Why You Need a New CFO Now

Did you know that 20% of the work in your business is probably being carried out by freelancers? This number is only set to increase, according to recent Fiverr Business Solutions research. By 2027, the freelance workforce will outsize the full-time workforce in the US.

Businesses must adapt to operate effectively during this shift. Skilled freelance staff help forward-looking companies achieve business goals, benefit from technology evolving at lightning speed, build organizational resiliency and balance existing employee workload, while filling skills gaps in an erratic labor market.

However, many freelancers are being let down by the businesses that hire them. Despite recognizing the value of and need for independent workers to complement full time staff, most companies are failing to use freelancers effectively or take full advantage of their potential.

Poor management is to blame

45% of companies lack a comprehensive strategy for engaging freelancers, according to the Fiverr Business Solutions research, carried out with Harvard Business Analytic Services.

This means that sourcing, hiring, and oversight of freelance workers is left in the hands of individual teams and managers, often leading to a lack of coordination and glaring inefficiencies.

Many managers struggle with assessing skills gaps to be filled before sourcing talent, meaning independent workers are often set up to fail from the start. Others create tensions with HR leadership by hiring freelancers covertly to get around company policies, meaning that great talent cannot be recommended internally or recognized for their contributions.

Computer scientists use the phrase "Garbage In, Garbage Out," (GIGO) to explain that bad input data leads to bad output data. The GIGO concept applies to team management too. A poorly managed team, regardless of the staffing mix, will ultimately yield poor results. Managers are missing out on the complete value of their freelance teams by not managing them effectively.

Add to this the negative impact of a bad employee experience, a concrete reality for many freelancers. A lack of proper onboarding, tech or compliance support, and zero recognition are just a few of the situations that quickly lead to dissatisfied employees, decreased productivity and ultimately, damaged company reputation. Every element of the freelance employee experience needs to be rethought.

Meet the Chief Freelance Officer

Enter the Chief Freelance Officer, a leader charged with overseeing and organizing freelancers throughout an organization.

This new CFO implements talent strategies to integrate a freelance workforce while thinking about the totality of their experience at the company.

They focus on attracting top freelance talent, a factor that is overlooked with the assumption that freelance workers will take whatever is offered to them. The opposite is true. They have in-demand skills and the choice of where, and with whom they work. This talent will ignore, or reject, those businesses that don’t create a welcoming, hospitable, successful environment for them.

They help managers shift mindsets to assess skills gaps properly, while understanding and overseeing independent workers more effectively. They champion processes and technology that provide greater control over hiring, management, payment, and compliance while bringing more efficiency to the freelance workforce.

Making the new CFO a reality

The Chief Freelance Officer will revolutionize how skills gaps are filled and independent workers are integrated across organizations, building adaptive businesses that will be successful for many years to come. They should become every business’s secret weapon.

Yet 78% of organizations have not even considered the Chief Freelance Officer as a critical role, according to the HBR research.

The time is now to change that number.

We no longer have the same workforce we had in the 1950’s. We need to reimagine the way we work and the skills we need, if we are to meet the world’s most interesting and complex problems head on.