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The rise of tech freelancers

The rise of tech freelancers
Independent IT workers make up a significant part of the workforce with the rise of tech freelancers. And their numbers are growing exponentially.

Not that long ago, freelancing was a somewhat mysterious concept reserved for a few lucky ones and the creative types. Nowadays, independent workers make up a significant part of the workforce with the rise of tech freelancers. And their numbers are growing exponentially. This is especially true in IT, where skill shortages and the constant need for IT professionals across all industries provide the perfect conditions for a freelance lifestyle.   

We take a look at the factors propelling (and hindering) this transformation.  

A new office environment

This rise in freelancing is in large part due to the generational shift in the workplace.

By the end of 2020, millennials will have caught up with Generation X, with each making up 35% of the world’s labour. At the same time, those born after 1997 (Gen Z) will have established a solid foothold in the workplace with 25% of the total.

A recent survey of more than 7,000 freelancers in over 150 countries revealed that a staggering 70% of independent workers are under the age of 35. Those younger than 25 represent 21% of the total.   

This new workforce configuration is introducing important changes, from corporate culture to salary expectations or how teams operate. Considering that, by 2025, millennials will represent three-quarters of all employees and many of them will be in managerial positions, these new standards will have a big impact on recruitment moving forward. Concepts like flexible schedules, hypermobility and freelancing are becoming more ubiquitous and sought after.

Want to become an IT freelancer/contractor?

>>> Careers in Tech and IT: Towards a Freelancisation of Permanent Positions?

>>> IT Job Hunting Done Well: A Step-by-Step Guide

A freelance-friendly scene

Albeit often accompanied by controversy, the emergence of the so-called gig economy has too contributed to the normalisation of the freelance life. While some tout the benefits of this labour model, such as greater flexibility or financial freedom, others consider it a source of precarious employment. Whereas that could be argued when it comes to very specific sectors, the reality is that tech freelancers generally enjoy an advantageous position in comparison to their in-house counterparts.

Yes. Independent workers must deal with limited social protections, fluctuating activity and internal red tape. However, the average daily rate of tech freelancers fluctuates between €350 and €800 – well above the average rate of salaried employees in most countries. They also express a 4-out-of-5 satisfaction with their lifestyle.

Programming and IT make up 29% of the global freelance workforce, sharing the top three with web and graphic design. The fit between IT and a freelance lifestyle is clear. A highly coveted skillset that is relevant to almost all industries gives IT professionals the flexibility and bargaining power required to go independent. IT contractors are also among the best-paid freelancers.

A new regulatory landscape with the rise of tech freelancers

But freelancing faces some roadblocks too. All around the world, new regulations on temporary employment are being put in place in an effort to avoid precariousness and reduce the disparity between permanent and short-term positions. Nonetheless, some of these well-meaning measures can end up doing more damage than good.

A good example of this problem is the UK’s IR35. Set to kick in on April of this year, this piece of legislation plans to increase employment tax costs for those companies who consider a contractor as an employee in all but name. Although the law is intended to discourage companies from abusing temporary contracts for tax-saving purposes, what it could mean in practice is that companies would steer clear of contractors altogether.

Both the freelance community and businesses are pressing for the legislation to be re-examined.  

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IT Decision-makers Tips & errors to avoid

Test These Upcoming Dynamics 365 Features

Test these upcoming Dynamics 365 features
Microsoft makes public its Dynamics 365 features release plans months before starting production deployment. New and upgraded features are rolled out...

In a true CI/CD fashion, Microsoft makes public its Dynamics 365 features release plans months before starting production deployment. New and upgraded features are rolled out twice per year in two phases: wave 1 (April – September) and wave 2 (October-March).

The company published the 2020 wave 1 plan last month, with deployment set to begin on April 1st. Some of these features, like UX improvements, will be automatically enabled for end users during April. We suggest you review the full list of updates if you haven’t done so yet and assess ; whether or not a heads-up to those affected is in order.   

Meanwhile, customers and partners can explore a host of early–access features in a non-production, sandbox environment. It’s always recommended to test these new functionalities ahead of deployment to ensure they run properly within your ecosystem. Early access also offers a great opportunity to revise business and reporting processes to see how the new tools can help optimise workflows.

