The Freelance Economy in the Philippines

The freelance economy in the Philippines is booming, yet it’s a talent pool that many of our local companies ignore. There is a wealth of skill in our local sectors; writers, programmers, graphic designers, even freelance project managers are getting more and more prevalent as the workforce evolves toward a more mobile structure. The motivations for many local Filipinos going remote include a higher salary, access to international jobs, and a more flexible work schedule. Given that most remote workers are more productive anyway, employers should be happy to provide these trade-offs between traditional employees.

In 2015, there were more than a million Filipino freelancers, which means we have no shortage of talent. They tend to earn between $10 to $50 an hour, which is well above the local minimum wage. Freelancing is also great for keeping unemployment rates down and for work flexibility.

The study also found that Filipinos chose to do freelance work because it allows them to work from anywhere (74.8%) and leaves them enough time to “pursue their passion” (71.2%). – More Filipinos working freelance online

Here are a few reasons your company should look into employing more freelancers.

Pay for help only when you need it

When you have a full-time team, you might feel like you’re scrambling to fill their days. This may result in giving them “busy work,” which is low-level low-cognitive tasks that are essentially a waste of their time. It may also get stressful for the business owner to feel like he isn’t providing enough challenging tasks for his team, whereas freelancers can simply take another job if they aren’t feeling challenged.

This is also good for your bottom line, because even though you might pay more for a freelancer’s time, you probably won’t employ them a full 40 hours a week. Plus, you can stagger hourly rates based on the skill and specialization needed for the task, which brings us to our next point.

Better rates for specialized skills

When you hire a freelancer, you can hire someone who is an expert in their field. That means instead of hiring a full-time general marketer, you can hire a team of skilled freelancers. Hire a specialist in SEO, a specialist in content strategy, a specialist in advertising, and so on. You wouldn’t employ any of them full-time, but you still get the benefit of their expertise at a better rate than hiring all of these people online. Plus, you get more in-depth knowledge into your brand.

Global talent pool

Working with freelancers can expand your talent pool exponentially. Instead of hiring from small local pool of people who are willing to commute to your office, you can hire people from around the world. This opens you up to different skills, experience, and levels of expertise. It also creates a diverse and creative workforce that can give great feedback thanks to the different backgrounds.

Do you work with freelancers? What are your reasons for hiring them, or if you wouldn’t hire a freelancer, why not? Share in the comments below!