cannot risk missing a critical opportunity to build a more flexible, resilient organization.\u201d<\/p>\n

This article was originally featured on Forbes.com.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In this segment of \u201cOffice Optional with Larry English,\u201d Larry discusses three tips for building a freelance talent strategy to boost your on-demand talent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":41,"featured_media":33472,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"_oasis_task_priority":"","_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[20871],"coauthors":[15095],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2024-07-21 21:12:32","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/centricconsulting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33470"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/centricconsulting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/centricconsulting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centricconsulting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/41"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centricconsulting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33470"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/centricconsulting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33470\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centricconsulting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/centricconsulting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centricconsulting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centricconsulting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33470"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centricconsulting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=33470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}