We have gone through the official documentation and highlighted a few features for you and your staff. To tinker with before wave 1 kicks in. You can find a step-by-step guide on how to turn on early access here.  

Enhanced automation and data-sharing for marketing

Dynamics 365 Marketing is getting several additions to improve the customer journey experience and the automation of personalized email marketing. Delivering more dynamic and content-rich messages is now easier thanks to new test-sending and content design capabilities. Smarter customer journey management allows users to set time-sensitive automated emails to expire at a given time. While defining segments is now quicker and more intuitive.

In addition, marketers can now export customer data and results reports to Excel for further manipulation and analysis.   

Sales forecasting and smoother user experience

To facilitate the creation of bottom-up sales forecasts that help managers goal progress; Microsoft is introducing new model customization capabilities and increased forecast accuracy. End users will also enjoy a more seamless user experience, with easier email template selection and faster product-to-opportunity matchmaking.    

Good news for administrators! You’ll finally be able to explore feature settings and configure the Sales Hub application from a single location. Not, until April, however.   

Learn more about Microsoft career paths & Microsoft certifications

Dynamics 365 features: Greater efficiency of service and supply chain management

Microsoft is making it easier to deliver customer service in a faster and more personalized manner. Both remotely and on the field. Dynamics 365 Customer Service is improving search of and access to knowledge articles. As well as providing a more immersive timeline experience to review and register a customer’s history in real time.

As for Field Service, the module is getting a new dashboard for service managers to control the use of resources. Additionally, technician time tracking entries are being integrated into the platform for enhanced visibility.

In yet another push towards operational efficiency, Microsoft is also expanding IoT capabilities for Supply Chain Management. You can now set up notifications and relevant actions for users to take during order delays. Quality anomalies and equipment down scenarios. Users can set up devices via a non-code interface for quick and effortless access to this IoT intelligence service.  

Learn all about Microsoft careers and the various paths one can take within the Microsoft Technologies ecosystem with the Microsoft Technologies Careers Guide

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Secure your S/4HANA migration team before costs skyrocket

Secure your S/4HANA migration team before costs skyrocket
If your business is dependent on SAP’s ERP software suite and you are still running on ECC, the clock is ticking. How to secure your S/4HANA migration?

If your business is dependent on SAP’s ERP software suite and you are still running on ECC, then we’re probably not the first ones to tell you this — the clock is ticking. Yes. As of last week, SAP is officially extending free ECC support throughout 2027 and optional maintenance until 2030. But that’s not that much extra time considering the hefty work the upgrade requires. How to secure your S/4HANA migration, the Golden Opportunity for IT Professionals?

In any case — What perhaps you haven’t considered yet is that, with every month that passes, the migration’s financial impact on your bottom line increases exponentially.

That is, of course, if like most companies, yours is not considering building S/4HANA capabilities in-house. According to a recent report by Resulting IT, only 18% of managers admit to having put a focus on developing internal SAP expertise.

Bringing external personnel into your team to infuse a good dose of talent is one of the best-proven skill development strategies out there. However, you might want to take into account external factors that are sure to turn the process into a very time-sensitive matter.

It’s a very simple equation:

Volume of work + Skills Shortage + High Percentage of Experts Retiring Soon = £ £ £ £ £ £ £

Let’s break it down, to secure of your S/4HANA migration.

Secure your S/4HANA migration #1 – Volume of work and internal reluctance

In recent years, we’ve all gotten used to software updates taking just a few minutes or hours at most. Not surprisingly, a lot of companies think of the migration to S/4HANA as a simple software update that will be ready over a weekend. Nothing further away from the truth.

Read our article about The Value of SAP and SAP S/4HANA.

Moving to S/4HANA requires a complete redesign of your ERP environment and, in many cases, of your business dataflows and reporting pipelines. That is a sizable project, especially considering that the same Resulting IT report puts the ECC product set at around 400 million lines of code. Add that to the extensive customizations most companies have implemented throughout the years, and you end up with quite a thick book to translate into S/4HANA.

However, it is not in the technical details that the biggest challenges reside. As SAP co-CEO Christian Klein stressed in the company’s most recent earnings call, the biggest obstacles to S/4 implementation are changing legacy business processes and gaining the acceptance of managers and employees.  

