Freelancers are ready to fill the skills gaps in the UK workforce but face a host of regulatory hurdles.

New research from Malt, Europe’s leading freelance management platform that hosts a community of one million independent experts, has revealed the compliance challenges facing businesses looking to take on freelance talent. The research found that 80% of those with a freelance management system take just six days from initial sourcing to the project starting, whereas 47% of organisations without one said they take over 15 days to source and contract new freelancers.

The Malt Freelance Maturity Report, based on custom research by Staffing Industry Analysts (SIA), gathered insights from 140 international businesses across HR and procurement. The report highlights the advantages of readiness in working with flexible talent. In fact, 70% of the most mature organisations say freelancing gives them a genuine competitive advantage and report nearly double the return on investment (ROI) of their less mature peers.

Key findings from the report include:

• 84% of companies lack the right tools to re-engage proven independent talent
• Nearly 4 in 10 less mature companies rely on manual processes (e.g., spreadsheets and emails) to source, contract, and pay freelancers.
• 55% of organisations have little to no visibility into the total number of freelancers being engaged company-wide or the total spend associated with it.
• 65% of less freelance mature companies have no formal suppliers at all, putting pressure on hiring managers who are unable to find the talent they need.

According to research by the UK government, there is an AI and technology skills shortage, with 57% of organisations reporting a skills gap. At the same time the UK’s freelance workforce currently stands at approximately 2.046 million individuals, according to IPSE’s latest research on the overall population.

Commenting on the report’s findings, Manuel Brachet, CRO at Malt, said: “Businesses facing delays of up to two weeks in finding and onboarding flexible talent risk missing out on the right experts to scale capacity on demand. This can have a knock on-impact of missing out on new opportunities, stifling growth and damaging potential relationships with customers. Companies that prepare in advance to support their managers in sourcing external support have a strategic advantage, one that can’t be understated in the currently challenging UK skills market.

“There are legions of highly-skilled freelancers ready and waiting in the wings to support UK businesses with their needs, driving growth and providing the most in-demand skills. Malt’s own research shows that the fastest-growing demand for flexible talent skills is in areas like agentic AI, and AI governance, risk and compliance – roles that did not exist just a couple of years ago. Procuring these experts quickly is crucial to the success of the AI transformation journeys that many businesses are undertaking”