One of the more aggressive arguments made against freelancing is that freelancers are necessarily less engaged in your work and organization than fulltime employees because they are outsiders. It’s a point of view that is widely touted. Its also demonstrably false. In this article let’s dig into how freelancers are a positive force for engagement.
What do we mean by engagement?
The engagement narrative, a canon of the management literature, is this: When leaders create a strong cultural and managerial bond among employees, and between employees and managers, good things happen. Work is more joyous and productive, collaboration and teamwork are more regularly found, productivity improves, attrition and absenteeism is reduced, innovation is encouraged, and organization members are willing to give discretionary time and effort to meeting organizations goals. In short, they are thinking about and acting in support of the organization during and beyond working hours.
A recent Forbes article describes employee engagement as a “hiding in plain sight” solution to much of what ails the global business community:
“In an era where businesses scrutinize every aspect of their operations for efficiency and profitability, a silent epidemic is ravaging workplaces worldwide: low employee engagement. While companies double down on trimming operational costs, they’re overlooking a staggering leak in their collective bottom line. Recent studies from Gallup have unveiled a shocking truth: the global cost of disengaged employees has skyrocketed to an eye-watering $8.8 trillion annually. That’s not a typo — we’re talking about a sum larger than the GDP of economic powerhouses like Japan or Germany.”
The problem with employee engagement: it’s rare
As defined by Gallup as “the involvement and enthusiasm of employees in both their work and workplace” – employee engagement seems a very good thing. But engaged employees are hard to find these days.
According to Gallup, only 33% of US employees described themselves as engaged in 2023 and that number dropped to 30% in the early days of 2024. Overall, 70% of the US workforce is not engaged in their organizations.
Why so low? A recently published WSJ article entitled “Why Is Everyone So Unhappy at Work Right Now?” put it this way:
“… It is clear the unhappiness is part of a rethinking of work life that began in 2020. The sources of workers’ discontent range from inflation, which is erasing much of recent pay gains, to the still-unsettled nature of the workday. People chafe against being micromanaged back to offices, yet they also find isolating aspects of hybrid and remote work. A cooling job market—especially in white-collar roles—is leaving many professionals feeling stuck.”
Strong feelings of identification with their organizations is a high hurdle these days.
Freelancers have a different experience than employees: It’s all about the work
Freelancers, by contrast, are a more satisfied and optimistic global community despite the travails of solopreneurship. In the 2021 Global Survey of Freelancers 66% of freelancers described their client relationships as mutually satisfying, and reported enjoying their work (63%), building good reputations (59%), are optimistic about the future (65%), and committed to freelancing (61%). The Human Cloud Freelance Trend Tracker notes that, while concerned about short term market conditions, most freelancers have confidence in the longer term.
Freelancers also don’t have the challenge facing fulltime employees: identifying with a specific workplace or organization. They typically work with multiple organizations (generally 2-5 projects) at a given time. What engages freelancers isn’t the organization per se but the work itself: meeting client expectations, attracting new opportunities, sharpening their skills, building their network, and managing their business.
Would organizations benefit from more focus on work engagement, and less on institutional identity? Very possibly. According to The Edelman Trust Barometer institutions are increasingly distrusted these days. There’s a trust gap between employees and their leaders; for example, employees trust the information of co-workers over leaders. Tenure is also a challenge. According to the BLS, 47m US employees changed jobs in 2021, and 38m more in 2022. With so much job switching, there’s hardly time or opportunity to grow the organizational roots that existed in prior times. Emphasizing the work itself could be more a more helpful and realistic framework for engagement and would naturally incorporate project based freelancers as well as fulltime employees.
How might freelancing boost employee engagement?
Can freelancing and greater emphasis on the work help companies turn the corner on engagement?
A blended workforce has many advantages for productivity, cost, and engagement. Here’s a short list of how a smart mix of fulltime employees and freelancers, supported by technology, would encourage and reinforce workforce engagement:
- Newfound talent optionality and flexibility. An organization’s workforce must adapt and change at the speed of the market, which is difficult in a workforce of fulltime employees. Access to freelance experts like Catalant’s global network of independent consultants provides organizations with resource optionality and flexibility.
