21 Apr Flexible Work Is The Future; Here’s How To Go About It
You may have heard the term “flexible work”. It can represent the type of schedule you work (i.e. part-time, compressed, flexible hours, alternative hours, job sharing, partial year appointment, phased retirement, etc.) as well as the location you work from (100% telecommute/remote or partial telecommute/remote work). For obvious work-life balance reasons, this is popular with employees as well as freelancers, entrepreneurs, travelers and digital nomads.
Luckily, opportunities for employed people to work remotely (telecommute) has increased over the past decade.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, “24% of employed people did some of all of their work at home in 2015.” That percentage was even higher for workers in management, business, financial operations and professional occupations, at roughly 35%-38% doing some or all of their work from home.
FlexJobs completed their annual analysis of jobs listed on their site and as part of that, captured how remote job listings have grown. “Remote job listings increased 11% from 2015 to 2016, and 52% in the last two years, signaling sustained and solid growth in remote job listings.”
Another emerging work pattern shows a trend towards freelance, temp, and on-demand work.
According to research from two economists, Lawrence F. Katz of Harvard University and Alan B. Krueger of Princeton University, who are both former chief economists at the Department of Labor, there is a significant increase in alternative work arrangements for U.S. workers, from 10.1% in early 2005 to 15.8% in late 2015. Alternative work arrangements are defined as temporary help agency workers, on-call workers, contract workers, and independent contractors or freelancers.
Additionally, as the U.S. Department of Labor’s blog points out, “Krueger’s and Katz’s findings suggest that alternative work arrangements represent more than 15% of the labor market − and that they account for between 80%-100% of the net employment growth since 2005.”
It doesn’t end here. There are incredible predictions for the future of flexible work.
According to an infographic produced by FlexJobs:
— “68% of U.S. workers say, in the future, they expect to work remotely instead of commute to an office every day.”
— “41% of non-independent workers say they expect to become independent workers in the next year, and 53% say they expect to become independent workers within the next 5 years.”
The Intuit 2020 Report indicates that “in the U.S., the number of contingent employees (freelancers, temps, part-time, contractors and other specialists hired on a nonpermanent basis) will exceed 40% of the workforce by 2020.”
Why Flexible Work Should Be More Popular
I can list a dozen reasons why flexible and telecommuting/remote work should be more popular for both employees AND employers.
But let’s just start with some of the main reasons:
— reduces employee time spent commuting, as well as the resources/energy to do so
— provides more flexibility and work-life balance for employees
— employers might use their telecommuting policy as a way to retain talented employees who may otherwise need to change jobs (for instance, they might move) or stop working (possibly due to schedule conflicts, parenting or desire to travel)
— allows for a wider talent pool. Employers have the ability to hire top talent, including workers in other regions and gain more daily coverage hours (employees spread across time zones or working alternative hours)
— potentially reduces overhead costs for employers
— Gallup’s workplace research shows that employees who spend at least some time working remotely are more likely to be engaged in their jobs than those who never work remotely
That sounds pretty beneficial, right?! So you might be thinking, what options exist?
Seeking Flexible Work
As we briefly touched on in the ‘Reshape the American Dream To Fit Your Desires’ post, there are a variety of ways in which you can seek remote or flexible work:
— You can ask your current employer for permission to work a flexible schedule or to telecommute a few days a week. When you’ve proven to be successful in doing so, you could seek to telecommute full-time.
— Alternatively, you can look for a new job that is a telecommute/remote position or with a company that offers flexible work arrangements.
— Or, you can plan a departure from the corporate workforce altogether, to become a freelancer or an entrepreneur. As an entrepreneur, you can even build a company with a remote workforce.
What Can You Do To Prepare Yourself To Pursue This Path?
A great starting point, in our opinion, is to begin by taking a self-assessment. This will allow you to learn more about your own talents and preferences. The results will help you determine what roles might be complementary for you, how you might handle a remote work environment, and how equipped you may be in order to become a freelancer or entrepreneur. And if you’ve taken one or more previously, it’s still helpful to take again if some time has passed. It’s possible your interests and skills may have changed.
Here are a handful of popular assessment tools:
Plum Talent Assessment – A tool that assesses your talents and personality through a series of different testing segments. It provides an overview, professional advice, and guidance on interview & position questions you should ask to determine if a job is a good fit for you. Plum also offers a summarized profile that you can make public and share an URL link. The tool is currently free for job seekers. If you’re building a business and seeking talent, you can purchase a plan to offer the assessment to candidates. It seems like a small price to pay to help you build a qualified and complementary team.
Gallup Strengths Finder 2.0 – This assessment identifies your natural talents and provides you with descriptions of your talent themes and ideas for action. That includes asking you questions to help apply your talents and examples of real people that match your talent themes. The goal being, to turn your top talents into strengths.
