Flexible, freelance working is big business. Approximately two million people in the UK operate as ‘independents’ and between 2008 to 2016 the number of working mothers working freelance went up 79%.

And businesses are increasingly recognising the benefits of working with this agile workforce, not least because it can give them access to top industry talent. That’s why The Work Crowd is on a mission to connect the best businesses to the brightest brains in freelancing.

And of course, we love hearing about how working with us has helped businesses. So this month, we took the opportunity to speak to Holly Sutton CEO and Founder of Journalista, one of the UK’s top healthcare and public sector PR agencies and a client member of The Work Crowd.

Holly spoke to us about why she chooses to work with freelancers and how they are making a difference to her agency.

Holly, tell us about Journalista...

We are a fast-growing healthtech PR agency focusing on the three pillars of health and social care, research and technology. For example, we work with scale-ups developing and providing digital therapeutics, digitised clinical services such as insomnia treatment and counselling, as well as several leading UK universities, government agencies and technology enabled providers of traditional social care provision. All of our clients have complex issues that they need to make clear to people to drive positive changes in their communities.

Why did you come to The Work Crowd over traditional hiring methods?

We are a talent first agency. We demonstrate this by enabling flexible and remote working to build more senior and less hierarchical teams. This gives the opportunity to work with a wider pool of talent because for us it’s about bringing the absolute best people, to create stories and narratives, and to collaborate. 

We had tried everything to set up this kind of work culture, we paid £1000 for a Guardian advertisement, but the calibre of talent was much higher on The Work Crowd. For us, The Work Crowd has been a great jumping off point for us to structure a diverse and flexible workforce.

When you came to The Work Crowd, what business objective did you want to achieve and more importantly, what were the results?!

We initially came, wanting a press officer for the Third Sector for one of our smaller clients. Two years on we are still working with Sarah and she has become a permi-lancer and integral member of the team. We’ve also brought in freelancers to consult in digital marketing, odd contracts, and we’re now currently using the platform to recruit a senior press officer and PR consultant. So far, the most suitable applicants have come through The Work Crowd.

Sarah has been instrumental on the day-to-day of our Action on Elder Abuse campaign. From its grassroots, she has supported it by generating a lot of mainstream media coverage and just last month, the Home Secretary Sajid Javid announced a review of current hate crime provisions would be carried out by the Law Commission to ‘ensure that criminal law is working effectively across the protected characteristics.’ A truly transformative outcome for the cause.

“The Work Crowd is really driving an evolution - you enable us to foster intrapreneurship. That’s what really motivates me as an agency owner – bringing in a team of people that are more intrinsically motivated because they are working for themselves, or have experience of doing so, and taking pride in their own work. The team at The Work Crowd are also very engaged, they pick up the phone and make sure I’m aware of who looks right for Journalista.”

If you want to make sure you’re not missing out on a diverse pool of expert talent and want to leverage the expertise of freelancers, just ask us how. We’re always happy to pick up the phone and have a chat! Call us on 0203 828 8440 or drop us a line.