We suspected it all along but now we know: freelancers are more productive, slightly cheaper but hard to manage and recruit.

Recent research by the Brookson Enterprise Freelance Fair has identified that productivity is the key benefit of freelance workers in the creative, digital, media and marketing sector. However, freelancers were regarded as a better (does that mean ‘cheaper’?) cost solution than full time staff only 60% of the time.

The research reveals that the real challenge for businesses engaging freelance talent is management and recruitment. Fewer than half those questioned believe that doing these things are easy.

So, the downside – especially for executives wedded to the ‘command and control’ view of management – is that freelancers are hard to recruit and manage. Yet there is now ‘proper’ research evidence to back up both instinct and anecdote.

Businesses benefit from using freelance talent through increased productivity coupled with very high levels of motivation. Freelancers won’t necessarily help a business to cut its costs but the business can expect more productive results from the same expenditure.