In news that falls under the ‘tell us something we don’t already know’ category, it’s believed employers will see worker flexibility as an asset in the future.
Any freelancer or umbrella company contractor worth his or her salt already knows that flexibility and resiliency is the key to being a valuable asset to clients, and this has been the case for not just the years following the economic downturn that saw a surge in contract working. Indeed, anyone with any experience in the temporary workforce knows that being able to work whenever and wherever a prospective client wants and needs will see you being chosen first when it comes to new projects as they come down the pipeline.
Meanwhile, the rest of the British employment community is finally beginning to catch contractors up when it comes to this amazing revelation. New research from Right Management discovered that the lion’s share of employers believe that most of their employees will be replaced by umbrella contractors or temporary freelance personnel by 2020, simply because these types of workers are so much more flexible than traditional employees.
This spells good news for those already with a good deal of experience as an interim worker under their belt now, as the next six years will likely see demand for their services blossom and grow in a major way – or at least until more permanent workers begin to transition to contract working instead in order to remain competitive. And I think this is something that is definitely going to happen – especially since workers need to either adapt to the new marketplace or end up perishing. The pressure to keep working will motivate droves of permanent workers to take up freelancing, and as soon as this new wave of contract workers hits the marketplace demand will likely drop off a bit as supply spikes.
Then again, with the skills shortage currently ravaging British businesses, there may still be enough vacancies that the new supply of freelancers might not affect demand that sharply. Either way we’ll have to simply wait and see – whatever happens, just be glad if you’re already a contractor now and don’t have to face transitioning later with everyone else!
