#93: Impact of Recession? Time to Bring In Freelance Talent. With Stats To Send To Leadership.
The convo has shifted to cost savings, and there's 33 million freelancers ready to take on the work with at least 10-30% cost savings.
Leaders, we know it’s rough with layoffs and the hiring freeze.
If you feel like “they’re using the recession as an excuse” you’re not alone.
But it’s not going away, and it can actually be an incredible opportunity for your business.
Let’s talk :)
What’s the impact of recession? It should be an opportunity.
Last week hit especially hard with the below contradiction:
Everyone has a freeze.
Everyone is using the word recession for an excuse to not move.
Everyone recognizes that the work still needs to get done, but getting work done through employees is off the table.
So shouldn’t these same people be embracing freelancers?
Yes, BUT.
The Value Prop Has Shifted To Cost Efficiency
The value prop of the freelance economy fluctuates between access to talent, speed to talent, and cost savings.
In good times, it’s about access, speed and quality. In bad times, it’s about cost efficiency.
Your new ‘why freelancers slide’ should include:
Freelance talent is a cost cutting way to get things done.
There will be at least 10-30% immediate cost savings per role.
There will be long term cost efficiencies in reducing talent needs from months to weeks.
Data You Need To Support This
The freelance economy is a $5.4 trillion dollar market (SIA)
33 million people performed contingent work in the US last year (SIA), 86.5 MIL. Of the US workforce will be independent freelancers by 2027 (STATISTA)
90% of leaders are prioritizing independent workers (HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW)
60% of executives say they will substantially replace full time employees with independent workers in the next 3 years (MERCER)
Quotes
“Moving say a $100,000 average contractor that has a 40% markup to a talent platform with a 10-15% overhead cost would be game changing for many firms”
“don't have any cultural barriers, any technology barriers, any regional barriers, any political barriers, to be able to tap the best talent anywhere at your fingertips, the amount of innovation that that can lead to is profound, right?”
“With the power of the Human Cloud, you can create, innovate, and invent whole new products and markets for your ideas.”
Daniel Pink, #1 New York Times Bestselling Author of When and Drive
🙌 Stripe CEO for his direct, honest layoff announcement
Bad news sucks. Unfortunately as leaders our job is defined by how we give bad news.
We believe that Patrick Collison, CEO of Stripe, did an incredible job at delivering the bad news.
What we love:
transparency and accountability
educating their market view right away
forever resources like large discounts and alumni.stripe.com emails
What would make it better? If they had embraced internal marketplaces and avoided layoffs all together.
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