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) – A personality type assessment that assigns you a personality code. Based on your type, you are provided with insight on how that applies to your career choice, work, and team environments.
The Strong Interest Inventory – A self-assessment tool that evaluates your interest theme(s) via your responses and produces an RIASEC Code (‘Holland Code’). Based on this, it details how your specific interests and preferences link to various industries, jobs, and work environments.
*the MBTI and Strong assessments are both provided by Myers-Briggs and can be purchased as a bundle for less than $20
Next, consider how the marketplace is changing…
Are you familiar with the tools/platforms remote workers utilize to communicate with their teams and track projects?
Or, if you’re seeking a new job, how do you compare to your competition? Do you need to brush up on your skills in order to become a top candidate in the job pool?
Finally, have you updated your LinkedIn profile and resume to be in-line with current standards?
What If You Want To Consider Freelancing?
If you want to become a freelancer, there are many angles you need to examine.
Here’s a small sampling of key questions you will want to ask yourself:
— What roles/functions/skills are in demand now and what might the future trends be? How can you apply your strengths to address those needs?
— Will you be an expert in one particular function or full-stack within a focus area?
— Do you need to brush up on your skills?
— Do you already have client prospects or will you need to join freelance networks and apply for contract positions?
— How will you price out your work?
— What is your worst-case income and how does it impact your budget?
— Can you afford to live where you currently are? Or if you’re planning to be a digital nomad, where can you afford to travel/live?
— What equipment will you need to work successfully?
— What working environment and hours allow you to do your best work?
I hope you’re still with me after that battery of questions. But don’t fret, there are SO MANY free resources available to help you forge this new path!
Freelance and Entrepreneurial Resources
As freelancers and entrepreneurs ourselves, we’ve been collecting relevant inputs and tools from various sources we’ve encountered. In an effort to help you succeed, we want to share them with you for guidance.
Here we’ve compiled a whole slew of resources for you…
An article on freelancer trends in 2017.
A list of the top 100 companies hiring for freelance jobs in 2017.
Here’s an opinion piece on the top areas of freelance work in 2017.
This is a wonderful resource to help you actually go freelance.
You can use these sites to promote yourself/find work as a freelancer:
Upwork – the world’s largest network of freelancers and freelance jobs covering an array of job categories and short- or long-term projects.
LinkedIn Profinder – connects freelancers with high quality leads based on their LinkedIn profile/expertise and keywords. Then, freelancers can decide whether to submit a proposal to bid for the project. Clients can rely on choice (receiving 5 proposals per each project) and access to the freelancers’ LinkedIn profiles.
People Per Hour – a platform for freelancers with web project-related skills, such as design, web development, content marketing, digital and social marketing.
Apply to join these exclusive freelance networks:
Upwork Pro – a premium option for top freelancers and exclusive clients. Freelancers are vetted through a process which includes an application, skills assessment, and an interview. Only those that successfully pass all of these stages are accepted.
Cloud Peeps – a platform catering specifically to freelancer marketers and the businesses and startups that are seeking them.
Toptal – an exclusive network of the top 3% of freelance talent globally, in the software development, design, and finance industries.
You can use these sites to search for telecommute/remote work with employers, as well as some freelance opportunities:
FlexJobs – a service that screens and lists all types of flexible jobs (telecommute, freelance and part-time) across 55 career categories. Anyone can view the available jobs. However, you can only apply if you’re a member, paying a fee of $14.95 a month. You will also be required to participate in a vetting process.
remote.co – a remote work resource that lists remote/telecommute jobs in numerous fields of work.
remote OK – a service by Nomad List that lists jobs for digital nomads in the areas of software development, customer support, marketing, and design & UX.
The Remote Work Lifestyle
Once you’ve lined up your remote work, think about the opportunities that exist to change up your work environment, as well as where you’re living.
If funds allow, it could be a good experience for you to try a co-working space occasionally or full-time. There you’ll meet like-minded freelancers and entrepreneurs, maybe even gain a little inspiration through exposure. You can use coworker.com and placestowork.com to source places to work from.
Are you planning to be a digital nomad? If so, consider living in a location that is an established digital nomad/expat hub. Check out Nomad List for the best cities to live and work remotely. Maybe co-living and co-working interests you, if so, check out coliving.com.
For additional tools, check out our post, The Ultimate Resource for Entrepreneurs and Freelancers
Interested in entrepreneurship? Check out our thoughts on the subject and how to examine if it’s the right course for you in our post, Thoughts on Entrepreneurship; Is it Right for You?
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If you’re already working remotely, what’s working well for you?
We welcome your comments!
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*This post includes dozens of resource links, for which we have no affiliation.
We will always disclose if a post includes affiliate links. When it does, it is thoughtful — a product or service we use and recommend. And the commission earned will help keep this site up and running.
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