HR leaders are increasingly incorporating contractors and freelancers into their workforce strategies. As Liam Neeson taught us in Taken, independent workers can provide a very particular set of skills.

McKinsey estimates that independent workers make up 36% of the US workforce, up from 27% in 2016. The growing market for freelance platforms and solutions highlights the growing popularity of freelancing, as companies like Catalant, Malt, Worksome, and Willa raised eight-figure funding rounds in 2021.

While companies had been using freelance and contingent workers more in the lead up to the Covid-19 pandemic, the mass adoption of remote work and the volatile talent market that followed have led more HR teams to consider this population as part of their workforce strategy.

“Folks have been much more receptive to hiring high-skilled labor, in pretty much every category,” Taso Du Val, CEO of the freelance platform Toptal, said.

How it happens. Freelancer platform execs told HR Brew that demand for their services typically comes from department heads with little to no involvement from HR.

“The functional or business leader is usually the driver of demand,” Du Val said.

A lot of the time, HR is a source of resistance, or indifference, Du Val said. He explained that HR is often “not convinced” of freelancers’ value and has historically had a more “rigid mindset” around the perceived limitations and barriers of incorporating contract workers into the overall workforce strategy.

Overcoming barriers. Tony Buffum, Upwork’s VP of HR strategy, said he experienced exactly what Du Val described during his career as an HR leader at companies including GE, Stanley Black & Decker, and FLIR Systems. Keep reading here.—AK

Do you work in HR or have information about your HR department we should know? Email [email protected] or DM @AmanfromCT on Twitter. For completely confidential conversations, ask Aman for his number on Signal.

On Mondays, we explore what’s happening abroad in the world of HR. Got global HR news? Let us know by responding to this email.

Smell that? Belgium has more than chocolate wafting through the air. Its workers are also taking in the sweet scent of cash as the country prepares to dole out pay increases to the masses.

What in the world? Many workers around the world are hoping for higher wages amid record inflation, but those in Belgium are likely to get them. Inflation in the country topped 12% in October, according to US News & World Report, but its citizens are somewhat shielded from the effects because their pay is directly tied to the rising prices. In January 2023, nearly one million Belgians can expect a raise as high as 11.59%.

Not everyone is happy about the policy, though. Over the summer, the Brussels Times reported that employers tried to negotiate a 3% increase instead, saying they cannot afford high pay raises since labor costs have increased 7% in the last year and are expected to rise a further 8% over the next year.

Satellite view. The practice of automatically raising wages with inflation is known as “indexation” and is “used by governments to connect prices and asset values,” according to Investopedia.

In the US, a similar process is often referred to as a cost-of-living adjustment. Belgium and Luxembourg are the only European Union countries that currently require indexation; Denmark, France, and Italy stopped doing so in the 1970s. It is not the same as raising the minimum wage, something France, Germany, Greece, and the Netherlands have all done this year to help those in their lowest wage brackets.

According to Bloomberg, indexation could ultimately hurt workers in Belgium. Keep reading here.—KP

Do you work in HR or have information about your HR department we should know? Email [email protected] or DM @Kris10Parisi on Twitter. For completely confidential conversations, ask Kristen for her number on Signal.

Today’s top HR reads.

Stat: Cloudbrink, a startup that aims to provide distributed workforces a secure network, announced $25 million in funding, led by Highland Capital Partners. (TechCrunch)

Quote: “It is a good excuse to build team spirit within the office and talk about their different nationalities.”—Mary Gilbey, managing director of translation services company Anglian Translations, on why employees should be allowed to watch the World Cup during work hours (BBC News)

Read: Amazon has started locking some of the employees affected by last week’s round of layoffs out of their offices and company laptops. (the Seattle Times)

Subscribe: Money with Katie is here to help you manifest your financial freedom. Her weekly newsletter takes a spicy approach to budgeting, investing, retirement, and more. Get practical ways to live a rich life delivered to you for free.