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Young employees were considered “unprofessional and hard to work with” by companies when quizzed on why they were opting to hire older freelancers.
Older freelancers are sweeping up job roles with companies that are opting to turn towards experience over younger workers to fill employment gaps. According to the recent State of Freelance Work Report conducted by Remote, 91 per cent of companies have maintained (39 per cent) or increased (52 per cent) their use of freelancers over the last three years.
The roles that older freelancers are most in demand depend on the region. For example, in the US, independent contractors over the age of 55 are being offered a number of consulting and advisory roles across the financial industry. Whereas across Europe, the technical and creative sectors are opting towards older workers.
In terms of which particular sector is hiring the most freelancers of any age, the engineering and IT sector is leading – with 37 per cent of companies seeking external workers.
Overall, of the companies surveyed, 45 per cent noted an increase in the number of freelancers hired who were aged 55 and over. Forty-three per cent of respondents claimed that they turned towards older workers due to younger talent being “unprofessional and hard to work with.”
Despite the uptick in hiring freelance workers, many organisations globally fail to have the appropriate systems in place to ensure that they are adequately cared for during their tenure.
According to the report, 40 per cent of freelancers believe they have been misclassified in terms of their employment type by the organisation. Another major issue is that 85 per cent of freelancers surveyed have had their invoices paid late on occasion.
This could be caused by 49 per cent of all companies surveyed relying on in-house tools and systems, such as manual payroll systems that often mismanage invoices causing either underpayments or missed payments altogether.
“The use of freelance staff is a global phenomenon, and all the evidence points to numbers increasing in the coming years,” said Remote’s Pedro Barros, SVP, general manager, contractors.
“However, many companies do not have the structure, process, or tools to manage their freelance staff effectively, leading not only to issues for businesses but also for freelancers, who are relying on being classified, managed and paid correctly and on time.”
Kace O'Neill
Kace O'Neill is a Graduate Journalist for HR Leader. Kace studied Media Communications and Maori studies at the University of Otago, he has a passion for sports and storytelling.
