This Center for the Transformation of Work meeting highlights informative research on the freelance talent marketplace with Forrester, Freelancer Club and MBO Partners.
Presenters:
Ted Schadler // Vice President & Principal Analyst at Forrester
Research: The Freelance Talent Marketplace Landscape, Q1 2022
Matt Dowling // Founder at Freelancer Club
Research: Freelancer Club reports on Ethical Hiring and No Free Work
Steve King // Emergent Research (representing MBO Partners)
Research: The Contingent Labor Imperative: How Agile Enterprises Succeed in a Modern Workforce Model
T0 register for a free CTW individual membership click here, and you’ll receive calendar invites to future meetings.
Chat Room Transcript:
00:10:00 Vijay Jonnalagadda: Hey Folks, i am going to be a passive participant today. Busy preparing dinner for family
00:11:22 Allan Martinson: Sorry – I need to keep my audio muted for some minutes, I am in commute. Hi everyone, I am the CEO of Xolo, a freelancer business admin platform with 130,000 people signed up in Europe. We cover everything from invoicing to expense mgt to accounting and tax filing in multiple countries.
00:13:08 Dean Bosche: Great to see you Chuck!
00:13:16 Chuck Young: always brother
00:13:38 Arthur Ransier: Great to chat with you @John Hurter — happy to continue the conversation
00:14:47 John Hurter: Same @Arthur Ransier! will follow-up.
00:15:50 CTW: New comers and OGs >> Feel free to put your contact info here!
00:20:15 Ana Kramarenko: Nice to meet you all here! Let’s connect https://www.linkedin.com/in/ana-elena-kramarenko/
00:20:35 Mike Owcarz: Don’t we all Dean. 🙂
00:22:22 Elizabeth Eiss – ResultsResourcing: Elizabeth Eiss, Founder & CEO ResultsResourcing The freelance job platform that comes with your own recruiter. Focus: solopreneurs & SMB eeiss@resultsresourcing.com https://www.resultsresourcing.net/
00:22:38 John Hurter: Hi All! Love this group and movement! Please feel free to join FTE Show conversations you are interested to learn & connect with others. https://www.fte.network/
00:22:47 Steve King: We regularly hire freelance writers – looking forward to checking out Power Publsihing
00:22:58 Peter McPartlin: Hi all, it’s Peter from The Indie List – a freelance marketing place for Marketing Services & related tech talent catering for the Irish market. We’re all about helping freelancers to earn, learn & connect.www.indielist.ie
00:23:05 Dan Curran: Nice to meet everyone! Dan@Powerpublish.io.
00:23:13 CTW: Ted Schadler // Vice President & Principal Analyst at Forrester Research: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tedschadler/
00:23:40 CTW: Steve King // Emergent Research (representing MBO Partners)https://www.linkedin.com/in/steveking2/
00:24:10 CTW: Matt Dowling // Founder at Freelancer Club: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dowlingmatthew/
00:24:53 CTW: The Freelance Talent Marketplace Landscape, Q1 2022: https://www.forrester.com/report/the-freelance-talent-marketplace-landscape-q1-2022/RES177067
00:25:53 Dean Bosche: By chance I will be in Dallas at SIA’s CWS/GigEconomy September 19-22. If you are an entrepreneur just getting started in the Freelance space I’d like to pay it forward: I’m happy to share my experience building a $XB business in this space from my life past (Toptal). Just ping me at dean@bosche.net.
00:27:08 Melisa Liberman: Hi all, I’m excited to be here and to uncover more resources to share with my IC business owner clients. I’m a business coach for independent consultants, helping them scale their businesses to sustainable, profitable engines. I’m also the host of the Grow Your Independent Consulting Business podcast. https://www.linkedin.com/in/melisa-liberman/
00:28:03 John Healy: thrilled to have you here @Melisa
00:28:24 Dean Bosche: Use of the word “Offshore” – My feeling is we should remove this from our vernacular. Who’s shore? Especially as US/North American talent migrate around the world this term no longer makes sense. It can actually be a bit denigrating given it’s historical use to describe ‘cheap generic labour’.
