#94: Higher Contractor Usage, Example...Mina of Airbus, Challenges of Hiring Contractors
Covid catalyzed Contractor usage and post Covid means formalizing contractors into companies strategic workforce planning (wow that sounds corporate).
Leaders, think about the below picture of Luca.
In one sense, his neck should be hurting from the amount of force. This is the current chaos we all feel in the market - layoffs, inflation, etc
In another sense, because he left the comfort of the couch to go to the park, he gets to see a beautiful sunset.
Ready for the 🌽?
If we get into the arena, which for Luca was the park, and for us is embracing freelance applications, we can find the opportunities in this chaos.
*Also idk why, but this edition is going to be extra cheesy. Maybe it’s because we had such validation and good news related to the direction and speed of the freelance economy last week. Maybe because I finally got new shoes.
"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."
- Theodore Roosevelt
🚀 Pulse Check: Cloudy with a high chance of contractors
From a leader in one of the top 3 global consultancies:
“I think we are at the era of the biggest 1099 utilization. To the point that I’ve considered resigning my FTE position to go back to contracting.”
It’s not just them.
We’ve spoken with 7 enterprise leaders last week that highlighted:
Covid catalyzed the sheer volume of contractors needed.
But usage didn’t end when things went back to normal.
Instead…
The perception of contractors changed to equal or higher value talent. Gone are the days of contracting to go from temp to hire. Gone are the days of contractors to sub while someone is out.
Contractor processes formalized. Instead of being a reactive part of procurement, contractors in most cases are now included in strategic workforce planning.
Contractor retention is a priority, with investments in learning & development, onboarding, and employee training to work with contractors.
*YES, this creates classification risk.
🙌 Proof: Mina of Airbus ✈️
Airbus literally engaged a Formula One designer to create real life and custom graphics for each customer - how insanely cool is that?!?!
In Mina’s leader portal we’ll also cover:
Why Airbus Cares: Hint...Accessing 70m+ diverse experts
How Airbus Started: Hint...Finding changemakers within each function, then building a layer between employees and platforms so employees have a simple experience
Seeing the Future: Hint...an Amazon for talent (not in a way that commoditizes talent though!!!!!)
🤔 Preview: What's in the way of companies hiring freelancers?
Above is incredible news. But we’re still very early.
Yes…
90% of leaders are prioritizing our $5.4 trillion dollar industry
The value of access to specialized expertise, speed and cost efficiency are well defined
BUT hiring freelancers at scale is toughhhhh (I use too many h’s because the average time to a deal is 6-18 months, not because I’m Gen-Z).
In an upcoming article we’ll breakdown the 3 main challenges:
Risk
User Experience
Change Management
Stay tuned :)
Chart Of The Week - Statista, Number of freelancers in the United States from 2017 to 2028
“It is projected that in 2027, 86.5 million people will be freelancing in the United States and will make up 50.9 percent of the total U.S. workforce.” - Statista
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