Working Free Ltd · Supporting Director-level Independents

WorkingFree is a specialist career advisory business supporting organisations and their senior Director-level executives coming off the permanent payroll into an independent working lifestyle.

Investing in the Working Free Pathfinder Programme – making the case.

PRESS RELEASE 16.2.22 - Major Changes ahead in the Workplace.

WorkingFree means working free from the strictures of permanent employment. It means working how you choose to work.

An introduction to Working Free Ltd

WorkingFree works with Organisations transitioning senior managers into effective Independents working outside the company – but not always outside. New entrepreneurial skillsets, attitudes and behaviours are often also seen as attractive – indeed necessary – commercial attributes required in senior areas of businesses. Working Free can help..

We also work directly with Individuals, in making this transition or seeking to upscale their professional effectiveness.

We coach our clients from dependency into independency – for their own future; for the enlightened reputation of their sponsoring organisations and – increasingly – for the benefit of the community.

Pathfinder Programme

Flexible, bespoke, adaptive, the Working Free Pathfinder Programme consists of about 25 MasterClasses, comprehensively covering the essentials of working independently at senior levels. Each MasterClass lasts one hour and is backed by a detailed Learning Management System, providing a very modern, creative and phased approach to the changing resourcing and development needs of organisations and of senior people in the workplace.

Our Programmes are mostly delivered online but Working Free recognises that there is no real alternative to meeting people face-to-face. We are able to deliver onsite – in part or wholly.

Please see more here – How we work with our Corporate Clients

Why Organisations Talk To WorkingFree

Supporting Traditional Outplacement

Working Free offers an additional, different and new supplementary support to traditional outplacement services.

Independent Career Support

Those leaving under restructuring programmes don’t all want to find roles mirroring the one they’ve just left. Some want to do their own thing. Few know how. Independent Working is now recognised as mainstream.

Enhance Your CSR and – now – your ESG Programmes

In many cases, local – and wider communities are beneficiaries of newly fledged independent workers. A worthy inclusion in corporate CSR programmes. ESG is now written into many Business Plans. ESG is NOT about spending; it is about investing.

Good leavers are worth keeping in touch with

Whatever they are doing – it’s a variation on the Alumni concept – successfully adopted by many professional organisations.

Retain Important Access to Skills, Experience and Energies

Those retiring under normal conditions don’t all want to go on lots of holidays and look after the grandchildren. Their skills and energies and some aspirations are still there – but their salaries are gone. Their pensions may not be enough. Their ambitions will not have disappeared entirely.

Re-engage Former Employees on a Freelance Basis

Re-engaging former employees on a freelance basis is a small but resident feature within many organisational resourcing programmes. Getting it right and doing more of it is good for business.

We present WorkingFree as a unique offering in a busy and increasingly important market.

Covid, Tech, ESG and Brexit have all combined in having a dramatic impact on the ways we work – and lead our lives. Much of this continues to unfold – and looks likely to continue for some time.

Virtually instantaneous communications – in many forms; a resetting of the Employer/Employee relationship; a rethinking of the work/life balance philosophy; replacing line-of-sight management with trust – and education; the upending of the meaning of friendships; learning how to reconcile new concepts of individualism with collaboration and team-work – and short-term needs with longer-term relationships.

All these – and more – are full of challenges and opportunities.

Better Comes Next – is Working Free’s collaborative Mission. Let us take you there through our comprehensive and practical Pathfinder Programme.

Collaborations

We are pleased to collaborate with www.devonshirehousenetwork.co.uk . Devonshire House Network is a people focused membership club for director-level professionals in leadership roles who have an instinctive focus on the human side of enterprise. Their purpose is to create, for their members, thinking time and space for key business issues and where people make the difference.

ThinkingFree

The Evolution of Thinking about Senior People in the Workplace.

Major Changes ahead in the Workplace

** PRESS RELEASE ** ONS Employment Statistics were released 15.2.22 up to the end of Dec 2021. "More people in work now than before the pandemic began", so said the Prime Minister- on several occasions – obviously referring to people on the payroll (perm employees – F/T and P/T.) And he was right. The dramatic reduction in Self Employment (see [...]

What will work look like post-Covid?

What will work look like post-Covid? To begin with, unemployment will spike and businesses will be absorbed by issues of recovery – ranging from survival to the gung-ho chasing of opportunities, with or without serious prior planning. This will depend on money – either what businesses have or can count on getting in the short term from whatever sources. Individuals [...]

Does anyone know what Gigworkers are? Or how many there are?

Does anyone know what Gigworkers are? Or how many there are? This is a fundamental question – and of crucial importance - as we move into the Post Covid and Post-Brexit environment. There are serious complexities in understanding the size, the terminology, the definitions and the constant change and variability in virtually all aspects of this sector of the workforce. [...]

What sort of tax is IR35 going to be seen as?

What sort of tax is IR35 going to be seen as? This short Opinion Piece was originally published as IR35 is going to be seen as a BAD TAX! Since then, mainstream opinion seems to have been shifted – or shifted on its own accord - towards a more nuanced assessment. So we thought we also ought to adopt a [...]

What inspires us

“Every human being has a great mission to perform… and of exerting freely all the powers of his godlike nature.”
Samuel Smiles – Read our article here

“Experiment patiently, accept failures, plant seeds, protect saplings and double-down when you see customer delight.”
Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon

“I go in to do my job forhours and hours in the gym for years. You only get a minute here to show what you’ve been working on and I’ve done it today – at the Olympic Games.”
Max Whitlock, Olympic Gold Medalist

“There are known knowns. These are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we know we don’t know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we don’t know we don’t know.”
Donald Rumsfeld,Former U.S. Congressman

“The Biggest mistake in life is to believe that you work for someone else!”
Cliff Hakim, Author

Quotes from Steve Jobs.

“I’m convinced that about half of what separates successful entrepreneurs from the non-successful ones is pure perseverance.”

Reconcile this with ………

“Sometimes when you innovate, you make mistakes. It is best to admit them quickly and get on with improving your other innovations.”