Zinnov reported that 55 percent of online freelancers are women. MBO Partners says a similar percentage (53 percent) of all American independent workers are also women, which amounts to 8.5 million women across the country working on their own. Compare that to women’s 47.6 percent participation rate in the traditional workforce and you may start to wonder if the gig-focused future of work isn’t a better match for the needs of women.

Several experts and female independent work veterans have speculated that the greater flexibility of independent work might be more suited to the desires of women and take advantage of their ability to weave together communities of collaborators and their generally lower attraction to high-status, long-hours,  battle-up-the-ladder-type career paths.

Drawing on their Independence Workforce Index, MBO Partners’ numbers supports this idea that independent work tends to suit women and that flexibility plays a central role in this. 77 percent of women independents are satisfied or highly satisfied with their mode of working, according to the consultancy, and 74 percent plan to remain independent. When asked why they plan to remain independent, 65 percent cited flexibility, 64 percent said control over their own schedule and 59 percent noted the enjoyment they get from being their own boss.

Not every woman is independent by choice, however. And MBO admits that the recent recession and spotty recovery are forcing some women to get creative about their career trajectories. “As the country continues to struggle with economic recovery, women have forged a viable third path that empowers them with even greater control and freedom over their lives and careers. It also gives them a new definition of work-life success,” Gene Zaino, CEO of MBO Partners, said, putting a positive spin on the less happy face of women forced into independent work for a statement accompanying the data.

The relative gains of women over men in the workplace have been much discussed in the last few years (exhibit A: the term “mancession”) – is the rise of independent work one more factor making work more female friendly?

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Not according to new research conducted by independent work consultancy MBO Partners released today. MBO defines independent workers as those “who work at least 15 hours a week in nontraditional, non-permanent full or part-time employment and self-identify as consultants, freelancers, contractors, self-employed.” Using a pair of surveys to study this sector, MBO uncovered some unexpected facts that show independent work is not just a young person’s game. Nearly five million Baby Boomers make up 30 percent of this workforce and, according to MBO, they’re thriving more than younger freelancers:

• Most Boomers (59 percent) actively chose to become independent.
• Of all those working independently they are among the most satisfied. 85 percent report satisfaction and 70 percent report high satisfaction, versus 58 percent for all age groups combined.
• They’ve done well as independents. The average income of the Boomer independent is $77,000.
• The vast majority of Boomers plan to continue work in the independent workforce over the next three years — only 8 percent plan to seek a traditional job.

These happy Boomer independents told MBO they enjoyed working solo for a number of less than surprising reasons, including the freedom and flexibility and ability to do work they consider meaningful. The research also found, however, that the particular struggles of older workers during the Great Recession played a role in pushing many towards independence “The Great Recession has resulted in a very weak traditional job market for aging Boomers. For many Boomers, going independent is their best or sometimes only job option,” concludes the report.

But while the troubled economic times may have driven some older professionals towards independent work, the statistics show that by and large they’re pleased to have made the switch. “In the face of recent financial uncertainty and a tumultuous job market, many in the Boomer generation have turned adversity into opportunity and taken charge of their lives by working independently,” said Gene Zaino, CEO of MBO Partners. In fact, 36 percent of Boomers actually feel more secure working independently.

All in all, the research paints a cheerful picture of Boomer independents and predicts that more workers in this demographic will make the shift. “About 8 million boomers are interested in going solo over the next two years,” according to MBO, which predicts “that roughly 1.2 million will actually make the jump to independent work,” within that time frame.

Does this report mesh with your experience — are Boomers in particular satisfied with the gig lifestyle and, if so, why do you think this is? 

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But where is all this interest in online labor platforms heading over the coming years? How will the uptick in interest in the so-called ‘human cloud’ shape business? In addition to statistics, Elance has also given GigaOM an exclusive sneak preview of three long-term industry trends it is predicting will shape the future of work.

One in three people will be hired online by 2020. The likes of Monster and LinkedIn are only the starting point when it comes to using the internet to find talent, according to Elance CEO Fabio Rosati. In future, it will be common for businesses not only to identify candidates online, but also to interview, hire and work with them at a distance. “The initiation of the search begins online already,” he told GigaOM in an interview. “The piece that we predict will be accelerating is the amount of hiring that will actually be completed online to result in an online working relationship. Within a few years, your ability to work remotely will be so extraordinarily compelling that we will literally not even feel the need to meet in person.”