Undertaking the migration is a lengthy and resource-heavy process, but SAP has put in place all the tools your team will need. Now, convincing your organization to revisit its internal procedures and get used to a host of new tools — That’s different. And it is precisely why the move to S/4HANA demands a clear business case to start with. Which, in turn, requires time and advance planning.

#2 – Widening skills gap and an ageing workforce

Skill obsolescence is an unpleasant side effect of progress. Nothing new here, especially if we are talking about IT. Still, when it comes to S/4HANA, the difficulties in finding talent that is well-versed in the new environment multiply.

The aforementioned report also reveals a generalised lack of experience in the live or nearing go-live stages of the transition. Although 48% of SAP specialists declare having been involved in S/4 projects, a significant portion of these are solutions architects and therefore only have experience in the early blueprinting stages of the project. Securing the services of consultants with operational know-how will be no easy feat.

Couple that with the fact that 40% of UK SAP experts plan to retire within the next 10 years, and we are looking at the perfect storm.

S/4-savvy consultants surveyed in the report expect to charge between £650 and £749 per day. And that’s not only true for external talent. Permanent employees with proven S/4 skills will also benefit from the situation, with an estimated yearly salary of at least £100,000 and increased career prospects.

In a nutshell – Migrating to S/4HANA is a race against increasing employee costs as much as it is a race against the clock. If your organization plans on sticking to SAP solutions, it is a good idea for both your wallet and peace of mind to start procedures as soon as possible

DISCOVER OUR ULTIMATE S/4HANA CAREERS GUIDE

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IT Decision-makers Talent strategy

Building the dream team for multi-cloud success

Building the dream team for multi-cloud success
So, what specific roles should you look for when building the core of your dream team? Nemertes Research CIO John Burke proposes the following three. And we agree with him.

What specific roles should you look for when building the core of your dream team for multi-cloud success? Nemertes Research CIO John Burke proposes the following three. And we agree with him.

About 83% of companies are expected to be in the cloud by the end of this year. Moreover, the industry is experiencing a major skills shortage. That generates a considerable level of uncertainty for those daring to venture into the cloudy unknown. Especially considering the increasing complexity of the cloud environment itself.   

The multi-cloud environment of today requires organisations to establish proper processes and talent strategies to remain on the winning side. From designing a formal workload placement process, to carefully onboarding all employees accessing the cloud, there are many matters to consider

In a recent TechRepublic survey, over 67% of respondents said they’re currently using or planning to use services from multiple cloud vendors. If you are part of this collective, you are probably aware that identifying and securing the right professionals to build your team is of crucial importance to the success of your cloud strategy.

Multi-Cloud Success Team

Cloud solution architect  

Ideally involved from the beginning in the design of a cloud strategy that suits the needs of the organisation, a cloud architect is the one with the big-picture perspective. This is a vital attribute when pondering the strengths and disadvantages of different cloud providers.

Then, a cloud solution architect is responsible for monitoring its proper functioning and for looking into ways to optimize operations by continuously upgrading tools and services.

Cloud integration specialist 

Let’s squeeze a bit more out of the architectural analogy: think of the cloud integration specialist as the construction manager. While the architect designs the building, the cloud integrator is in charge of ensuring its correct construction. This, by managing and integrating the workflows of the many parties involved. In IT terms, that means integrating the myriad of tools, dataflows and workflows that collide in a multi-cloud environment.   

Cloud security specialist 

We’ve touched on this topic in other articles: when it comes to security, specialization is key. This is particularly true in a multi-cloud environment where threats are especially difficult to detect and cauterize due to the disparities in response time and security tools that come from working with several vendors.

Moreover, and as we’ve seen in our cybersecurity predictions for 2020, the vulnerabilities and sheer amounts of data of the multi-cloud are just too many and too alluring for hackers to ignore. Attackers will be doubling their attempts to breach into company systems through the cloud. They will even leverage the cloud themselves to launch more cost-effective attacks with greater frequency. Make no mistake — Dedicated cloud security experts are a must in this evolving environment.           

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5 experts to hire to strengthen an IT team

5 experts to hire to strengthen an IT team
We at Club Freelance have prepared a shortlist of experts to hire to and incorporate to strengthen an IT team if you haven’t done so yet.

