It’s been a tough year for teams. Many saw colleagues disappear overnight when scores of companies laid off thousands of workers, in part because of pandemic-related over-hiring. What if businesses could reduce the need for perennial purges while boosting results and flexibility? Numerous companies are testing the approach of temporary teams.
Microsoft, Walmart, Airbnb, Nasdaq, AstraZeneca, Saks Fifth Avenue, and McGraw Hill are among those hiring so-called fractional talent to achieve business goals. According to McKinsey’s 2022 American Opportunity Survey released last August, 36% of employed respondents, or about 58 million Americans, identified as independent workers, up from 27% in 2016. By 2027, that number is projected to grow to 86.5 million people in the U.S. alone—roughly half of the total U.S. workforce. Many of these are older workers, some of whom do contract work for their former employers as a means of maintaining financial health into retirement, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research.
Alongside this trend, a host of companies are seeking to fill these workers’ needs. Among them, Upwork and A.Team are taking advantage of a talent pool whose members are increasingly seeking the independence and flexibility that traditional models of corporate employment don’t offer.
Upwork, which launched in 1999 as Elance, gained prominence as an early online marketplace for freelancers. It has increased and enhanced its enterprise services for larger companies in recent years, such as working closely with Microsoft to provide tools and services to freelancers, and recently announced a partnership with OpenAI to provide pre-vetted AI experts to businesses.
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