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“You can’t start a fire without a spark” sang Bruce Springsteen in his classic ballad “Dancing in the Dark.” Well, for digital talent platform CEOs and thought leaders participating in this survey round of freelance revolution during Covid-19, the spark that’s lighting up a wave of freelancing growth is the remote movement driven by the Pandemic.
For platform CEOs and thought leaders in the freelance space, companies like Twitter, Facebook and others offering remote as a career alternative contains a larger message: remote freelancing will be a big winner of the change. As One Circle HR CEO Emma El Karout of Dubai and South Africa put it, “Permanent employees working remote are a gateway to broader acceptance of flexible work in general, improving acceptance of freelancers.” Emergent Research partner and freelance expert Steve King reminds us, “Organizations learn freelancers are just as easy to manage and integrate into teams as remote employees.”
And, there’s more to the story. As I’ve written in prior Forbes pieces, remote enables both employees and freelancers to build attractive careers in rural environments like Piute Country Utah, help repopulate and rebuild legacy cities, and provide attractive opportunity for the spouses of military servicepersons on assignment. Axios writes, “With more people finding long-term flexibility to work from anywhere, they have less reason to live in the most expensive cities.” Here in the US, Axios suggests that remote won’t lead to a tsunami of exiting techies from the big centers of tech like San Jose, New York and Seattle, but “up-and-coming cities have long tried to attract companies to boost their economic fortunes and tax bases. Thanks to remote work, cities now can focus on attracting workers.” Included freelancers.
Here’s the question posed to platform CEOs this round and their responses. Delighted to welcome CEOs from 32 companies and every major continent with the exception of Latin America. I’m eager to hear from platform startups in our southern neighbor:
“The shift to remote is real and likely to be around for quite some time. How will the shift impact and change your business short and longer term, and your freelancers? What plans are you making with your staff and platform freelance talent to adjust? Can you turn this into an advantage and, if so, how?”
Here’s how CEOs and thought leaders responded:
Chandrika Pasricha, CEO at Flexing It (India) “Client comfort with remote/distributed teams has grown. They see productivity increases with remote teams. Consultants find they are advantaged, being used to remote, deliverable driven work. Remote projects have seen a 2x spike as trust builds in freelance /remote teams and we share best practices with clients.”
Patrick Llewellyn, CEO at 99 Designs (US) “Our global designer community has worked remotely more than a decade. As huge brands become comfortable with flexible ways of working, other industries become more open.“
Zoë Harte, SVP HR at Upwork (US) “At Upwork, we announced a ‘Remote First’ approach. Our offices will become collaboration spaces. Our (freelancers) are leaders in working remotely; doing so ourselves helps engage and better support our talent.”
Niclas Thelander Co-founder at Outsized (UK) “It accelerates what was coming regardless. Our markets in Asia and Africa start from less experience in remote and blended workforces, but pandemic progressive companies were moving in this direction. We and others tirelessly educate the market to create a sustainable model for both clients AND freelancers.”
Alex Gidirim, CEO at You Do (Russia) “Our marketplace is 15% remote tasks now; however we see a growth in remote work among clients and willingness from service providers.”
Sebastian van ‘t Hoff at NS.work (Netherlands and South Africa) ”We now focus on offshoring creative and tech talent from Social Africa to Europe. SA has top quality talent. Same time zone. First class internet connectivity. Clients save 40% on exchange, and freelancers in SA get a better rate than locally.”
Matt Mottola CEO at Venture L (Singapore) “We see the shift to remote increase high complexity work for freelancers. Remote is increasing leadership to hire freelancers instead of internal teams or agencies but freelancers must go beyond individual efforts. We enable freelancers to seamlessly form project teams.”
Nitin Kunimmal, CEO at Avvnue (US) “We are a fully remote company. Communicating with co-workers and lack of social connection are challenges that our remote workers face daily.”
Hugo Finkelstein, CEO at Rise (US) “This shift to remote is a catalyst for freelance work. The difference between a fully remote employee and a remote freelancer is shrinking rapidly
Jeffrey Moss, CEO of Parker Dewey (US) “Companies are finding new ways of harnessing remote work. One is recruiting –using remote work as a mutual “test drive,” to identify, assess, and connect with prospective candidates, especially Career Launchers in college or recently graduated.”
Rob Biederman Co-CEO at Catalant (US) “Enterprises are more thoughtful about work structures – it is a short-term and long-term advantage. The services clients procure through our marketplace are right-sized, more cost effective, and well-suited to a digital workplace requiring speed and agility.”
Leslie Garçon CEO at Weem (France) “Remote opens opportunities. We now have consultants overseas working for French clients and we service international clients more easily. But, freelancers must build trust and understanding with clients you no longer see daily, while using technology efficiently.”
