Freelance Access, Communications Collaborative Create a Niche Managing the
Freelance Explosion
BOSTON � Corporate downsizing, unbundling of advertising services and reluctance to incur the expense of a full-time employee has been tough on thousands of employees in the communications business. But two Boston-based companies found an opportunity to harness the power of those who want to or have to freelance by creating advertising-specific temporary placement services. Just as actors, the ultimate freelance workers, have agents to find them their next job, freelancers are finding that temporary services are assuring them a continued stream of jobs.
�Temporary heroes� is the new slogan for Freelance Access, the employment service that, in two years, has grown into a specialist for the communications industry, offering services of more than 1,000 art directors, software experts, copywriters, editors and other creative workers.
The Communications Collaborative, run by the management consulting firm Pile and Co., Boston is another of New England�s leading advertising-specific temporary services, providing a pool of experienced creative people to agencies, corporations and studios and throughout the Boston area.
The creative community seems to have taken to the highly specialized niche that the two firms occupy. Traditional temporary services and those that specialize in technical prowess, didn�t always have high-level art directors or writers available, said agency employees who work regularly with freelancers.
Freelance Access recently relocated from the Boston neighborhood of Brighton to Boston�s Fort Point Channel area. Founder and president Byron White has initiated a new-media division run by former freelance producer Tom Nichol and employs a staff of eight sales and support people. The Freelance Access way of doing business is simple: prices are printed like on a menu at a restaurant. That way, says White, not only does the client know what�s being paid, so does the freelance employee. �There�s no mystery of bad feelings,� White said.
A recent visit to Communications Collaborative revealed a tote board chock full of active jobs with some of the areas largest agencies, some for a duration of weeks or months, others for a day or two. �It�s pretty interesting how many companies are using freelancers for all kinds of projects,� said senior associate Ann Rehm. �Once they�ve called us, or I imaging Freelance Access once, they become more comfortable with the whole process.�
Clients of both services say the prices each charge are similar and that many of the same freelancers are available through each service.
Glenn Kennedy, studio manager at Houston Effler & Partners, Boston, said he is new to the world of freelance services. A freelancer himself for a few years, �I know a lot of people out there on their own freelancing, so I usually would just call them. Recently he needed Mac artists/graphic designers in 24 hours to work through a weekend, and called Freelance Access. That experience made him a believer. �It�s easier than call [freelancers] directly,� he said.
Freelance Access attempts to differentiate itself by administering a test to all of its freelancers to define each person�s level of competence. Each multiple-choice test, administered by computer, asks questions from elementary to the obscure. For instance, an art director might be asked several questions about fonts that would separate the novice from the most experienced. The talent pool is then placed into levels of proficiency: one (least experienced) to four (most experienced). That allows recruiter Lisa Lachance to narrow her database search to the candidates most likely fit to a job.
Rhonda Iannacone, director of corporate communications for Carlisle Plastics, Boston, said that almost all of the creative for the company�s communications materials are handled by freelancers. �I can talk to [Byron White] and talk about what level I need. It makes it easier for a person like me who has less experience with the creative side of things.