Half of businesses will have online teams by 2020. Both a recent survey from Elance competitor oDesk and recent comments made to GigaOM by Gene Zaino, CEO of MBO Partners, have indicated that businesses increasingly see hiring contractors as a long-term strategy and competitive advantage, rather than a short-term stopgap or simple cost-cutting measure. Elance apparently agrees with Rosati explaining how more and more businesses will come to see the benefits of online hiring and come to view the practice as a normal, if not essential, business practice.

“We estimate probably less than ten percent of businesses have online teams right now. We are pretty much at the same stage where eCommerce was at the beginning of the last decade,” he said. “Around 2000 probably one in ten had a website and an online presence. By the end of the decade about half of businesses had an online presence and if they didn’t, they were planning to. We believe the same thing is happening to building online teams and having workers who work for you in the cloud. In the next eight years we’re going to see substantial acceleration of this trend and it will become a mainstream phenomenon.”

Global professional guilds will emerge online. It may be hard to imagine traditional labor unions surviving into a future featuring lots and lots of online work, but Rosati doesn’t expect that future independent pros will be left entirely to fend for themselves. Instead, Elance predicts they’ll band together in professional guilds. Citing the Freelancers Union and the Writers Guild of America, which went to bat for Hollywood writers a few years ago, as possible precursors and models to the phenomenon, Rosati explains that, “it’s easier than ever to create communities online. As online work becomes a mainstream phenomenon, the need for professionals with similar mindsets to come together and agree to guiding principles and what will be responsible behavior online professionally is going to emerge.”

He even predicts that these guilds could become a force advocating for the rights and interests of independent workers. “Independent professionals working online will coalesce around common standards, and as they coalesce and establish a united voice, I expect they will definitely play a major role in endorsing certain platforms and rejecting others. I think that we will see a greater voice and a greater influence,” he says.

What do you make of Elance’s predictions?

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In conjunction with Genesis Research Associates, oDesk reached out to more than 7,000 clients, ranging from solopreneurs looking for some extra help to managers at medium and large enterprises, asking them about their views on online contracting and the future of sourcing talent through platforms like oDesk.

The results put a final nail in the coffin of the argument that increased interest in online labor platforms like oDesk is largely down to the troubled economy and firms’ short-term scramble to get by or their need to cut costs.

• A massive 76 percent of respondents told oDesk that their use of contractors was a long-term strategy.
• Only 24 percent characterized their remote hiring as a temporary solution to short-term problems.
• More than 80 percent either agree or strongly agree that remote hiring increases competitiveness and that the practice will soon be common.

“The CIO of AOL came to us and said: ‘Hey, I’m having a hard time finding and hiring enough technical talent,’” oDesk CEO Gary Swart told GigaOM to illustrate the point that, for many of his company’s customers, online contracting is about strategy and competitive advantage, not just cost pressure. “oDesk enabled engineers at AOL to hire, as [the CIO] calls it, ‘a brain extension,’ so the ability to get leverage by enabling any engineer to hire talent in order to get more work done.” Gene Zaino, the CEO of MBO Partners, made a similar point a few months ago, noting that his firm has seen more and more businesses touting their ability to be agile through the use of contracting talent as a competitive advantage.

Also of interest was what respondents told oDesk about the alternatives to remote hiring. When asked what they would have done had there not been a suitable oDesk contractor available, 50 percent said they would have found someone through another contracting source, 22 percent would have simply worked longer hours and nine percent would have delayed or canceled a project. Only 15 percent would have made a local hire, indicating that oDesk-style hiring isn’t replacing local jobs but creating new, if small-scale, gigs.

The company also announced a new CFO, Gregory Stanger, who formerly served in the same position at Expedia and Chegg.

Do you agree with Swart that enthusiasm for online labor platforms like oDesk outlive the tough economic times?

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Whether Zaino’s estimate of exactly when freelancers and independent professionals will outnumber regular employees proves correct, the general trend toward a rise in the number of independent workers is hard to deny. Online platforms connecting these pros to contract-based work are flourishing, and media chatter about the so-called “gig economy” is growing steadily louder. But is what is true in America also true abroad? Are other countries experiencing the same rise in the percentage of workers going independent?

