With workforces dispersed around the country and the world, and work arrangements increasingly skewed toward temps and contractors, the need for businesses to be able to connect with their people has never been greater — or more challenging.
Whether it involves recruiting, training, paying or simply chatting with remote staff, ensuring the fluidity, security and efficiency of these digital relationships is critical if companies want to attract and retain top talent.
In fact, PYMNTS data show that when these relationships don’t work, or take on too much friction, the vast majority of these mobile workers say they’re prepared to work elsewhere. That is especially true on pay day, where 73% of freelance employees said they would leave their current role for a better payment experience, according to the Digital Payments In A Digital World Playbook done in collaboration with North Lane Technologies. In addition, 84% of freelancers said they would be willing to work more often if they were paid more quickly.
Businesses must therefore build personalization into their payments and examine how they approach working relationships, especially with staff members who are loosely tied to the company.
“I think what we have really seen is a kind of growth or a lot of questions on the enterprise side of things, where the companies are trying to engage with us to see how they can better take advantage of freelancer marketplaces,” Christopher Wong, senior project manager of payments, trust and safety at Freelancer.com, told PYMNTS.
Building Personalization Into Payments
Similar dynamics are found in B2B transactions involving products. “There’s a lot of customization that goes into that relationship and it’s super-nuanced,” Tinvio Chief Executive Ajay Gopal told PYMNTS in a recent interview.
He added that this creates opportunities for startups to provide solutions. “That level of customization will always remain because the value of the relationship is so high.”
In the freelance marketplace, too, enterprise-level efforts to pay and interact with ad hoc workers in ways that create trust and loyalty mean that they must adjust their strategies from market to market and freelancer to freelancer.
For example, Fiverr, a platform that connects businesses with skilled freelancers offering digital services, offers a subscription-based loyalty program that among other things allows faster payment clearance.
“We’re seeing that those who are actually using it for a few months have seen an increase of anything between 25% and 50% in their business, which is incredible,” Fiverr Founder and CEO Micha Kaufman told PYMNTS CEO Karen Webster in a Sept. 7 interview.
Meeting workers’ localized payment expectations is key, even as the economy becomes increasingly global.
Enhancing Payment Mechanisms
The pandemic has highlighted the need for businesses to streamline the ad hoc payments experience, especially as more remote workers search for opportunities outside their native markets.
Ad hoc workers have long relayed the importance of being paid in their preferred currencies when working with overseas companies, with 67% of freelancers based outside the U.S. saying such payments are essential.
This represents an opportunity for businesses looking to expand their working relationships with freelancers or contractors, but these firms must first enhance the payment mechanisms they are using to deliver funds to these workers.
Some 70% of freelancers are 35 or younger, and these workers are far more used to making and receiving digital or mobile payments instead of waiting weeks for wire transfers or complicated cross-border transfers to clear.
Fostering Effective Working Relationships
At the same time, though, businesses should be cautious about the digital payment methods they implement to support faster payments as many mobile payment apps charge fees that can be just as high as those attached to more traditional overseas payment methods.
Businesses worldwide must more closely examine their current payment methods to foster effective working relationships and meet ad hoc workers’ financial needs. They must also assess which emerging payment methods — including real-time payments or virtual cards, for example — could be most helpful to cross-border freelancers without adding undue costs for businesses themselves.
Commerce will become only more global and digitally connected over the next few years, even as freelancers insist on payment methods that are more local.
Companies must therefore pay careful attention to the unique and changing needs of freelancers operating in markets around the world.
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