Flexible Workforce Summit 2023: Germany hit particularly hard

The Flexible Workforce Summit is an international meeting of European and international platform operators for the placement of freelancers. These are joined by international companies, such as the pharmaceutical group Novo Nordisk, and numerous self-employed professionals. My first brief feedback in advance: the international market for flexible staffing solutions is also boiling with water - but with much more water than we can imagine in the German interim market.

Gigantic potential for flexible staffing solutions

Flexible staffing solutions have gigantic potential worldwide, which surprised me to this extent. The "Global Gig Economy Report" estimates the global market for freelancers at five trillion US dollars. Almost 60 percent of this turnover is generated by freelancers themselves. Eight percent remains for the platforms worldwide: that's still a whopping 400 billion dollars. In contrast, the German interim market seems quite manageable. The Dachverband Deutsches Interim Management (DDIM) estimates the market volume for interim management in Germany at less than three billion euros.

But can our interim management be compared to the "gig market" at all? In terms of reach, certainly not. Nevertheless, the key question is the same worldwide: How can international companies such as Summit co-host Novo Nordisk organize the procurement of external specialists in the future? The fact is that the number of freelancers has risen by more than 50 percent since 2020. A good half of large companies are thinking about using talent platforms. Around two thirds of freelancers are therefore satisfied with self-employment.

The pressure from skills shortages and demographic change is growing

The forecasts are clear: skills shortages and demographic change will develop ever-increasing pressure. And the figures here are also impressive - and particularly severe for Germany. Taso Du Val made this clear in his presentation. Du Val is CEO of the TopTal platform, which recruits freelancers online in more than 140 countries and lets them work remotely for large enterprise companies. In his presentation, Du Val presented Europe - and Germany in particular - as the biggest loser of demographic change. According to this, there will probably be 23 percent fewer workers in Germany by 2030 than in 2020. For countries such as Italy, Spain and France, he predicts a decline of less than five percent.

Flexible staffing solutions belong on every CEO's agenda

Whether these figures are correct or not, Germany will have a very high demand for specialists and managers in any case. So it's high time to think about alternatives to the "War for Talents" and how we can meet future staffing needs beyond the traditional employment model. Berry Matthews, CEO of Open Assembly, concluded: "Every organization in every industry needs a strategy for the use of non-permanent professionals. It should be on every CEO's agenda. Anything else would be grossly negligent."

The interim management provider industry is changing

There are already around 600 online platforms around the world that are more or less consciously taking up the challenge. A consolidation phase seems inevitable to me. We are already seeing the first signs of this: in Germany, Comatch is merging with Malt and Atreus has been taken over by Heidrick & Struggles. I am quite sure that we will see more of this. In addition, 50 percent of large enterprise companies are already planning or operating private talent clouds.

All in all, the participants at the summit agreed that the importance of freelancers will increase. Providers and platforms that offer added value from the perspective of freelancers and clients will therefore be in demand from clients.

One thing is certain: developments in interim management will remain exciting. I will show you even more insights from the Flexible Workforce Summit in the upcoming presentation of the di Trendbarometer. Then you will also find out why some of the congress speakers give purely transaction-based platforms, as we find them in Germany today, little chance of survival.

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In our brochure Connected Workforce: With Interim Management to a Connected Workforce you can find out more about the causes of the shortage of specialists and managers and why the Connected Workforce is a promising solution.