Freelancers who search online marketplaces for contracts may be interested to learn that Elance has just secured funding worth £10.3 million to aid its growth plans.

The global work platform is expecting more businesses to take advantage of the cloud to increase their contingent workforces.

Existing investors Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers and New Enterpise Associates have been joined by the Stripes Group to provide the capital for expansion.

Elance’s chief executive, Fabio Rosati, said there is a clear structural shift away from the traditional 9-5 office based employment model.  Contractors can now choose to work online with several clients and organisations are making it part of their core business strategy to hire online teams. He went on to say that the new investment will help Elance keep abreast of demand and continue to be innovative in its approach to work.

Since 2010, Elance has seen an increase of more than 120% in the number of professionals working through its platform. Furthermore, the company’s European Online Employment Report for 2011 showed the freelance market in the UK is booming with 55% more businesses hiring online.

The UK comes in at number one amongst the European countries hiring online workers, and in the third quarter of last year, it was third worldwide. In the European league table, Germany comes in second place, followed by Switzerland and Holland.

Businesses in London hire the largest amount of contractors through Elance, but the popularity of the site is also growing rapidly in Birmingham, Reading and Edinburgh.

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Contractors might want to consider acquiring renewable energy skills after it was announced that 10,000 new direct jobs could be created in tidal and wave power by 2020.

The UK’s first Marine Energy Park will be located in the southwest, stretching from Bristol to the Isles of Scilly.

RenewableUK’s recent report entitled ‘Channelling the Energy’ claims that the UK’s existing skills base will not be able to deliver the growth the industry needs. However, it goes on to say that the problem can be resolved.

Small steps are already being taken. In 2010, the Renewables Training Network, a joint initiative between the government and the renewables sector, set up a wind turbine service technician apprenticeship.

David Green, a director of the Network, said that geography is one of the major challenges when it comes to sourcing talent for remote projects. However, contractors with a strong background in electrical and mechanical engineering have the cross sector skills necessary to transition into the renewable sector.

David Blake from recruitment firm Allen & York recently explained that the renewable energy sector was already suffering from a shortage of talent, but specialist recruiters should be able to source candidates from outside the industry and offer them realistic advice.

He went on to say that the best sources of talent are currently the aerospace, energy and oil and gas industries. There is also available talent in some European countries.

Graduates can also now receive training in wave energy and windmill technology thanks to an investment of £6.5 million from the BIS.

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IT umbrella company contractors could be set to benefit from HP’s decision to share more contracting opportunities with smaller UK businesses.

Hewlett Packard, the largest government IT contractor, has said it will increase significantly the number of small sub-contracting firms it uses by the end of next year. This could lead to an increase in demand for individual contractors, as more opportunities become available in the coming months.

HP intends to increase the number of SME subcontractors it works with to 15% within the next two years. The company already works with 600 small businesses and it intends to add a further 150 firms to that list. This will create job opportunities for IT contractors and freelancers who want to work within small groups.

Nick Wilson, the managing director of HP UK, said that a lot of the company’s current spending will be redirected as it moves towards providing significant support to the small and medium sized sector in Britain.

This move by HP could be of huge importance to the IT industry. Small businesses will have more opportunities and even those who do not obtain a lucrative contract from HP may still benefit as firms reassess their workload and clientele. Furthermore, the increase in opportunities in the small business sector will undoubtedly lead to more contracting positions that IT freelancers can take advantage of.

HP’s news is one of the first positive signs that things could be about to improve for the UK’s IT contracting community. We are starting to see green shoots at last!

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Contractors working in HR and IT could see a growth in opportunities this year.

Adecco recently said that we can expect to see gradual jobs growth this year, led by the HR and IT sectors. The Olympics will also provide a welcome boost to the market.

The recruiter’s Job Watch survey showed that hiring slowed down considerably towards the end of last year. Despite the festive season, temporary recruitment in the retail sector actually declined, but permanent hiring increased. The survey also showed that the HR and IT sectors demonstrated tentative growth in the last couple of months of 2011.

Adecco’s MD, Steven Kirkpatrick, said jobs still exist and jobseekers shouldn’t give up. It is important for them to boost their chances by considering all the options, successfully marketing their skills and searching for opportunities.

The Olympic and Paralympic Games will create ten of thousands of opportunities, which will give jobseekers the opportunity to apply for a position outwith their usual sector and help them gain new skills and valuable experience.

SMEs also need to ready themselves for the possible disruption caused by the Games. BT recently surveyed 600 SMEs and discovered that 30% have not yet thought about disruption to the supply chain process during the Games, nor have they considered staffing levels.

