Beyond the office walls: large corporations increasingly hiring freelancers

Jorge ‘Jojy’ Azurin of Freelancer.com talks about the ‘new world of work’ during the 2014 Philippine SoftCon.

Gone are the days when the word “freelancer” was synonymous with “unemployed” or “can’t land a job.”

Freelancers today are the complete opposite of the stereotypes we carry about in our heads – they are experienced professionals with sought-after skill sets and worthy track records that allow them to dictate the terms of their career.

They’re great at what they do, and they only get better as flexibility affords them to refine their skills and even acquire new ones.

Freelancers are now a thriving force that is changing the way businesses hire.

While small and medium businesses have largely tapped into this pool of human resource, Jorge “Jojy” Azurin, Freelancer.com’s regional director for continental Asia, spotted a new trend: large companies are increasingly embracing freelancers, too.

“Large companies are starting to hire freelancers. There will be more and more freelancers at enterprises,” he told the audience of the 2014 Philippine SoftCon held in the Philippines’ Makati business district this week.

Noel Mendoza, Hewlett-Packard’s director for Apps Services (Philippines and Asia-Pacific), backed Azurin’s statement. “Freelancing is a very interesting space that large vendors or companies are very closely monitoring. It’s a growing base of skills,” he said during one of the forum’s panel discussions.

On the sidelines of the forum, Mendoza told Tech in Asia that there are in fact, large corporations that are “starting to experiment and leverage this community. In the next year or two, we’ll see a lot more work being extended by large corporations to freelancers.”

Going beyond the office walls

Mendoza said hiring freelancers isn’t new to corporations. “They are what we call consultants.” Yet, he said corporations are used to dealing only with a handful of consultants at a time. “If you’re talking about thousands of people, we’re not equipped to deal with them.”

The hurdle lies in terms of getting these consultants organized and making sure they can deliver. Mendoza explained, “It’s very hard to deal with many, many people and be assured of the quality of work.”

Administrative-wise, it’s also problematic, especially when it comes to billing. Unlike the normal setup where corporations maintain a payroll system for employees, freelancers are paid individually and manually, which takes time.

This is also a common complaint of freelancers dealing with corporations, according to Azurin. “There are inefficiencies in the finance and accounting departments, resulting in frustration among freelancers.”