C-suite goes gig as demand for fractional work rises
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There's been an explosion of interest among senior executives — including C-suite leaders — in going gig, or "fractional."
Why it matters: The trend is another ripple effect from the pandemic, which propelled remote and flexible work culture.
- "People don't want to go back to pre-COVID — [they] want control, more work-life-balance, and a say over who they work with and how they work," Karina Mikhli, founder of Fractionals United, a 13,000-member community group, tells Axios in an email.
Context: A fractional leader is someone with lengthy experience who works part-time and long-term to help run and represent a company, according to Mikhli.
- They are "on the org chart and have a seat at the leadership table," she says.
- Consultants, on the other hand, sit outside of organizations and work on a project basis.
Zoom in: Khadijah Robinson, a fractional COO for young companies, started committing to the role at the start of 2023 after being burnt out from "a nonstop decade of go, go, go," she tells Axios.
- "I also wanted to be able to work on multiple things," she says.
By the numbers: An Axios search on Dec. 27 for "fractional" within LinkedIn profiles yielded 144,000 results. That's up from 142,000 just the day before — and up from 2,000 in 2022.
- It's unlikely all 144,000 are real people or that they all hold (or at one point held) a "fractional" job.
Between the lines: "It's similar to the job title 'founder.' It's self-appointed, so it can mean a lot of different things," Taylor Crane, founder of Fractional Jobs, a listings platform, tells Axios.
- For some it's wishful thinking. For others, using the term could be a response to stigma around "freelance" or being out of work, he adds.
Reality check: Fractional jobs may be in high demand, but they're currently hard to come by.
- Crane's job board has attracted nearly 11,000 workers in less than a year but just 85 companies, he says.
- There's still a lack of awareness, says Crane. Employers aren't always convinced that a fractional leader can be valuable part-time, or they feel like they don't want to compete for someone's attention against multiple clients.
- Startups and smaller businesses have been among the earliest adopters of fractional work because they have limited resources but need senior leadership experience, says Mikhli.
The other side: Fractional jobs can also be tough for workers who are looking for easier access to health care, or those who think they can take on a role while they search for full-time positions.
- "[The] downside is you are your own boss, have to learn to juggle running a business and finding work while also doing work. And many of us don't enjoy the business development side of things," says Mikhli.
- Scope creep — where the workload grows larger and larger — is another issue that fractional executives should be conscious of managing, Robinson says from her own experience.
The big picture: Interest in fractional work is taking off at a time when there are fresh warning signs about the strength of the U.S. jobs market.
- Fractional jobs may offer less security in the "traditional sense," says Robinson. "But then again, I don't know that people with full-time jobs in the current market necessarily feel so secure."
