Contracting Matters

Yesterday marked the first ever National Freelancers Day with a series of events hosted by the Professional Contractors Group (PCG) up and down the country.  I think the PCG did an excellent job in raising awareness of the day and they have created an interesting starting point for hopefully annual focus.

I was invited to be part of a panel debate on the future of freelancing at the Manchester event (hosted by Chris Bell) and the starting point was to try and get clarity on the terms used. In IT, Telecom, Engineering the term “contractor” has been used to describe someone working on a  project usually around a fixed duration whereas the traditional form of freelancing was described more in relation to discrete and often multiple pieces of work for set prices. I think those traditional descriptions are somewhat blurred in 2009 and will become increasingly flexible in use.

What was clear to me was that there is a need to bring these quite disparate terms together to enable a better representation of the overall flexible labour market to be understood. I think the PCG have a large part to play in developing this.

It was good to hear directly from Contractors/Freelancers (see the problem!) as to the challenges they faced. Aside from the normal tax debate, there was both negative and positive views on the issue of outsourcing to some of the worlds new economies. This of course is a challenge for all UK businesses and yet there was the germ of some excellent cooperative ideas in the room and the old adage of creating niches remains relevant.  I would urge the PCG to put some more time and effort behind those ideas. 18,000 micro businesses will have some good ideas if that can be harnessed as an opportunity to develop more cooperation in the emerging global economy.

I think the PCG do an excellent job and can extend its reach by engaging with a wider remit of freelancers/contractors that work through Umbrella companies and other groupings. Ultimately the membership will decide if that’s an appropriate route for “professional contractors” given the employed nature of those same groups versus the largely “in business” membership of the PCG now.

Any activity that raises the profile of our hugely important industry is good news in my book and I think we should all thank the PCG for putting some real focus and energy behind the day.