Will the ‘New-Normal’ of Remote-Working Keep On-Trend in 2021?
Understanding the Differences Between Choosing a Freelance or Permanent Team
As business is getting used to the ‘new world’ of remote working, Sarah O’Connor’s article in the Financial Times about its inherent risks, makes sobering reading for those enjoying the much labored work-life balance benefits they’ve grown accustomed to ‘enjoying.’
Her article raises an interesting point that as factory workers were ‘replaced’ by machines, office workers are now facing a similar threat from remote working. Why should a company continue to pay an employee to work from home when they could outsource this same role on to someone else on a freelance basis, but likely for a lower cost?
Why Choose Freelancers?
The use of freelancers (consultants and self-employed individuals) for companies, particularly in project management, has many benefits including outsourcing repetitive and one-off tasks for a small cost, relatively low HR administration such as no PAYE, no employment contracts, the flexibility to draw on specialist experience for short-term projects, ability to be self-reliant and cost effectiveness etc… but as O’Connor briefly highlights, outsourcing isn’t for everyone as: “shared language, culture and time zones will continue to matter.”
Research shows it can take between one and two years for a new-hire to be fully productive as this involves time for them to understand a company’s organisational culture such as its vision and values.
For a freelancer, they have an even shorter period of time to fully understand the client’s culture and requirements. Research shows there are frequent problems around project outcomes and final payments for work (see below).
Why Employ Permanent Staff?
A permanent employee in a business can help a business grow in a number of ways such as sharing skills and knowledge with colleagues, building client relationships (which many of us when planning or working on major projects, often takes years), swifter communication, helping identify opportunities and areas of company under-performance, having a pool of talent at-hand to support business when required, encouraging homegrown talent and the creation of a path for future potential leadership.
And although the allure to outsource rudimentary tasks to a global talent pool of cheaper labour grows stronger, this article from Harvard Business Review discusses why global companies have adopted a global language policy to improve processes and help avoid mis-communication, a consistent problem facing businesses especially when employing nonnative speakers from a pool of global freelancers.
The Outlook for Office Workers for 2021
In research published just a few days ago, we can how the affects of the COVID pandemic have trimmed UK self-employment levels by approximately 10%. As the economy recovers in 2021, it would be prudent to assume this figure will rebound as business confidence returns.
There’s no doubt though the flexibility which freelancing offers companies - is attractive, however, the decision about whether a company should base the majority of its operations on a freelance basis for efficiency savings, needs to be weighed up against the risks to that business, for example, if it is more reliant on developing client relationships to grow as this would be difficult to achieve on a freelance basis.
The challenge to the office worker maybe is to prove themselves as even better value for money, demonstrating they too can provide some of the flexibility that freelancers offer with specialist skills but using their company knowledge to personalise and match services to company requirements to deliver optimum results.
With 84% of respondents saying they still prefer face-to-face meetings in a recent survey by Great Business, maybe in 2021 we’ll see a hybrid-trend of remote and office working emerge, rather than a full embrace of temporary working.
Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