Even SMEs who are not directly affected could have customers or suppliers in London who will be impacted by the Games. Furthermore, more than 33% of businesses think they might have staffing problems when employees are either unable to get to work, or want time off during the Olympics.

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Umbrella company contractors are more likely to find opportunities with small businesses, according to the results of a recent survey.

The European Commission published the results of its survey on the 16^th January this year and they make interesting reading. Not only do SMEs provide better quality jobs prospects than their larger counterparts, they provide employment for more than 67% of the UK’s workforce and are responsible for 85% of new jobs.

SMEs are an essential cog in the economic recovery and they go some way towards negating the affect the recession had on employment. The report goes on to say that in order to draw an effective policy after the crisis, there needs to be expert analysis of how new small business job creation was affected by the recession, as well as analysing the quality of current jobs.

Limited company contractors could find lucrative opportunities in the SME market. They could find better quality jobs with a higher rank than would be available in larger organisations. Small businesses could also reap the benefits of turning to highly skilled contractors who are available to slot into a role at a moment’s notice.

Conditions do look favourable for contractors this year. New business opportunities are starting to appear but a lot of employers still have concerns about the UK’s economic future. They are reluctant to commit to hiring permanent members of staff until conditions improve, so instead they will need to rely on the UK’s flexible workforce.

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A lot of contractors were probably waiting with bated breath to hear the latest news from the IR35 Forum. However, they were in for a disappointment when HMRC postponed the meeting scheduled for the 18^th of January, saying there was more work to be done.

A spokesman for the Revenue said January’s meeting has been postponed for a month and will now take place on the 21^st of February. HMRC decided that more work needed to be done before we held a full meeting of the Forum.

The full Forum last met in November 2011, and at that time two areas were identified where working groups would progress particular projects.

One subset of the Forum was tasked with discussing details of all the possible IR35 scenarios and establishing where there could be differences in the interpretation of the regulations. It was also recognised that some grey areas were bound to remain. The second Forum subset would discuss the operation of new proposals.

The working groups, which include external stakeholders, have already held discussions but they still need to do more work and therefore HMRC decided it was sensible to postpone the main January Forum meeting.

The IR35 Forum was organised by the Office of Tax Simplification and comprises representatives of HMRC, industry and trade associations, including the PCG. A new system for administering IR35 is due to be introduced this April.

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HSE Passport, the firm that offers umbrella companies advice with Health and Safety legislation, is urging recruiters to make sure contractors receive health and safety training before they start a contract.

The company says that making sure contractors and freelancers are equipped with the necessary safety knowledge in advance prevents delays and saves money.

When it comes to safety, contractors with an HSE passport will be able to get straight down to work rather than spend endless hours undergoing in-house safety training courses. Passport training should also reduce the chance of accidents occurring in the workplace.

Guy Schrecker, the general manager at HSE Passport, pointed out that agency workers holding a recognised passport card confirming they are health and safety ready can accept placements straight away and there is no need for the employer to hold induction sessions. Health and safety passports are portable and can be taken from project to project. If recruitment agencies made a passport a mandatory requirement, clients would save valuable time and money.

Umbrella company contractors could find themselves having to undergo a HSE passport health and safety course in the coming months. While this might seem like something of a bind at the time, the long-term benefit is that they will be able to step into new contracts and commence work immediately.

David Cameron pledged recently to rid the UK of some of the pointless health and safety regulations that are blighting British businesses. In a lot of cases, health and safety is common sense and workers should be able to take responsibility for their actions. But, if holding an HSE Passport speeds up the process of getting into work, it has to be worth considering.

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Contractors could benefit as more UK graduates decide to emigrate rather than put their degree to use in this country.

It seems that high achievers are finding the lure of well-paid jobs overseas a very attractive opportunity. Whilst this will undoubtedly diminish the pool of highly skilled candidates in the UK, the decreased competition could open up more doors for contractors and freelancers.

According to the Trendence Graduate Barometer, almost a third of our top students are being lured to foreign climes. Top destinations for graduates are the USA, Australia and Canada where lucrative opportunities abound for those looking to leave Britain behind to further their career.

Kathryn Callow, Trendence Graduate Barometer’s UK accounts director, said the UK risks a talent drain. Graduates are continually being told that there are no opportunities available and prospects for the future look bleak. It should therefore come as no surprise that they want to focus their attention on securing a position overseas.

Skilled umbrella contractors and freelancers should be able to use this to their advantage and secure lucrative contracts. They will have fewer people to compete with and as more students move abroad opportunities should abound in the coming months and possibly years.

The UK is already suffering from a shortage of healthcare professionals and engineers and recruiters have reported problems sourcing competent IT personnel for certain key roles. The government has pledged to tackle the skills shortage problem, but until they do, prospects look promising for the contracting community.

