News summary November
Wondering what the freelance trends are of the moment? Discover them below!
Hiring freelancers, should I consider statutes?
According to a study by Acerta, in 2018, nearly 30% of the 140,000 freelancers surveyed made the move from secondary to main occupation. This means that these freelancers switched to a status where they only work on projects on an independent basis. When someone decides to become self-employed, that person has the choice of doing so in a main job or a secondary job. While for freelancers in main occupation their self-employment is their main or only occupation, freelancers in secondary occupation do so in addition to their activity as wage earners or civil servants. A survey by Unizo and Graydon also shows that the number of freelancers in main occupation exceeds the number in secondary occupation. A large majority, namely 88.2% of the freelancers they surveyed, are active as self-employed in main occupation.
As a principal, should you then take that into account?
Whether or not a freelancer performs his self-employed activities as a main occupation has little or no direct impact on clients. The only impact that is relevant to the client is the availability of the freelancer in question. It goes without saying that a freelancer in secondary employment has less availability given that he is also active as a wage earner/officer.
Satisfaction with freelancers
Mutual respect, trust & equality, freelancers' expertise and flexibility. These are the main factors that determine the satisfaction of freelancers according to Unizo's freelancer focus report. These factors were also previously confirmed from our own research (see graph).Our Ivox study found that 9 out of 10 companies working with freelancers are satisfied with the collaboration. Clients from the freelancer focus give the collaboration a 3.5/5.
Number of freelancers is on the rise
You're already working with freelancers? Top, then you clearly have a step ahead. In fact, research by the self-employed organization Unizo shows that Flanders and Brussels together have 167,655 freelancers. That is an increase of 6.3 percent compared to last year. But what does this mean for future recruitment? In our tight labor market, more and more permanent employees will opt for the self-employed status, as a result of which the number of available permanent staff will continue to decrease. Hiring freelancers will therefore become an even more important opportunity for the human resources within your company.
