Are Freelancers More Productive Than Employees?
During the pandemic, more brands turned to freelancers in a bid to create fast and effective marketing campaigns.
We’ve not held back in shouting about the many benefits for choosing freelancers over an agency – a few reasons being you get direct access to highly experienced/senior talent, lowered costs (kiss goodbye to paying for those expensive agency overheads), improved output thanks to efficient ways of working, and many more…
We wanted to see how increased productivity played into freelance life, so we decided to survey 1,000 UK workers (both freelancers and employees) to discover how many productive hours workers complete during the working day and do a little compare and contrast between the two.
Here’s how we got on…
Overall Findings
Across the 1,000 people we polled, folks said that they were 'productively working' for 6.1 hours per working day, on average. The most common answer was 7 hours, but a quarter admitted that they are actually only productive for 4 hours or less each working day.
More than half of the respondents were most commonly working on-site (being either back in an office, or in another working location), with a third still working from home following the pandemic. Interestingly, however, it was coworking spaces where people appeared to be most productive (6.9 hours, compared to 6.4 hours in the office and 5.8 hours whilst working from home).
Typically, males were more productive than females, with an average of 6.5 hours and 5.7 hours of productive time each work day respectively. Then we took a look at a breakdown of productivity within UK cities – interestingly, Newcastle had the most productive workforce overall, claiming to be productively working for 6.9 hours on average. Manchester was at the other end of the spectrum, admitting to being productive for just 5 hours each working day, on average.
Ordered from most productive city to least productive city, the results discovered the following:
Newcastle – 6.9 hours
Leeds – 6.8 hours
London – 6.4 hours
Liverpool – 6.3 hours
Edinburgh – 6.2 hours
Norwich – 6.2 hours
Birmingham – 6.1 hours
Nottingham – 6.0 hours
Glasgow – 5.9 hours
Bristol – 5.9 hours
Cardiff – 5.8 hours
Sheffield – 5.8 hours
Southampton – 5.8 hours
Belfast – 5.7 hours
Manchester – 5 hours
Edinburgh, who were most likely to be working from home, were productive for 6.2 hours per day, whereas Newcastle workers – who were most likely to be back working from the office – clocked 6.9 hours per day.
Industry data also highlighted some interesting splits… Those working in legal, recruitment and HR, and law enforcement and security were most likely to have gone back into the office. Conversely, those working in media and internet, marketing advertising and PR, and creative arts and design were most likely to still be working from home, either full time or most often compared to other options.
When it came to productivity levels, however, recruitment and HR were the most on it, clocking an average of 8.3 hours per day. Law enforcement and security (7.6) and hospitality and events management (7.5) followed close behind. Science and pharmaceuticals (4.7), marketing advertising and PR (5.0) and business consulting and management (5.1) were the least productive of the 25 industries analysed within our research.
Ordered from most productive industry to least productive industry, the results discovered the following:
Recruitment and HR – 8.3 hours
Law enforcement and security – 7.6 hours
Hospitality and events management – 7.5 hours
Transport and logistics – 7.1 hours
Energy and utilities – 6.8 hours
Public services and administration –6.6 hours
Information technology – 6.5 hours
Retail – 6.4 hours
Engineering and manufacturing – 6.4 hours
Healthcare – 6.4 hours
Property and construction – 6.3 hours
Sales – 6.2 hours
Environment and agriculture – 6.1 hours
Teacher training and education – 5.9 hours
Law – 5.8 hours
Leisure, sport, and tourism – 5.8 hours
Accountancy, banking, and finance – 5.8 hours
Social care – 5.7 hours
Other – 5.5 hours
Creative arts and design – 5.4 hours
Charity and voluntary work – 5.4 hours
Media and internet – 5.4 hours
Business consulting and management – 5.1 hours
Marketing, advertising, and PR – 5 hours
Science and pharmaceuticals – 4.7 hours
Employed vs Self-Employed
As a brand marketing consultancy powered by freelancers, we had to look at the differences between employed and self-employed. Whereas the majority (51.6%) of employed respondents most commonly work on-site at their employer’s office, the self-employed primarily work from home (45.4%).
Despite working from home being overall less productive (according to our findings so far), when it came to how many hours each group are productive for each work day, on average, the results highlighted that the self-employed are productive for 6.4 hours (6 hours and 24 minutes). This figure is 36 minutes more than those that are employed – claiming 5.8 hours (5 hours and 48 minutes).
Considering there are 251 working days in 2022, the self-employed are clocking an additional 150.6 hours of productive work each year compared to their employed counterparts – equivalent to around 20 working days (or around a month of a standard Monday to Friday, 9-5 role)!
If nothing else, these stats should encourage businesses to lean on the amazing freelance talent in the UK. Back in 2018, after 10+ years working in-house and agency-side, we (Jess and Laura) could see brands were missing out on working with the best brand and marketing talent: freelancers. Our anti-agency model allows great brands to harness all the benefits of great freelancers. High-quality. Affordable. Flexible. What’s not to like?
If you’re a freelancer who works from home, check out our guide for freelance admin which includes a handy list of all the things you need to think about, with links, apps, and resources to help lighten the load.
Tips to Increase Productivity
When it came to discussing tactics and tools which helped people increase their productivity, regular breaks, to-do lists, and playing background music were the most common, followed by working in silence and thorough time planning. ‘Eating the frog’ – a technique where you complete your most important or hardest task first – also featured, along with regular exercise, working flexible hours (to plan task in during optimal productivity hours), eating nutritious snacks, playing background noise, having a strict sleep routing, and disabling notifications on devices.
When it came to gender split, to-do lists were top choice for females, whereas males preferred to have regular breaks. Males also preferred having some sort of background noise (music, or otherwise), compared to females who were more likely to do their most productive work in silence.
The self-employed were significantly more likely to plan tasks during optimal productivity hours, away from the constraints of set working hours and instead working in a more agile and flexible way to better suit their skills and needs. If you’re self-employed and like to have background noise while you work, we have collated our favourite podcasts for freelancers!
Also, our co-founder Jess has previously shared her experience with productivity, sharing some tips on how to make productivity work for you, Within this, Jess shares the tips that work best for her personally – including eliminating pointless meetings, switching off all notifications for at least an hour a day, giving your brain breathing space, and tackling your biggest task first during your productive hours – as well as some book recommendations on the subject of productivity.
Here at The Doers we’re huge fans of any platform that makes productivity easier – we hope these tips help, but if you’re looking for other options then check out our blog post on 5 productivity tools we love.
Survey, conducted with The Leadership Factor (TLF) in May 2022, polled 1,000 UK respondents – including a split of 500 employed and 500 self-employed respondents.