Srivatsan Padmanabhan COO at Go Floaters (India) “The evolving paradigm of "Hybrid Remote" will become mainstream. Smaller organizations are leveraging freelance talent in lieu of hiring remote employees. We are helping freelancers with networking and up-skilling.
John Healy VP MD at Kelly (US) “Employer of Choice is evolving to “engagement of choice. Attracting top talent requires flexibility in the model of engagement and work location. Our tech infrastructure, policies and organizational design are being adapted to flex with this new reality.”
Scott Galit CEO at Payoneer (US) “For Payoneer, the shift into remote has been pretty seamless. Our clients realize they can operate effectively with a remote workforce and are more open to expanding their talent pool remotely. This drives demand for skilled freelancers.”
Marc Daniel CEO at Nextwork (Canada) “The mainstreaming of remote and contingent work is a game-changer for a more flexible approach to ongoing work. This is our business model. The paradigm shift couldn’t be better timed.”
Ashmita Das, CEO at Kolabtree (UK) “R&D clients sometimes favour freelancers whom they can be face-to-face. As businesses adapt, we expect a shift to work with platforms like Kolabtree to build high-quality flexible teams, independent of location.”
Alok Alstrom CEO at AppJobs (Sweden) “We were already a remote company, but the benefits are clearer now. We see a strengthened advantage through improved documentation and standardization of work, reduced redundancy and less clustered interaction.”
Mac Mabidilaia, MD at Pengo Insight (South Africa) “We’ve been remote from inception; freelance experts are spread across Sub-Saharan Africa, connecting with clients online. so the global shift is an enabler of our approach.”
Miles Everson CEO of MBO Partners (US) “Modern business models already embrace a virtual and flexible workforce strategy. Post COVID, many of our clients are looking strategically at the way they engage talent and are optimizing their workforces.”
Emma El Karout CEO at One Circle HR (Dubai and South Africa) “This pandemic activated attitudinal shifts needed years ago. Permanent employees working remote are a gateway to broader acceptance of flexible work in general, improving acceptance of freelancers. This is fast-tracking changes our business model was built upon.”
Matt Dowling CEO at Freelancer Club (UK) We transitioned to an agile model four years ago so the way we work hasn't changed. In that regard, we're slightly ahead of curve. Our freelancers, many who worked on-site, are adapting. We’re helping. They will benefit long-term.”
Max Friberg CEO at Inex One (Sweden) “In March our team went remote. The office reopened last week and colleagues can come in or not. It gives everyone better control of their day. Similarly, our platform helps clients manage their remote investment research work. Our product improves from working as they do.”
Sheila Mahoney CEO at Life Sci Hub (US) “We anticipate greater demand for remote workers. LifeSciHub freelancers have all operated remotely, and have long successful, track records. LifeSciHub is taking an active role in helping drug sponsors adapt to this new way of working.”
Steve King Partner at Emergent Research (US) “Our research shows that increases in remote, distributed, work increases freelancer use. The main reason: organizations learn freelancers are just as easy to manage and integrate into teams as remote employees.”
Sharekh Shaikh CEO at CleverX (US) "Remote work is here to stay. Due to forced circumstances, employers have learned to operate remotely and reduce friction with remote freelancers. Many freelancers are working on ways to deliver their services remotely to cut down 'time to delivery' and expenses."
Lizzie Hoxby co-CEO at Hoxby (UK) ”We've always operated remotely and currently have 1,000 freelancers working across 43 countries. Our community fosters creativity, diversity, inclusiveness and delivers better work in a more agile way for our clients. When done well there are enormous advantages over a more traditional office set up.
Mathias Linnemann Co-founder at Worksome (Denmark and UK) ”The shift to remote helps us. Businesses are embracing flexible work and recognize they can tap a global pool of skilled freelancers who provide needed agility in uncertain times.”
Nigel Pua, COO at TheNightMrkt (Singapore) "Remote work blurs the line between permanent employee and freelancer. We fully expect the value of freelancing to increase as companies adapt to this new reality."
Florent Ogoutchoro CEO at TheTechGuys (Benin) “African companies now understand that remote work can be efficient if done properly. It also means that companies will be less reluctant to work with the remote freelance talents we provide.”
Erik Stetler, Chief Economist at Toptal (US) “As the world’s largest fully remote organization, Toptal has been mobilizing to help stakeholders transition to remote and blended teams. The Suddenly Remote Playbook makes our collective knowledge readily available to every organization. Companies can turn remote work into a competitive advantage by supplementing current employees with new expertise and points of view, cultivating optionality in a rapidly changing world.”
Amadou Daffe CEO at Gebeya (Ethiopia) “We’re a young company and we’re agile. In the past, we had to relocate talent based in Ethiopia to Senegal, where a major client’s project operated. That added logistics coordination and operational costs for both us and the client. remote eliminates those barriers, increases our margins, and improves our scalability across the African continent.”
Stay safe, be kind. Viva la revolution!kellyservices.com
