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On Topic | Catalyst
distinguish too much between employed and
freelancers,” she argues. “Obviously, employed
staff get benefits that freelancers don’t, but they
need to be inclusive of everyone. Organisations
need talent, and they’re becoming less concerned
about the package it comes in.”
This kind of approach will be vital if
organisations are to benefit from the kind of
creativity and innovation that comes with having
a diverse workforce, she adds.
To become what talent provider MBO Partners
terms “a client of choice”, and entice the brightest
and the best to work for them, forward-looking
organisations will need to provide multiple
engagement modes and means of entry. “Our
research shows today’s talent has a multitude of
options for how they work,” comments chief of
market strategy Bryan T. Peña.
“Organisations need talent and they’re becoming
less concerned about the packaging it comes in”
Susy Roberts, executive coach and founder of
people development consultancy Hunter Roberts,
believes it’s important to be clear with contractors
or freelancers around what is expected of them.
“You need to make sure there’s total clarity of
contract and deliverables, including KPIs and
measurement, and then communicate that to
the line manager who has responsibility for
performance,” she advises.
Feedback is also vital, for both contractor and
employer. “It’s important that a freelancer knows
how his or her work will be evaluated,” says Julia
Kermode, chief executive of The Freelancer &
Contractor Services Association. “Did they meet
the objectives? Do they fit your corporate culture?
What are their strengths and weaknesses? Did
they go the extra mile?”
There are also legal risks to factor in, particularly
around the use of contractors who are effectively
representing your organisation. As Jonathan
Maude, partner and chair of UK/EU employment
group at law firm Vetter Price, warns: “If you
have a contractor (or ‘worker’ in the UK), who is
effectively clothed in corporate livery and email
and they start harassing someone, taking bribes
or breaching financial conduct rules, those issues
Flexing for scale
Temporary workers can also provide valuable
market knowledge for specific projects on a
flexible basis. This is demonstrated at Microsoft,
where managing a dispersed workforce is nothing
new, according to Elke Jorens, senior director,
head of talent acquisition EMEA. “As a philosophy,
it’s structurally part of our resourcing,” she says.
“We’ve always had a proportion of flexible
workers, because talent acquisition remains very
much linked to the economy. Additionally, we
have projects that come ‘on the fly’, where we use
flexible resourcing. It’s also impossible to know in
advance which geographies, parts of the business
or even languages will be involved.
“For example, when we worked with Alexander
Mann Solutions on our inside sales hiring for
Dublin, people needed to come from around
Europe, but predominantly from Ireland and the
UK, and some parts of Scandinavia, so we were
able to tune the resources we put on the project.
And if, for instance, a project was in the Middle
East, I would have the flexibility to find people
who know that part of the world, who have market
knowledge and speak some of the languages.”
HOW MUCH DOES CONTRACT WORK APPEAL?
Globally, 36% of
workers see the appeal
of freelance and
short-term contracts.
By country, this breaks
down as follows:
42
%
US
39
%
UK
Source: Fuze https://www.fuze.com/files/documents/Fuze-WorkforceFutures-Infographic.pdf
alexandermannsolutions.com
26
38
%
France
28
%
Germany
25
%
Netherlands