Why Your Business Needs a Freelance Talent Strategy ASAP

Ushering in this new year comes with an Omicron surge that continues to delay our return to office plans and jeopardize in-person student learning.  I am the mother of an energetic eight-year-old son, and I am always prepared for a possible pivot to distance learning, as we struggle to keep students and staff safe from a virus that is constantly mutating.

COVID-19 has changed the way we live, from 100% remote work, to Zoom birthday celebrations and virtual health appointments, life as we knew it pre-pandemic, has been permanently reshaped.

How are you managing through the changes?  Albert Einstein once declared, “The measure of intelligence is the ability to change.”    Do you agree? 

One of the core value statements plastered on the office walls of my former employer was, "Embrace Change.”  We had gone from a start-up to a publicly traded company in under two years.  Change was frequent.  This wild ride taught me not to get too comfortable in my role because it was sure to morph into something different following the next company acquisition or merger.  It taught me to confront change head on, and rather than dread or fear it, to intelligently navigate through it.

An area that is undergoing seismic change as the pandemic rages on is the American workforce. 

And this is not simply the accelerated migration to remote work.  Change has also included the growth of the freelance talent economy, fueled by soul searching and a yearning for improved work-life balance.  36% of the American workforce is currently freelancing, with some experts estimating that freelancers will comprise more than 50% of our workforce by 2027.   

Highly skilled workers, part of the white-collar Gig Economy, which includes Technical Program Managers, Digital Transformation Experts, PMO Strategic Advisors, Project Consultants, Product Owners and Scrum Masters, are electing to become independent professionals and abandoning the traditional 9 to 5.  In 2021 alone, 39 million Americans quit their jobs, in a phenomenon that Dr. Anthony Klotz, a psychologist and professor at Texas A&M, coined,  “The Great Resignation.”    

The pandemic, with its forced shift to remote work, afforded us a rare opportunity to slow down and think critically about our priorities and our passions.  Many Americans decided they needed a change. 

For some, change meant finding full-time employment with a new company.  But for millions of others, change meant stepping out and starting a new business, as is evidenced by the 23% increase in new business applications in the U.S in 2020.

Full-Time Employee Roles Decrease, Talent Marketplaces Gain Traction

A recent Harvard Business School study reveals that corporate senior leaders anticipate that their organizations will operate with a smaller team of full-time employees, while simultaneously tapping into the high-skilled, on-demand talent available through digital talent marketplaces.  “Since 2009, the number of digital talent platforms has grown from 80 to more than 330.”

As experienced Americans transition to independent work in record numbers, companies are simultaneously turning to digital talent marketplaces to address their biggest, and often most frustrating, barrier to success:  talent acquisition. 

They are realizing that it is not prudent, nor cost effective, to create new full-time employee roles to fill every talent need in their organization.  Rather, they can leverage highly skilled expert independent contractors, or freelancers, who have a proven track record of success, specialized expertise and a shorter learning curve. 

Need a technical project manager adept at Agile to guide your digital transformation?  Or, perhaps you are you seeking a PMO Strategic Advisor to help your team implement a new project office?  Maybe you are looking for a digital program manager to guide your new website launch?

Whatever your talent deficit, the ability to hire on-demand to fill that specific need is where digital platforms shine.  Hire the professional you need, when you need them, versus hiring a full-time employee to work on an indefinite number of projects for an unspecified duration of time. 

In a recent Forbes article, Larry English wrote, “Businesses that adopt an on-demand approach to talent will become more agile, innovative and productive while simultaneously unlocking a larger universe of minds working in their unique problems. They’ll also be less prone to chronic problems such as headcount creep, the global shortage of talent and what the World Economic Forum refers to as a “reskilling emergency” as jobs are rapidly transformed by technology.”

The Future of Work is On-Demand

Technology and digital platforms have transformed the way we book our travel accommodations, the way we hail rides and even the way we meet new romantic partners.  Alas, American businesses are realizing that we can leverage this same robust technology to resolve the painfully slow and time-consuming talent acquisition process.  It is a critical sector of our economy that is ripe for disruption.

Does your organization have a freelance talent acquisition strategy for 2022? 

Or, will you continue business as usual while your competition levels up and leaves you in the dust? 

The remote work experiment is over.  Remote and hybrid work are here to stay.  The next great test is whether we can change our old-school mindset to reap the time and cost benefits of a flexible, on-demand workforce. 

A Great Talent Sharing Experiment is underway! 

It’s time for us to stop spectating and to start realizing our fair share of the innumerable benefits.

Need expert freelance project, program or product managers today?  

TalentCheetah, Inc. is the first and only U.S. digital talent marketplace focused exclusively on project and product management. 

Leveraging our digital platform, we reduce the average time-to-hire for project talent from a deplorable 60-days to minutes. 

Our SmartMatch service is completely free for hiring organizations and you retain 100% control in the decision-making process. 

Hire an expert like Alan Zucker, Founding Principal of PM Essentials, available now to provide executive leadership training and advisory.  Or Brian Levy, President of BridgePort Digital, who specializes in leadership strategic advisory and Agile transformation. 

Looking for a PMO Advisor?  Jim Stewart, of JP Stewart Consulting, can help.  Or, perhaps you need a professional like Kaitlin Bleier, a PMP-certified Agile program manager and Scrum Master ready to guide your digital transformation.  No matter your project or product talent need, tactical or strategic, we have the right expert, right now.     

I leave you with a powerful sentiment from Tim Sanders, Vice President of Customer Insights at Upwork, “Agility is not a mindset. Agility is an organizational design issue. Until you change how you think about talent, you cannot truly be agile.”

Are you ready to change how you think about talent and supercharge your organization using a digital marketplace? 

Your competition is two steps ahead of you.  Post your Project to the TalentCheetah platform today and embrace this exciting and timely change, where everyone wins.

Let’s support one another through this labor market shake-up.  We are better and stronger together.

Help us increase our reach by sharing this blog on your social media feeds.  Interested in a free consultation?  Contact us anytime. 

Let's do this!

#FutureOfWork  #AgileTeams  #FreelancePM  #TalentCheetah  #ProjectSuccess  #HireOnDemand #GigEconomy  

References

1. Freelancing in America, Freelancers Union 2019.
2. Freelancers in the U.S. 2017-2028, Statista, September 2017.
3. Pandemic Epiphanies:  How the Great Resignation is Affecting America, The Battalion, Texas A&M, Caroline Wilburn, November 23, 2021.
4. 2021 was the year of the quit:  For 7 months, millions of workers have been leaving, Insider, Juliana Kaplan and Andy Kierz, December 8, 2021.
5. Will On-Demand Talent Be The Next Work Revolution? 3 Tips For Building A Freelance Talent Strategy, Forbes, Larry English, October 19, 2021.

About the Author

Rebecca Medina is the Founder and CEO of TalentCheetah, Inc.

She is a PMP® certified Project Executive with 25+ years of hands-on experience managing complex IT portfolios in the telecommunications, technology, and software industries.

After working as a full-time employee in Silicon Valley for two decades, she transitioned into independent consulting, doing business as Mobile Program Management. 

Since her transition to freelance work, she remains passionate about raising awareness and educating others on the intersection of the Gig Economy and Project Management. 

Interested in having Rebecca speak at your next PMI Chapter or business meeting?  Contact her directly at rebecca@talentcheetah.com