How Are Companies Leveraging the Freelance Economy?
Key Findings
More than 90% of hiring managers see working with independent contractors as important to meeting their business goals.
Tech companies are increasingly tapping the gig economy.
Different teams leverage independent contractors to achieve different goals.
Hiring Managers say sourcing talent is their greatest challenge when working with independent contractors.
Hiring managers tend to overestimate their company’s preparedness to work with independent contractors.
Most companies’ work processes for managing independent contractors are severely inefficient.
Marketing Teams Lean on Freelancers Most
It’s clear that all businesses today are increasing their reliance on freelancers, independent contractors, gig workers, and consultants. We wanted to understand how much.
While more than 90% of all departments agreed that freelance talent is important to their business, marketing teams are most likely to say they are “vital.”
Each Department Enlists Contractors for Different Reasons
Not only do different departments depend on independent contractors to different extents, but they also enlist them to fulfill different goals.
Marketing sees freelancers as equally important for speeding up the pace of work and accelerating time-to-market. Meanwhile, R&D cares most about accelerating time-to-market, and IT’s biggest priority is completing daily tasks faster.
Where Marketing, IT, and R&D Source Talent
After breaking down each department’s motivation for hiring freelance talent, it’s easier to understand why different department’s prefer different talent sources.
More than one-third of marketing teams first turn to freelance marketplaces, as these are the most flexible and agile solutions. Meanwhile, R&D and IT rely more on service providers and staffing agencies, which provide highly vetted and better-qualified workers.