00:28:50 Bondili, Balaji: Dean, great point.
00:29:22 Bondili, Balaji: Offshore is a proxy for low cost. Where you sit shouldn’t matter, what you can do should matter.
00:29:50 Omri Dekalo: Nice to meet you all! would love to connect:
00:29:56 Omri Dekalo: https://www.linkedin.com/in/omridekalo/
00:29:58 Anand Karasi: Nice to meet you all https://www.linkedin.com/in/anandkarasi/
00:30:45 Dan Curran: https://www.linkedin.com/in/currandan/
00:31:41 Chuck Young: My career goal is to unlock the enterprise for talent platforms. 83% of spend in the US is in the enterprise. I would love to connect with you. Chuck Young https://www.linkedin.com/in/withinward/
00:32:20 Chris “Link” Duarte: Thank you for the plug Steve!
00:32:25 CTW: The Contingent Labor Imperative: How Agile Enterprises Succeed in a Modern Workforce Model:https://www.mbopartners.com/state-of-independence/contingent-labor-report/
00:33:57 Chris “Link” Duarte: If you are interested in joining CTW’s monthly call about all things Advocacy in the Future of Work, please join us. The CTW Advocacy group lifts the voices of workers in the future of work space. Link to register: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUscuusqj4jH922h0Ad_-BA0aoOcqIQ5X2R
00:34:30 Chris “Link” Duarte: If you would like to connect and learn more, please feel free to reach out https://www.linkedin.com/in/linkdreams/
00:36:10 Christian Faires: Thanks everyone – sadly need to jump on a client call so will look out for the video recording. Another great session 🙂
00:36:12 Bondili, Balaji: Was there a ratio of that 28% of contingent on the slide before that is marketplaces?
00:36:36 Bondili, Balaji: share of marketplaces of contingent.
00:39:42 Arthur Ransier: More a comment than anything, I wonder how much variance exists between actual freelance/marketplace talent used versus known or reported to HR (those surveyed)
00:40:08 Bondili, Balaji: They make money as fees from freelancers to be a part of and to market themselves, so they have a prerogative to serve the freelancers as well.
00:40:10 Chuck Young: the economics behind coming a true community are not there in the contingent space yet. Procurement keeps things tight.
00:40:18 Henry Crabtree – Wazoku: at Wazoku, we’re launching a dedicated community platform for our open talent to upskill and foster togetherness!
00:40:18 Chris “Link” Duarte: Absolutely! the emergence of team collaborative tools is exponential right now….the challenge is all the hidden costs that are put on freelancers
00:40:31 Arthur Ransier: Small freelance projects (think Fiverr) can fall into discretionary company card/charge center funds and may never go through a centralized POC
00:40:45 Torsten Kriedt – Solesa Venture Services: Do you get the impression that the increase in use of contingent labour is to the detriment of agencies/consultancies or instead of using employed workers?
00:41:38 Chuck Young: I think it actually benefits agencies. More spend, more business.
00:41:47 Allan Martinson: https://www.linkedin.com/in/allanmartinson/
00:42:10 CTW: Freelancer Club: https://freelancerclub.net/
00:42:31 Chris “Link” Duarte: EX: one platform offered project management platform for teams at $10 a month then when the free trial runs out, they reveal it’s $10 per user- minimum 5 users billed annually at $800. For a freelancer, these kind of memberships and added features can become very expensive- there are “hidden costs” of freelancing which concern me- this may deter freelancers from making it a career choice
00:43:39 Arthur Ransier: Perhaps more than anything, the growth of platforms — as reported by HR — tells us that it’s gaining traction as a *preferred and trusted* source of talent
00:43:39 Chris “Link” Duarte: Awesome Matt!