Beyond your department’s immediate needs, it is important that you keep in mind the mid- and long-term needs of your company. As your organization’s IT leader, you must ensure that you’re building a team capable of staying aligned with the technology and business trends that are most likely to emerge in the following years. That means not only promoting continuous education among your already existing team, but also looking for new talent that will bring in those skills and ways of thinking that will future-proof it. It’s often hard to identify the right candidate or profile in all the clutter, so we at Club Freelance have prepared a shortlist of experts to hire to and incorporate to strengthen an IT team if you haven’t done so yet.

The top 5 experts to hire to strengthen an IT team

A business-savvy data scientist

First of the experts to hire to strengthen an IT team: the data scientist. It’s no secret that a solid data strategy is one of the key components of any respectable CIO’s digital transformation plan. Organisations all over the globe are ramping up their efforts to leverage their data in deeper, more impactful ways, from business intelligence to predictive and prescriptive analytics.

It is no surprise, then, that the data scientist role was in the top 5 of LinkedIn’s latest emerging jobs study. According to the company, data scientist jobs have experienced a 37% hiring growth over the past three years.

The key skills you should look for when hiring a good data scientist include machine learning, data science, Python, R and Apache Spark. However, as data analysis and predictive analytics are increasingly being incorporated into the decision-making process of companies, there is a growing need for data scientists themselves to understand the business.

A business-savvy data scientist eliminates the need for a middleman to translate data insights into business advice and transformation. Furthermore, as someone who can see both sides of the story, they can use data in more efficient and business-critical ways.

If you don’t have such a profile in your team, consider adding it.   

Also read our article: HR Managers: How to Assess the Technical Skills of IT Candidates

A true AI specialist

Often, data scientists are the ones taking over AI and machine learning duties within IT departments. Or at least being one of the main components of the AI team. That’s fine. A data scientist can, of course, become an expert in Ai through training and experience, but it’s not always the case. A true AI expert goes a bit further than the traditional data scientist, having mastered skills such as deep learning and natural language processing.

According to the same LinkedIn report, the AI specialist role has experienced a 74% hiring growth in the last 4 years. That is because hiring a true expert in AI can result in great benefits across several departments and processes within the organisation. AI can optimize operations, help with cybersecurity, come up with valuable customer insights and help you communicate better with your stakeholders by eliminating the lower levels of customer service. But it can do much more. If you have yet to explore this area, we recommend that you do.

A cloud cybersecurity expert

For some time, IT leaders were after all-terrain cybersecurity experts that understood the company’s whole IT ecosystem and could deal with a wide array of cyber threats and vulnerabilities. As the digital environment has grown more complex and cyber-attacks more sophisticated, that figure is no longer the ideal gatekeeper. As it happens with everything else in our economy, specialization is key.

With more and more companies moving their business-critical operations to the cloud ­­ —and with hybrid, public and private cloud models becoming more intertwined— attacks via cloud infrastructure are poised to hit a new high this year. Therefore, it is of vital importance that you look into hiring a cybersecurity expert that is exclusively dedicated to protecting your cloud real estate.

Also read ou discover our interview: Cybersecurity Career Tips From a Ballerina Turned Pentester

A DevOps engineer

A DevOps engineer is a team addition you should consider if you’re looking to optimize and speed up the software development lifecycle. With a silo-breaking mentality, DevOps engineers work to get different IT teams and processes integrated and create a workflow that’s beneficial for everybody.

They achieve so by using their deep understanding of automation tools to develop digital pipelines comprising all stages in the production cycle — From concept and testing to deployment and monitoring.

Their wholistic mindset also makes them great evangelists of DevOps philosophy across your whole team. Greater awareness of process integration and collaboration across teams can only be beneficial for everyone in the longer run.  

Interested in DevOps profiles? Read about this expert’s DevOps career story.

An RPA automation engineer

Not to be confused with the kind of automation implemented by a DevOps specialist, RPA automation deals with processes internal to the IT team, like ticket generation, and to the overall company. An RPA expert can be of tremendous help anywhere where time-consuming, repetitive tasks can be automated.

Think of all the time you could save across your organization by hiring an automation engineer that would lighten your employee’s workload so that they could dedicate themselves to more productive tasks. Definitely worth it.