When Developers Play HR Directors: A Cautionary Tale

The American workforce is undergoing a deeply transformational period with freelancers representing 55M+ workers of what has been dubbed “Workforce 2.0”.

But if you’re a corporate leader dismissing the gig economy as a phenomenon exclusive to task-oriented platforms like Uber or Thumbtack, you should know professional freelancers actually make up the fastest-growing segment.

Flexibility and Independence Above All

The “traditional way” of doing business is outdated, rigid and quickly becoming obsolete; the world — and so the workforce — is becoming much more global, flexible and independent of time constraints and timezones.

The modern workforce, and the workforce of the future — “Workforce 2.0” mentioned above — will consist of non-in-house, non-employed team members, each excelling in their own field, and on a per task, per contract or per-function basis.

These freelancers are a diverse group of highly skilled workers who value flexibility and independence over a traditional 9-to-5, fixed employment job. Talent has gone indie and dismissing freelancers is leaving a huge talent pool untapped.

Just consider the fact that, over the past 5 years alone, 46% of Gen-Z workers have chosen freelancing as their way of living and wouldn’t have it any other way.

The old recruiting model falls short not only when it comes to attracting talent but also in responding quickly to change in today’s fast-paced competitive landscape.

The enterprise version of the gig economy, also referred to as ‘on-demand talent’, can make large organizations leaner and more agile by filling in resources where and when needed the most.

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Lower Operational Costs

In fact, this flexible approach will significantly lower operational costs, in several ways –

  • Freelancers are often more motivated and engaged, because every “gig” counts. As such, even one oversight or failure to perform can mean the loss of a client. This works to an organization’s benefit.
  • Employing full-time workers more than often means most of your workforce aren’t at capacity all of the time. Due to factors such as seasonal ebbs and flows, workload, outside circumstance and beyond, hiring freelancers at busy periods, on a per-project basis or even when you need a few extra hands on deck is far more cost-effective.
  • Freelancers must pay their own tax contributions and benefits. Therefore, the actual cost of hiring a freelancer is whatever you agree — and not up to 25% more in extra contributions!
  • Organizations pay only for specific expertise — hiring experts in-house isn’t cost-effective, as their expertise is usually only required for certain tasks or at certain times! With a devolved, freelance workforce, you pay only for the expertise you need, when you need it.
  • Virtually no long, paid training time — with a freelance workforce, you can cherry-pick the best of the best, with the specific industry experience you need, meaning no painfully long, costly training times.

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Operating at Full-Scale, at Less Cost

Aside from the potential financial benefit (as mentioned above, you can expect to save up to 30% of FTE cost), over 64% of organizations consider hiring freelancers an absolute necessity to reach their business goals, allowing them to operate at full scale while increasing their speed to market and agility.

However, for large organizations adopting an on-demand talent operating model can be challenging, including painful, ongoing (and seemingly never-ending) processes for recruiting, on-boarding (contracts, approvals, forms, etc.) and handling ongoing payments to distributed freelance teams.

The All-In-One Solution: Fiverr Enterprise

This is poised to change with new digital solutions that make it possible to easily manage the entire workflow, providing Finance, Legal and HR leaders greater transparency and minimized liability. Companies can now tap into this virtually unlimited talent pool with the added benefit of budget flexibility.

We’re at a significant transition point in this digital transformation. Organizations have been challenged to adjust their hiring practices due to an ever-increasing skill-gap and fierce global competition for talent. Meanwhile, on-demand work is set to keep growing and new enterprise software is making adoption at a corporate level easier than ever by streamlining the process across business functions.

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