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Umbrella company contractors may have good reason to worry after APSCo said the AWR will cause 29% of firms to terminate contracts.

Nearly one in three of the organisations APSCo surveyed said they intend to terminate contracts when workers approach the 12-week qualifying period for equal rights. As a result, contractors in the future are likely to end up with more short-term contracts.

The chief executive of APSCo, Ann Swain, said AWR is definitely having an impact on all areas of the market. The first qualifying period expired during the Christmas break and if the results of the poll are accurate, tens of thousands of contractors could find themselves out of work this month.

G2 Recruitment’s operations manager, Phil Hutchinson, confirmed that some clients have already started terminating contractor’s assignments when the 12-week period approaches. Others want to ‘buy people out’ of their contract or transfer them onto a fixed term contract. A few are even considering taking on the contractor as a permanent member of staff.

Despite this, less than one in five recruiters think AWR has led to demand for contractors decreasing. However, 43% believe we will start to see a greater impact now that the initial qualifying period has passed.

Ann Swain said that recruiters and clients still face a significant compliance burden even in instances where temporary workers are paid more than their permanent counterparts, or fall outside the scope of AWR completely.

So far there are no figures available to back up APSCos claims, but once data for this month is available, it will be interesting to see whether APSCo’s concerns are justified.

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Umbrella company contractors who have undertaken psychometric tests might be interested to learn the Talent Q believes some recruiters are misusing them.

The workplace assessment specialist went as far as to say that recruiters could be jeopardising their employer brand if they do not use the tests correctly.

An increasing number of organisations use the ability and personality tests to sift and select candidates. But recruiters do not necessarily explain the relevance of the tests to the applicants. Furthermore, they do not give the candidates any feedback, which is a breach of the British Psychological Society’s requirements.

Some recruiters do not have a centralised record of the data collected from psychometric tests and this results in duplication, leading frustrated candidates to think the employment agency is inefficient. Candidates are also entitled to an explanation if their application was unsuccessful, and all too often they blame the tests, even though other factors may be to blame.

Talent Q UK’s chief executive, Steve O’Dell, said job applicants are getting a bad experience from recruiters who misuse psychometric tests. This can cause irreparable damage to the recruiter’s brand and reputation.

It is good practice to provide clear information about what the assessments are designed to achieve, and help contractors plan proactively to take them. Assessments should be relevant and feedback should be provided throughout the entire application process. The company also said that a verification test should be conducted when the applicant reaches interview stage.

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It has been announced that fixed tribunal fees are going to be introduced in a bid to avoid unnecessary claims arising from the Agency Workers Directive. The set fees do away with uncertainty and could give employers the confidence they need to increase the size of their umbrella company contractor workforce.

AWR came into being on the first of October last year but employers did not feel the full impact of the regulations until Christmas Eve when they were required to provide temporary workers with 12 weeks service the same rights as their permanent counterparts. Employers who fail to comply with the regulations could find themselves facing a tribunal hearing.

The decision to implement fixed tribunal fees has been warmly welcomed by the British Chambers of Commerce. Adam Marshall, the director of policy at the BCC said that charging claimants to access the employment tribunal service should boost confidence amongst employers.

Currently, employers often decide to settle out of court, even if they feel a claim is unjustified, to avoid the costs associated with defending themselves at a tribunal hearing. It costs an average of £8,500 for an employer to defend his actions at a tribunal and yet the average out of court settlement is only £5,400.

AWR is in force to protect contractors and employers now have some protection against unjust claims. Hopefully employers will now have the confidence they need to increase the size of their temporary workforce and provide more opportunities for contractors.

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Umbrella company contractors might like top know that the UK’s telephone and internet banking systems have been upgraded to allow same day payments.

As from the first of January, all electronic payments made in the UK and the Eurozone have to reach the recipient’s bank account within one business day. However, according to the Payments Council, the majority of UK payments will reach the recipient’s account within two hours.

For years, it has taken three working days for a payment to clear so this marks a major and no doubt welcome step forward.

The Payment Service Regulations are responsible for the change, which it is thought will create an extra 15 million transactions every month. Contractors will be able to settle their tax payments to HMRC quickly, pay their credit card bills and make one-off payments to businesses and friends.

Standing orders also fall under the new regulations and banks will take the funds from their customers’ accounts on the same day the payment becomes due, instead of several days earlier.

However, the new rules only cover accounts classified as a payment account. Whilst a credit card account fits the definition, an ISA does not. The timescale for making payments from such accounts will still depend on the terms and conditions of the individual account.

The Payments Council stressed that cheques are also not covered by the new regulations as they only govern electronic payments.

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