- Freelancers provide critical expertise on demand. Freelancers enables newer and smaller companies to work with experts on a freelance basis that would be unavailable to them fulltime and take many months to attract. Access to experts like Dazzle’s freelancers in sustainability increase the odds of success, a natural engagement builder.
- Private talent clouds help establish relationships with trusted freelancers. Many companies are working with startups like Bubty and Gigged.ai to create private talent clouds. These company owned software platforms provide access to vetted and certified freelancers whom the organization knows and trusts.
- Freelancers often play an informal mentoring or coaching role. Freelancers bring experience and expertise that makes them attractive to employees as informal coaches and mentors, providing feedback and developmental advice. Arc.dev is an Asia-based platform that provides freelance coaches to developers.
- Freelancers offer a positive role model for younger professionals. When freelancers in the global survey were asked to describe areas of strength, they included these: Flexible and adaptable (66%), resilient (59%), meets commitments (70%), accepts accountability and responsibility (70%), and works well with people at all levels (74%). These qualities offer a positive role model to younger employees.
- Access to helpful networks and information sources. Because freelancers are in the market, they are regularly connected to professional networks offering helpful information and access to experts, influencers, and corporate colleagues.
- Freelancing provides budget flexibility where and when needed. For example, Cesar Jimenez, CEO of My Base Pay, depends on a fractional CFO: “I get the expertise I need, at my size of business, my new fractional CFO is already making a significant contribution and I’ve freed up budget.”
- Turnover in freelancers enables teams to keep it fresh. It’s never easy to part with co-workers. The time and effort devoted to ill-fitting employees is significant. When freelancers don’t work out, off-boarding them is faster, easier, and less impactful. And it’s not just poor fitting colleagues. Over time it’s helpful to change the mix on a team to keep it fresh and bring in new perspectives. It’s an easier action with freelancers who understand the life cycle to each client relationship.
What turns on (and turns off) the freelancers working for you
There are, of course, factors that can increase and decrease the engagement of freelancers. The Global Survey on Freelancing helped to identify the conditions that create strong freelancer engagement:
What promotes freelancer engagement in the work, and their interest in continuing to support a given organization, are these factors:
· This client understands and works well with freelancers
· Work deliverables, milestones and timelines are fair and realistic
· This client require top quality work from freelancers
· This client’s project managers know how to work well with freelancers
· I have access to the information I need to meet my deliverables for this client
· Client team members are friendly and helpful when I have a question or need
· I am treated fairly and with respect in my dealings with this client company
· Work I’m doing for this client company is interesting and satisfying
· Client team members I work with are technically and professionally competent
· I am paid fairly for my work for this client company
Data from the survey points out key freelance engagement enablers as well as important engagement detractors. Enablers include client expectations for top quality work, freelancer interest in the project, and team member relationships and competence. Detractors include organizations and project managers who don’t work well with freelancers, unrealistic deliverables and deadlines, poor communication, and unfair or late payment.
Ways to further improve freelancer engagement
Increasing engagement enablers, and reducing detractors, is a general strategy for increasing freelancer engagement. But within that framework are several specific actions worth considering:
First, HR and Procurement teams benefit from understanding the freelance ecosystem. Smart talent partners establish relationships with freelance marketplaces that are particularly able to address their needs and support the development of contingent work programs. The three main verticals of freelancing – tech, marketing, and independent management consulting – include many excellent providers: for example, Toptal and Malt in tech, Ollo and Uncompany in marketing, and Catalant and Outvise in consulting.
Second, there’s obvious benefit in sharing feedback about individual freelancers. Although a private talent cloud makes freelance selection and feedback more available, even informal feedback is helpful in many ways.
Third, include freelancers more regularly. In relevant communication. In training or information sessions where their expertise is helpful. Create events that enable freelancers to share insights, industry best practice or information on new innovations in the market. Invite freelancers with specific expertise to contribute to advisory boards, etc. There are many ways.
Viva la revolution!