Self-employed figures are on the rise. According to the latest data from the Ministry of Labor and analyzed by the Association of Self-Employed Workers (ATA), Spain reached the highest number of self-employed since 2008 at the end of 2021. 3,319,188 affiliates freelancers specifically. Which means that 17.3% of workers in the country are self-managed. For Shakers they are few. platform freelance believes that this figure is far from their expectations. According to his predictions, by 2035 there will hardly be any workers left. Although the question that remains in the air is how we will really get to that point.
Shakers works as a platform to connect freelancers with currently available projects. It is a way to facilitate the work of freelancers, and help in the talent search process for companies that need someone for a specific project.
They do not say it clearly, but they have a rival in front of them: the consultants. KPMG, Deloitte, PwC or EY, known as the Big Four, continue to be giants in the consulting sector of all kinds. They do not want to be substitutes, but they wonder what each other contributes.
“The big consultants bring confidence and methodology. They are also based on relationships, which is something that is changing, especially in a relocated market, in which this is losing strength. Companies need strong talent, which is what is changing.”
Hector Mata, founder of Shakers
In this way, the large consulting firms that claimed hundreds of jobs now face empty vacancies and higher turnover rates each year. Some time from now, to be employed in one of these big companies has ceased to be attractive to become a problem. During 2021, they were several ads of employees who complained about long working hours without rest, along with weekends and no disconnection in free time.
In an almost post-pandemic world, labor relations have changed. At least many of them. With a highly valued specialized workforce in companies -mainly technical profiles-, there are many who have chosen to set their standards. Not all freelancers go through the same problems and precisely those who work for Shakers live their gold.
There is a lack of technical and qualified workforce, which can decide where and what to work from. Shakers wants to focus on precisely that workforce that will have no problem finding projects to cooperate on.
Freelancers in Shakers now, but first a travel agency
Héctor Mata came from the world of online travel agencies. At the age of 18, and in full university heyday, he founded an agency focused on young people with some friends. It was 2010 and Todolisto.es – as it was called – barely lasted two years. They ended up billing almost 9 million euros. A lot for an 18-year-old, little for the business segment in which they moved. In the end they ended up going bankrupt. “There were very quick benefits at very specific times, but then they fell; if you don’t make a very good treasury, then it doesn’t work, and we didn’t do it,” explains Mata.
It wasn’t bad for training. From there, Mata collected what he had learned and professionalized the model. In 2013 she founded Viaja Wäy, another travel agency for young people that, in this case, did maintain a good treasury. So much so that it managed to bill up to 25 million euros and be bought by what was then Barceló Viajes. A purchase with some trick; The international agency had already been the initial investor in the project that it first incubated as a startup and then included in its structure. Until 2018, Mata worked within the group. He left that same year to start another project. One that the pandemic has done very well with the changes in work models in which teleworking is no longer a pipe dream, but a real possibility.
“Shakers was born at the end of 2018 without really knowing why. We knew that the labor market was undergoing a change, but we were not sure what to do,” says Hector. In the end, they have ended up creating a methodology for companies that, accustomed to hiring consultants who send employees to offices, they were not sure how to deal with the freelance model. It also means cost savings and a direct transfer of benefits to the employee.
“Instead of having a consultant charging €150 per employee and the employee receiving €20, we receive €50 and give €50.”
In the end, the hiring company spends less and the freelancer charges more. One that also charges monthly since the platform advances the payment to avoid the well-known 90 days of the big companies. Shakers only charges the associated companies for the consultancy part: Glovo, Caixa, Barceló… And a long list of SMEs.
2035 is the key date… although not for everyone
The share of freelancers has just risen, unfortunately for a group that had been suffering from the costs –and uncertainties– of being self-employed. On the other hand, the numbers of civil servants do not stop increasing. Spain is, in fact, a country that seeks to be an official. Faced with an uncompetitive private company, the freezing of salaries in the private sector, the increase in prices and global uncertainty itself, everything points to the search for work financed by the state.
“In Spain there is an excess of public work with which the system is being doped so that it seems to work well and it is not clear how we are going to pay for it,” says Héctor. He is also clear that in the face of a problem of low productivity, local companies cannot pay salaries in the United States. But at the same time he points out that they are already few who want to start and finish their career in the same company. The rules of the game have changed for almost everyone.
And they are almost all, because not all professions enjoy the same facilities. The so-called knowledge professions, those related to technology, take the gold. If we add the great uncertainty in the future – which is not helped by the debt and current politics – the rules are blown up and they have power in their hands. “People don’t want what they did a few years ago, and this is making it difficult for companies to understand”, point. The rest, for now, is subject to the rules of the old school. But what is clear is that in order to reach their forecasts for 2035, which they do not doubt we will reach, many things have to change. Either on the side of politics or forced by the side of the workers.