The shape of work to come is flexible

In November last year, the Confederation of British Industry published 'The shape of business – the next 10 years'. 500 CBI members, including the UK's contracting body the Professional Contractors Group, participated in workshops in September to share ideas about the future of UK business. John Brazier, managing director of the PCG, has since been invited to represent the group on the CBI Trade Association Council.



I am delighted that the debate about how UK businesses can best position themselves for the challenges ahead is finally taking shape. When it comes to the future of the workforce, the CBI's report states that "a significant number of businesses will move to a new employment model where the core of permanent staff is smaller and a greater number of freelancers, consultants and temporary workers are used". This horizon-scanning exercise, which culminated with the report, has provided an excellent insight into how businesses are likely to adapt and evolve in the aftermath of the credit crunch and the recession.



The message in the report has been backed up by a number of business commentators and experts who recently spoke to PCG about the future way of working.



Sir Tom Farmer, founder of Kwik-Fit is one of them. He strongly believes that "bigger is dumber" and has come out in support of tapping into freelance contractors' talents as the country strives to get back on its feet over the next decade and beyond. Sir Tom, who started a garage single-handedly before selling his Kwik-Fit group to the Ford Motor Company in 1999 for £1billion, says contract and freelance workers played a part in his business success. He foresees more and more organisations using freelancers, capitalising on their expertise and fresh external perspective in order to thrive in the future.



Sir Tom passionately believes that companies are beginning to realise that the bigger they are the dumber they are and that in 10 years' time, businesses will not have any 'fat.' Instead, they will have a core team and will outsource other appropriate services, making businesses more efficient and more cost-effective.



James Bellini is a leading futurologist, author and Fellow of the World Innovation Foundation. He believes "we're going through the biggest change since the industrial revolution," and highlights the emergence of a 'networked society,' which has the power to create fundamental changes to the way we work, both in terms of where and how.



According to his vision, businesses with foresight will have unprecedented opportunities to become nimbler, 'greener' and more innovative. Those that fully embrace these opportunities will completely redefine the notion of a company, dispensing with 'CEOs,' traditional management structures and head offices.



At the same time, trust, not scale, will become the currency of the future. Independent workers will rely on the trustworthiness of their own individual brand to succeed. Bellini also believes that the future is size-neutral, meaning an individual will be as important as a big company in 10 or 20 years' time because their importance will be the value they can bring to a particular task.



Jon Andrews is a partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers and co-author of the report 'Managing Tomorrows People', which examined how business will be redefined by global forces. The PwC report has distilled a range of possible future outcomes into three hypothetical scenarios for 2020; the Blue world, the Green world and the Orange world.



In the Blue world, corporate is king. In the Green world, companies care. In the Orange world, small is beautiful; global businesses will fragment, localism prevails and networks will prosper while large companies fall.



In the Orange world, contracting and project-based working will be prevalent and companies will be made up of key core players who will rely increasingly on external resources as appropriate. Contractors will therefore hope, as one well-known strapline says, that the future is indeed Orange.



Traditionally, labour flexibility has been seen in terms of employment, i.e. how employers could bend the 9-to-5 traditional arrangement applied to permanent staff. Concepts such as working from home, teleworking and mobile working were often cited as the only way businesses could implement flexibility. The value of freelancers has been explicitly acknowledged and clearly the trend towards flexible working practices has been accelerated as businesses seek innovative ways to get through the recession.



Businesses have finally realised that, in time of recovery from recession, engaging freelancers represents a sound way forward. PCG has been saying that for the past 10 years; now UK businesses have a great opportunity to lead the way in Europe as champions of labour market flexibility and true innovators. Greater flexibility will require new products and new relationships.



I am thrilled that the skills of freelancers are becoming truly recognised as key to business success. It is very encouraging to learn that freelancing is being widely acknowledged by leading business figures and leading authorities as we move into a new decade which will need them if it is to be prosperous.





John Brazier is managing director of PCG , the UK's leading association supporting, protecting and promoting the interests of consultants, contractors and freelance workers. PCG represents around 20,000 freelancers, independent contractors and consultants.