A new piece of evidence suggests that freelancers are a growing part of the economy in the U.K. as well, at least when it comes to the small-business sector. Online labor platform PeoplePerHour.com recently polled 1,300 British small businesses about their use of freelance talent. The survey found:

• Eighty percent of responding businesses said freelancing had become more common in the UK small-business community over the past year.
• Thirty-two percent of respondents had started using freelancers for the first time in the past six months.
• Forty-one percent of respondents planned to increase freelance hiring over the next 12 months, compared with 16 percent who plan to hire more in-house staff.
• Thirty-three percent reported they now use freelancers on a weekly basis.

The release accompanying the survey also points out that the trend has been good for PeoplePerHour specifically, with total registered users doubling from 120,000 to more than 240,000 over the past year.

The technology changes that are enabling businesses in the U.S. to take advantage of independent workers are just as present in the U.K., as are strong economic pressures on businesses to cut costs and maintain agility, so the findings are hardly surprising. Nonetheless, the survey is interesting as a confirmation that these trends are affecting workers and organizations across the Atlantic as well.

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Recently, WebWorkerDaily phoned up Gene Zaino, a Net:Work 2011 speaker and CEO of MBO Partners which offers a package of back office services to independent workers they dub a “passport to independent work” — they’ll sort out your taxes, benefits, insurance and the like if you hand over a small percentage of billings — for a wide-ranging conversation about his predictions for independent work in the year ahead. (Check out his full predictions in infographic form here.) In his role at MBO, Zaino deals closely with a number of corporate HR and procurement departments, and his view of how quickly companies are coming to terms with the changing landscape of work varied significantly from the opinions of those who paint corporations as slow to adapt. For one, he defended HR against its critics, at least when it comes to taking advantage of independent talent:

HR organizations are very focused on the full-time employee segment of their business because that’s what they do, and they typically don’t deal with non-employees. Non-employees are paid through accounts payable or through procurement, so they tend to not be part of their system.

Now the more forward-thinking companies have decided to partner HR and procurement to figure out how to [handle independent workers], because HR gets upset when you hire an independent contractor who’s sitting next to or working alongside one of the full-time employees and they start talking. There’s a culture issue there, and I think the smarter companies have assembled teams or new positions, which have representation from HR, from procurement and from legal, and they put together a strategy and make [independent work] one other component of how they get work done.

And outside the boundaries of HR, Zaino insists, in the last few years, companies are really starting to grasp the benefits of hiring independent workers, as well as how to maximize their value while minimizing the compliance risks of nimble hiring.

I’ve seen tremendous change. Today most Fortune 500 companies have an actual position – sometimes it resides in HR, sometimes it resides in their procurement department, sometimes it’s a new department. It always has someone from legal involved because it’s generally a compliance issue. But they generally have someone that manages their non-employee labor and in more and more companies there’s much more publicity, much more education, much more awareness.

Most recently in 2011, for the first time, I’ve even seen public companies in their annual reports start talking about how many independent workers they have as compared to employees. Caterpillar is one where they actually boasted because they consider that a strategic advantage to be able to be nimble in terms of their cost structure. So there has absolutely been a dramatic increase in education on the corporate side that has taken about ten years to happen, but it’s prominent today.

As Zaino points out, ruthless economic realities are pushing companies to be equally ruthless about cutting costs and maintaining flexibility, but he also explains that a vigorous compliance drive by tax officials partly explains why companies are getting more savvy about managing their independent workers.

“There’s a huge enforcement effort to reclassify people as employees that companies are paying as contractors,” he says. “Today there are 14 new bills pending that will increase penalties for companies that try to engage independent workers who would otherwise be classified as employees, and the test for being an employee versus an independent contractor is extremely gray. It’s about behavior. It’s about control. It’s really easy for the state tax, the IRS, the Department of Homeland Security or the Department of Labor to come in and say: ‘You look and walk and talk like an employee, so we’re going to call you an employee and we’re going to give a big fine to the place where you’re working because that’s the easier way for us to go collect a lot of money.’”

Motivated by both the carrot of a more agile workforce and the stick of stiff government fines, it seems even the slowest moving organizational behemoths are learning to manage the exploding number of independent workers. (Zaino predicted independent workers will be a majority of workforce by 2020 at Net:Work.)

In your experience, are big companies dragging their heels or quickly coming to terms with the realities of the changing workforce?

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