00:46:00 CTW: No Free Work: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dXc3LFn9AiEb8RJQxxFfcPDfg4cHH8mo/view?usp=sharing
00:46:26 Chris “Link” Duarte: If I had a nickel for every time a company wanted me to provide my specialty for free, I could retire….
00:46:42 John Hurter: lol. exactly
00:47:44 Virginie Glaenzer, NYC: People tell themselves nice stories to justify not being valued. 😉
00:48:52 Chris “Link” Duarte: Companies will ask that freelancers “prove themselves” and demonstrate they can handle the work, then they will be hired….Freelancers, with the promise, will work and “prove” themselves and their ideas and work stolen. It’s a shame
00:49:04 Chris Kneeland: It’s easy to be critical of freelancers agreeing to do free work, or companies requesting it, but the reality is most RFP processes for most services involve dozens, if not hundreds, of hours of non-compensated work and yet RFP’s remain the industry norm for hiring many professional services
00:50:40 Steve King: The Contingent Labor Imperative Study can be found at https://www.mbopartners.com/state-of-independence/contingent-labor-report/
00:51:02 Chris “Link” Duarte: DEI is also not integrated in every level of companies- it’s usually siloed in one department
00:51:22 Bondili, Balaji: I like unbiased. great idea.
00:51:44 CTW: Unbiasd mode!! 💥
00:52:43 Chris “Link” Duarte: I think the worker should be able to decide whether there is “bias” though. What if they specialize in race or LGBTQ and they want the company to know they identify that way….an unbias algorithm will ignore their personal experience….there should be a way for workers to self select
00:52:44 Ted Schadler: Thanks, all. If you want to reach me directly I’m at tschadler@forrester.com
00:54:28 Logan Wilmont: fantastic matt, thank you
00:56:36 John Healy: state of Vermont, city of Tulsa, Oklahoma…
00:56:57 Mike Owcarz: I have a husband and wife design team on Braintrust that live/work in the Cook Islands and are able to support the West Coast of the US. Incredible Location to live and work…
00:57:14 Torsten Kriedt – Solesa Venture Services: https://sifted.eu/articles/digital-nomad-europe-villages/
00:59:16 Chris “Link” Duarte: Great question
01:00:09 Chris “Link” Duarte: In the LGBTQ+ world, we see that more than 30% of LGBTQ+ freelancers identify in the creator work world
01:00:46 Ashley, UntapSocial: Putting in a plug for a free, virtual event all October long for freelancing looking for best practices, to grow and scale, and for companies looking for guidance on how to work best with freelancers. A bunch of our friends on here will be speaking! John Healy will be keynoting with Albert @ Underpinned, Link, Mina from Airbus, etc. Please send this link to ONE person you think would benefit from attending 🙂 https://freelancebusiness.eu/events/freelance-business-month/
01:00:51 Jon Younger: What a great session! Thanks so much John, Ted, Steve, and Matt! All the best to Indian friends for Ganesha Day!
01:01:52 Chris “Link” Duarte: Except the govt thinks that freelancers are exploiting and skipping out on taxes. When I hear, “I am from the govt and I am here to help” I run the other direction
01:03:04 Ray Wolf: We are seeing healthcare companies adopting an aggressive freelancer approach with hiring clinicians.
01:03:09 CTW: https://directory.transformationofwork.org/
01:03:18 Steve Rader: Thanks all. Always great info and discussion!!
01:03:28 CTW: https://freelancebusiness.eu/events/freelance-business-month/
01:04:04 Dan Curran: Thank you! Great discussion.
01:04:04 Elizabeth Eiss – ResultsResourcing: Thank you! Great call, as always.
01:04:06 hannahyoung: Thanks everyone! 🙂
01:04:08 Arthur Ransier: Thank you!
01:04:10 Melisa Liberman: Thanks!
01:04:15 Emily Klein: Thank you!
