Contractors look set to benefit from better informed policy decisions as a result of new research into the success factors affecting Europe’s Independent Professionals, or IPros, of which the UK contracting sector is a part.
“Policy development for Europe’s increasingly important flexible workforce is being held back by a lack of common definitions and frameworks,” explains Professor Patricia Leighton. “The objectives of the research are to explore and compare the working environments of IPros in nine European nations to identify the contexts within which contractors and freelancers work and to highlight the factors that influence their success.”
The first stage of the research is already underway and Leighton hopes that many of ContractorCalculator’s readers will take part in the fieldwork element, due to start in August. Further information on how to participate will be published on this site in late August.
Europe contains huge regulatory and cultural barriers to overcome
“The customs, practices and regulation of IPros across Europe varies considerably from country to country,” continues Leighton, the Emeritus Professor of Employment Law at the University of Glamorgan and Professor at the École Supérieure de Commerce à Paris et à Nice (Ipag). “What is accepted practice in the UK may be unusual or even illegal in other European states.”
Leighton’s view is that without shared understanding of the factors promoting IPro working practices, and the barriers preventing success, policymakers cannot effectively legislate at both a European and national level.
“The level of regulation of professional activities in other European states can be much higher than in the UK, but so is the representation of IPros to regional and national government. We must build a level of transnational understanding about how IPros work so that they can be fairly represented in the policy agenda,” she adds.
The research team
The core research team alongside Leighton includes social security and tax expert Dr Eileen Fry and contract researcher Duncan Brown, who brings his statistical and presentation skills to the project.
We will inform policymakers of what is really happening across the nine states participating and suggest that they ignore IPros at their peril
Professor Patricia Leighton
A further nine country experts have been identified from each of the participating countries of Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Spain and the UK. The country experts will play a key role in reviewing the research output.
Stage one of the research is already underway, as Leighton explains: “The initial phase is desk research drawing on European Union and national data and other sources to establish how IPros source work, the regulatory and support environment in which they operate, the barriers they face, and the level of training and representation they have.”
Two-stage desk and field research
The results of stage one will be collated into a draft report, which will be sent to the nine country experts for comment and review at the end of September. Stage two is a series of targeted and in-depth interviews with key stakeholders in each member state that will be conducted throughout the autumn.
There will be twelve interviews for each country participating in the study, comprising:
- 5 IPros from a variety of backgrounds
- 2 academics/researchers from different disciplines
- 5 representatives of key institutions, such as government departments and professional bodies.
UK contractors can play a key role in the research by participating in the interviews, and ContractorCalculator will announce opportunities to volunteer when the planning for stage two begins in late August.
“At the conclusion of the project in March 2013, our intention is to present not only a body of comparative data about the IPro context within each country, but also direct evidence from IPros and experts that will help to dispel the many myths held about who IPros are and how they operate.”
The benefits to UK contracting
Leighton anticipates a complex and variable picture will emerge from across the chosen countries, so predicting specific research outcomes is difficult. But because the research objectives are to identify obstacles to contracting, Leighton sees the final output as a set of recommendations. She believes these “may be quite specific, but are also likely to concern macro policy-making and governmental attitudes.”
Leighton concludes: “We will inform policymakers of what is really happening across the nine states participating and suggest that they ignore IPros at their peril.”
The research project, Working as an independent professional (IPro) in the EU: Seeking the success factors, is supported by the European Forum of Independent Professionals (EFIP).