How recruiters can take advantage of the growth of flexible working

Jo Faragher

There’s little doubt that the way we work is changing. Figures from the Office for National Statistics show that the proportion of people who are self-employed is higher than at any point in the past 40 years, while new legislation introduced this year opened up a right to request flexible working for all employees.

It’s long been the case that the ‘job for life’ is disappearing, but so too is the assumption that everyone wants to work in a traditional, predictable way. These days, people face all kinds of circumstances that make them want to work flexibly, whether these are family commitments, the chance to set up multiple businesses, or even just enjoy a work-life balance with the emphasis on ‘life’ rather than work.

This is certainly a trend that Xenios Thrasyvoulou has witnessed since he set up his freelance database, PeoplePerHour, in 2008.

“We can work where we want and when we want, anyone can set up a company in their bedroom,” he says.

“The technology tools you need to communicate are ubiquitous today – instant messaging, social media, being able to store data in the cloud – this makes all the difference.”

Huge potential

According to The Timewise Foundation, which operates a jobsite and a recruitment agency specialising in finding flexible opportunities, the potential market for this sort of work is huge, with the number of full-time workers who say they would like a more flexible job is 8.7million.

Furthermore, it estimates that there are more than 600,000 women in the UK who are classed as economically inactive – often who want to work but cannot, because they can’t find jobs with hours to suit.

Recruitment businesses like PeoplePerHour and Timewise want to help these sort of candidates find meaningful paid work that suits their existing commitments, while at the same time supporting employers to find skilled talent on an ad-hoc basis, without the bureaucracy and time involved in entering a long drawn-out recruitment process.

Candidates can offer their services in a way that might not be as acceptable in a more formal contract – for example doing creative work in the evenings, or handling customer enquiries from their home at a time to suit them. A start-up business setting up a website, for example, can look for someone who knows how to code, and equally be able to find someone to devise their web marketing strategy at the same time.

“It’s more flexible for employers this way – they can test whether someone is right within a couple of hours’ work, and give them more if they like what they do,” argues Thrasyvoulou.

Structural changes

And because there’s a mutual understanding that the job is short-term, or on an as-and-when basis, there is less need for formal contracts and in most cases, the freelancer won’t acquire formal employee status so does not receive the same entitlements as permanent staff.

The CIPD recently highlighted this growing desire to bring workers on board in more flexible ways in its HR: Getting Smart About Agile Working report. Not only did more than a third of workers express a desire to change their working arrangements, over half of employers said that using atypical working arrangements allowed them to manage fluctuations in demand.

Research adviser at the CIPD Ksenia Zheltoukhova says becoming more flexible could be “a real opportunity for HR professionals to make a strategic contribution to organisational agility”. However, to do this, many will need a complete re-think into how their business and consequently hiring is organised.

She says: “They should seize the opportunity to break out of existing stifling structures, re-write the rulebook and experiment with small pilot projects that disprove suspicions and demonstrate a clear business case for flexible working.”

Niche skills

Recruitment agencies, of course, have long been used to offering temporary opportunities. But what does this ‘hyper-flexible’ labour market mean for them?

For recruiters, an increasing appetite from employers to bring workers in on a more ad-hoc basis could be both a threat and an opportunity. On the one hand, freelance jobsites offer vast databases of willing talent available at the drop of a hat. On the other, agencies can offer a ‘value-add’ by having a broader view on their specific skills market and by making sure that workers are pre-screened and background checked.

Furthermore, short-term freelance staff tend to form just one part of a company’s recruitment mix. Being able to assemble a team quickly for a project you wouldn’t normally have the skills for is one thing, but sustaining growth and market share in the long-term requires a certain level of workforce stability, particularly at the senior end. And this is where ‘traditional’ recruitment agency can help.

Thrasyvoulou argues that the value of sites like PeoplePerHour comes in supporting smaller, start-up companies with recruiting talent – those that might normally hire someone via word of mouth and can’t afford to retain the services of an agency. Around two-thirds of the 600,000 people on the PeoplePerHour database have some sort of digital experience, many of them highly specialised, and these are niche skills that would be difficult to source elsewhere.

Future implications

That said, as the economy continues to recover, the market for freelance workers is likely to become tougher, according to Gabe Miano, vice president of product management at US freelancer management site OnForce. He predicts that while the need for freelance or ad-hoc work will continue to grow throughout 2015, more ‘full-time’ or ‘traditional’ workers will seek changes to the way they work, so we’ll see more of these people entering the market for flexible work.

For employers, this is positive because it simply means more choice. Recruitment businesses that respond to this growing trend to work in a more agile way should enjoy the rewards, but must never lose sight of the bigger picture.

Employers will always need a range of skills – working in a range of ways – in order to succeed.