Freelancers - the workforce of the future?

Elance, the online marketplace for freelancers, has just released the results of a survey which seems to suggest that many businesses are turning to freelancers in preference to permanent employees with the trend likely to increase in future.

The survey involved nearly 600 businesses, with 84% of them stating that online work platforms would be likely to vehicle of choice in the future. Almost half of those companies surveyed claimed that they had substantially lowered their costs by using freelancers in their workforce.

The statistics favouring the use of freelancers came thick and fast in the survey with 80% of the companies surveyed saying that they had accomplished faster work completion cycles when using freelancers and nearly 90% saying that they were able to engage or hire freelancers much faster than hiring staff through the normal channels.

Three quarters of those surveyed reckoned that hiring freelancers online gave them a clear competitive advantage and a similar number thought that hiring freelancers was an important part of their business outcomes.

One of Elance’s Vice presidents said that they were “witnessing a revolution” with the growth in the use of online contractors and freelancers. Kjetil Olsen said that the use of freelancers not only significantly reduced labour costs but allowed companies to find talent for short term projects quickly and efficiently without having to initiate and maintain long term arrangements.
The main demand for freelancers seemed to be website developers, graphic designers, online web marketers and content creators.

A spokesman from a digital agency which has been using online freelance talent for some time said that the use of such talent had enabled their business to grow significantly. The Director of Media Lounge, Mike Barnett, said that having to hire workers was a “big financial commitment” and it was difficult to know how long to take on ordinary workers with the sort of part time or temporary nature of the work that the company does. He said that the hiring of freelancers through such sites as Elance was a good solution.

The survey revealed that nearly half of the companies surveyed intended to hire 90% or more of their workforce online in future.