One of the pandemic’s many significant consequences has been a change in the way America works. The types of work we do, the tools we use for work, even where we work have all been altered by the past year. This fundamental reimagining of work could help create an opening to build a more diverse workforce.
Over the past year, two million additional people in the United States became freelancers. According to Upwork’s Freelance Forward 2020 study, this dramatic rise brings the total number of freelancers in America to 59 million people, or a little more than one third of the total workforce.
Whether driven by choice or circumstance, these workers were able to easily make this transition because the marketplaces and infrastructure that support freelance work have become widespread. From Etsy to Upwork, the ability to find and manage gigs has been made simple.
Freelance Work as Social Catalyst
Within this mass migration, Zoë Harte sees an opportunity for change. The Chief People Officer at Upwork told me she hopes the explosion in remote work because of the pandemic and the continued normalization of freelance work can challenge our unconscious, foundational, and institutional biases.
Put another way, a new workplace dynamic featuring greater access and that emphasizes output over office politics can help level the playing field. And with a more inclusive, diverse workforce we can help democratize opportunity.
Harte has put this philosophy into practice through her role at Upwork, which bills itself as the world’s work marketplace. Under her leadership, Upwork has over 500 corporate employees but more than 1,500 remote freelance team members across all aspects of its business, including engineering, customer service, finance, Human Resources, and legal.
She has seen this same dynamic play out in many of the companies that use Upwork. In her experience, as more high-quality talent becomes independent, companies naturally bring freelancers closer to the center of their business.
Harte expects that to only increase as businesses face even more pressure to succeed on more limited resources, providing an opening for many highly skilled people to gain diverse experiences and new opportunities as freelancers.
From the Humanities to HR
Like many women in tech, Harte did not originally chart a course for the industry. While earning her Bachelor of Arts in religion and women’s studies and then a Master of Arts in theology, she focused on social justice work and volunteered as a counselor. It was after taking a job as a temporary staffing assistant at Yahoo! during the first technology boom that she found her calling.
She ultimately spent nine years at Yahoo!, including in its international division, before moving on to a number of other companies running their Human Resource departments. After taking time off to have a family, Harte joined the Human Resource department at ODesk, which eventually became Upwork.
For her, the ability to bring passion and perspective to the job is what makes for a successful HR executive. She says that HR leaders need to understand on a personal, visceral level what it’s like for others to interact with HR as an employee. She believes her experiences in other settings and outside of HR are what allow her to be a more effective executive and partner.
Harte’s nontraditional path serves as a roadmap for other women seeking a career in tech. As every company is now a technology company in some way, professionals from adjacent industries like HR have new entry points and those with soft skills or more diverse experiences can provide immediate value in multiple roles.
Harte says that women should remain current on a wide range of skill sets to improve their chances of finding work. She recommends doing market research on marketable skills and how to learn them, and suggests they regularly make time to connect with people outside of their field in areas like engineering, investor relations, or other sectors that interest them.
Having these interests and knowledge can be an important advantage in this new era of freelance and remote work. More opportunities await female candidates where performance is the great differentiator. With more tech companies pursuing freelance workers, it can be easier for women to gain a foothold within these careers or parlay early gig success into full time employment.
