Is ‘Open To Work’ on LinkedIn due an IR35 dropdown menu?

It's been mooted that LinkedIn ought to include a dropdown menu under the 'Open to Work' setting to allow contractors to stipulate whether they accept inside IR35 contracts, or only outside IR35 contracts, or both.

Here and exclusively for ContractorUK, Matt Craven, founder and winning work expert at The CV & Interview Advisors, gives his take on whether the world's largest professional network should offer an IR35 dropdown to let contractors signal their IR35 status and type of assignment they seek.

LinkedIn filters: the case for more

First, I'll outline the case for LinkedIn to build an additional tool or two for the IR35-affected.

And it's not just IR35, or 'OPW'(short for the 'Off-Payroll Working' rules).

There's a lot of other information that recruiters would find useful that LinkedIn doesn't currently focus on.

Could LinkedIn take a slightly more market-led rather than product-led approach, and build in more filters and data points that would assist recruiters in finding the right talent per brief?

More data points, please, we're professionals

From what I'm hearing from contractors, agencies and others, it would certainly be useful to be able to search on LinkedIn via extra filters such as:

Six helpful contractor filters for agencies, surely LinkedIn?

On the contractor-candidate side, there are useful albeit granular details that recruiters and end-hirers might want to know, such as:

Room for improvement

With as much as 65% of LinkedIn's revenue coming from its recruitment-oriented service Talent Solutions, the platform having a deeper understanding (or proclivity) to satisfy market needs could be a valid argument.

But behind the scenes at LinkedIn, there may be valid reasons why these data points are currently excluded.

Therefore, it's not for me to really judge LinkedIn on the IR35 widget viability front, especially given that the website is an extremely useful and powerful network for recruiters, employers, employers' staff, and job candidates.

As with all platforms, though, I think it's safe to say there's perhaps scope for refinements.

A percentage of a percentage probably wouldn't excite LinkedIn

Now, let's consider the case for LinkedIn NOT building an additional tool or dropdown for the IR35-affected.

The issue of outside/inside IR35 status only relates to a small percentage of UK-based workers, and within those, it doesn't even affect all contractors.

Therefore, an IR35 dropdown would be used by only a tiny fraction of LinkedIn's global user base.

With this in mind, my feeling is that it's unlikely that an IR35 status plug-in for 'Open To Work' is getting a place on LinkedIn's development roadmap any time soon!

Maybe that's fair enough. Aside from the ROI looking a bit shoddy due to the small number (comparatively) of affected LinkedIn users, there will be non-IR35 issues and parameters we're not privy to.

Is inside/outside IR35 even still a thing?

On a broader off-payroll working note, I was speaking to a contractor friend just last night, and he explained how he was now largely indifferent about inside or outside IR35.

In his view, there's a shortage of top talent in his sector, so he'll end up getting paid what he needs, regardless of whether an end-user claims that the HMRC rules apply. The contractor signalled he's open to whatever assignments come his way and he'll cut his cloth accordingly.

Among my LinkedIn connections as a whole, the majority of contractors will now accept inside IR35 roles, meaning most Personal Service Company (PSC) workers I know regard the IR35 status as a secondary or tertiary issue. In short, from what I'm seeing, inside IR35 isn't the deal-breaker it once was.

The IR35 dropdown might need a 'not bothered' status option

In the context of this article on whether LinkedIn should reflect contractor compliance rules in its user features, 'inside IR35' being less offensive further reduces the need for an IR35 dropdown, probably from critical to a 'nice-to-have.'

With many organisations still having blanket 'inside IR35' hiring policies, it feels like discontent has turned to acceptance. Most contractors just play the cards they are dealt.

Is the Employment Rights Bill a Trojan horse for contractors?

It would be remiss of me not to mention at this stage the impending Employment Rights Bill.

As employers become increasingly concerned about workers' rights and the increasing costs and mounting risks of hiring permanent members of staff (both are a result of the bill), we'll likely see an upturn in the attractiveness of contractors.

And maybe, under unfavourable conditions for permies, organisations will be less dismissive of 'outside IR35' assignments.

Pseudo employees are what the OPW rules have created…

A bit ironically, given that we're under a Labour government, due to how the off-payroll working rules tax you like an employee but grant you none of the rights of an employee, the flexible UK workforce looks more like a group of pseudo-employees than ever!

That said, I'm still seeing a lot of work for many contractors left to do, if appearing like a genuine 'outside IR35' provider is their aim.

Six hallmarks of outside IR35 contractors

Hallmarks of bonafide, genuinely self-employed contractor businesses —'outside IR35'— include:

Why are 'badges of business' less in vogue?

These six aren't as commonplace as they once were, but they are all things that PSCs operating on an outside IR35 basis ought to be doing, and maybe always aren't.

In fairness to the PSC community, when the volume of 'outside IR35' roles isn't great, and contractors, out of necessity, need to consider both outside and inside IR35 assignments, it's not surprising that 'badges of business' (including the above six) appear to be being collected less actively.

The future is bright

Maybe as things unfold over the next 12-24 months, we'll see a return to the halcyon days of 'outside IR35 contracting.' As a huge advocate for the contracting community, I have my fingers crossed. And maybe then, but only then perhaps, we'll also see an IR35 dropdown. Certainly, if there is a resurgence in B2B engagements, the case for LinkedIn to make Open To Work 'OPW-compatible' will be harder to ignore.

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