When I talk to folk in the freelance recruitment and management industry, they say the most pressing themes being discussed are:
COMPLIANCE
&
COST
Compliance - It’s all about making sure you’re not falling foul of IR35, contracting, employment law, etc.
There’s so much complexity and confusion, they just want it resolved, so they can do the work with brilliant freelancers.
So there’s loads of platforms who are focusing on compliance. Tick.
Cost - Freelancers are seen as expensive, and often sit on a different budget line to employees. So it looks like a high cost per day, despite being more productive, more specialised and cost effective.
But cost base is important to all businesses. So there’s loads of platforms who are focusing on track and manage cost. Tick.
But what about the freelancers?
What about the “commodity” that all of this is supposedly meant to be managing, optimising, leveraging?
Cost and Compliance are wholly internally facing concerns - and finance and legal concerns - not even a concern about quality, creativity, impact, or even ROI.
Only focusing on INTERNAL metrics (cost and compliance) ignores the core thing you’re trying to do, work well with EXTERNAL people.
No Tick.
So, I’m adding a third C, which hirers need to start thinking about. Community. Connection. Cohesion. Communication. Collaboration.
If you’re not investing in the experience of working with you, not building relationships, and looking to retaining your best…
Compliance gets more complex.
Cost goes up.
ROI goes down.
I’ve spoken about the commercial value of retention strategies before. This is all part of the same concern. If you’re only looking at risk (compliance) and cost (optimisation), you’re not thinking about quality or ROI.
Hirers will need to shift to considering the ROI of their relationships with their freelancers, not just the direct impact on the P&L.
It’s one of the reasons we’re starting with Freelance Feedback - if you don’t know where the issues lie, you’re losing your most expensive asset: talent. Hiring costs too much, so re-using trusted talent is essential. But if they’re walking out of the door after each project, you’re just throwing good money after bad.
All the rest comes once you know where the issues are.