Are you one of the many businesses within the UK increasingly hiring freelancers to meet work demands, rather than relying solely on full time employees?
It has been predicted that by the end of the next decade, half of the UK workplace will be freelance (CIPD July 2017). With the continuing rise in technology and a ‘life-first’ attitude in frustration with traditional working hours, the future is very much freelance. So, are you prepared?
This growing segment of the workforce is so appealing, and many businesses are now waking up to the benefits of a contingent workforce, one where people are hired on an on-demand basis. The stigma once attached to these freelancers is now no longer an issue. The talent pool of specialised skilled and knowledgeable people from various fields is growing rapidly with freelancers offering flexibility and freedom that is impossible with the nine to five model and typical employer-employee relationship.
The development of the gig economy platforms such as Upwork and Bark (connecting the self- employed to companies that wish to use them) means that the conventional labour market has changed forever.
Employers will benefit from a “human cloud” of talent that they can dip into at will. Your business could be one that benefits from the use of freelancing, as a streamlined way of building your workforce alongside your permanent employees. With flexible human capital, you have the ability to scale up or down. You can focus on assigning the right talent at the right time to complete given tasks or projects. Perhaps you have a project that requires a graphic designer, but not enough to hire one full time. The logic solution is to hire a freelancer which can help the business create that competitive advantage by working with a skilled specialist.
There are also less obligations for the employer when engaging freelancers, as there is no obligation to provide work when the demand reduces, coupled with greater flexibility about issuing notice and terminating the relationship.
There is a reduced financial burden, as these self-employed people do not attract employment benefits such as private health care and paid statutory entitlements such as holiday and sick pay.
If you are interested in exploring the benefits of a contingent workforce, then get in touch with us at Redway HR. We can help your business explore working practices outside the “nine to five’’ model, which will increase your competitive edge within the marketplace. If you are trying to determine whether an employee or contactor is the best option for your current business need, it is important to get the right advice.
With the rise of the gig economy and a more flexible labour market, there are certain grey areas when it comes to defining employment status. It is such grey areas that have led to the high-profile legal cases around employment status, such as those involving Uber, Pimlico Plumbing and Deliveroo.
Redway HR will help you make the correct distinction between an employee, worker and a self-employer contractor/freelancer.
Similarly, if your freelancers/contractors have been working for you for a while, you need to be sure that the original contract still fits. Relationships often evolve over time, and the freelancer photographer that you engaged 6 months ago now working 9-5 in your marketing team, getting paid monthly and booking off annual leave may be considered to be an employee in the eyes of the Inland Revenue or in employment law.
At Redway HR we have robust and well written contracts to cover all types of employment status:
1. Employees – full time, part time, fixed term, permanent
2. Apprentices;
3. Workers
4. Self Employed Freelancers and Contractors
Now truly is the time to stop enticing freelancers into the structures they desperately escaped and start collaborating and managing a more distributed, flexible and agile workforce.