Study: More Freelancers Join Marketing Teams Amidst Layoffs

Fiverr Pro’s new study reveals that marketing teams are hiring freelancers more compared to previous years. This is due in part because employees are no longer comfortable returning to the office, creating staffing issues for marketing teams.

More than half (54%) of the surveyed marketing leaders said they have more freelancers on their team this year compared to previous years. As many as 80% of marketing leaders know marketing professionals who became freelancers in the wake of layoffs or unfavorable return to office (RTO) policies.

A whopping 85% of marketing leaders said they conducted layoffs in the past year. The top marketing positions cut include Marketing Manager (37%) and marketers in Digital Marketing (31%) and Market Research (30%). A majority (83%) of marketing leaders who reported conducting layoffs turned to freelancers to compensate for the lost expertise.

Nearly half (45%) of the surveyed teams include freelancers, with over half of those hiring more freelancers compared to previous years. Organizations with 100+ employees were most likely to have more freelancers on their teams.

The top reasons for hiring freelancers are to support full-time employees (63%), followed by supporting specific projects (57%) and benefiting from new skills (56%). Nearly two-thirds of full and part-time employees confirmed they felt “supported by the freelancers their companies brought in the last year,” which shows that both employers and employees benefit from independent talent.

Fiverr Pro’s research shows a disconnect between how marketing leaders and their employees perceive RTO policies. Namely, 95% of the surveyed marketing leaders said they have RTO policies, 85% of them believe in those policies, and 62% said employees have positively responded to the RTO policies.

However, 61% of full or part-time employees have explored freelance opportunities, citing flexibility (53%) and commuting time (43%) as top reasons to avoid traditional office jobs. Marketing leaders seem to understand that employees value flexibility more than ever, with 86% admitting they need to offer more flexibility to their team members.

“Considering different solutions like freelancers to meet these challenges is key to staying competitive in this rapidly evolving industry,” advises Shai-Lee Spigelman, General Manager of Fiverr Pro. “If [marketing leaders] don’t, marketing departments and teams will only continue to lose valuable talent to more flexible options and risk being obsolete.”