The Samasource Freelance Agency A Low-Cost & Scalable Model to Give Work in Complex Geographies Phillip Chikwiramakomo, Director, Samasource Digital Basics Melodie Kinet, Director Business Development & Impact Solutions phillip@samasourcedigitalbasics.org mkinet@samasource.org 1
ABOUT SAMASOURCE ● A portfolio of 7 products & services ● Over 100 Fortune 500 & Start Ups Served ● Over 10,000 people employed ● Over 44,000 people positively impacted ● Averaging 40% growth YOY 2
SAMASOURCE IS TRUSTED BY... 3
SAMASOURCE LOCATIONS Den Haag February 2017 San Francisco HQ Gulu, Uganda, 270 agents Bangalore,India 250 agents Kampala, Uganda 100 agents Nairobi, Kenya 1500 agents Samasource Offices Samasource Centers 4
Samasource Digital Basics Equipping marginalized women and youth with the skills, confidence, and support they need to secure a living-wage job
Online freelancing ● Opportunities ○ Access to global work opportunities ○ Relative higher wages Flexible working conditions - ○ combining studying and earning an income ● Barriers Access to hardware ○ ○ Connectivity Lack of understanding of ○ platforms and clients Lack of software/applications to ○ complete work
The Co-shared working space and Agency The space Infrastructure + Training + Support The Agency Source work + Support completion of work + Quality Assurance
FREELANCING CURRICULUM Our curriculum is designed from the ground up to meet the unique needs of low-income students and ➢ rapidly upskill them to succeed as independent workers. INTRO TO FREELANCING Students learn how freelancing differs from conventional employment, and whether freelancing is a good fit for them PREPARING TO FREELANCE Students select a freelance work category, and learn about online work platforms, personal branding, and creating a great online work profile GETTING FREELANCE WORK Students learn how to find freelance work (online and offline), assess job quality, avoid scams, and write winning proposals SUCCEEDING ON THE JOB Students learn how to provide great customer service, manage a project timeline, and stay safe on the job MANAGING LIFE AS A FREELANCER Students learn how to optimize their weekly schedules, manage their taxes, and create freelance contracts CAREER PLANNING Students learn how to use freelancing to advance towards their career goals 8
FREELANCING TYPES An online freelancer is defined as any respondent that reported earning income for completing contract or project-based work over the internet within the past 12 months. Online Freelancers can be further segmented into the categories below. Of those that worked in online freelancing in any capacity, 95% would be categorized as independent contractors, using online freelancing as a primary source of income. ONLINE FREELANCING ENGAGEMENT TYPES OF ONLINE FREELANCERS Conduct contract or project-based work online INDEPENDENT Traditionally employed full-time CONTRACTORS 95% Might operate personal business Independent Contractors 38% OF ALL HISTORICAL Conduct contract or project-based work online GRADUATES ARE MOONLIGHTERS Traditionally employed full-time ENGAGED IN ONLINE FREELANCING Might operate personal business 5% Moonlighters Conduct contract or project-based work online DIVERSIFIED Traditionally employed full-time WORKERS Might operate personal business
EMPLOYMENT OUTCOMES + EMPLOYMENT TYPE 82% REPORTED EARNING AN INCOME. 36% ONLINE FREELANCE 82% 40% TRADITIONAL EMPLOYMENT EARN AN INCOME 2% n=50 MICRO-BUSINESS 2% TRADITIONAL EMPLOYMENT + ONLINE FREELANCE 2% MICRO-BUSINESS + TRADITIONAL EMPLOYMENT 18% DO NOT EARN AN INCOME* *9 out of 50 respondents reported not earning an income for one of the following reasons: not being able to find work, attending a school or job training program, or going on maternity leave.
EMPLOYMENT OUTCOMES + EMPLOYMENT TYPE 38% ARE ENGAGED IN ONLINE FREELANCING AFTER GRADUATING. SDB-OF EMPLOYMENT OUTCOMES EMPLOYMENT TYPE 18% 40% DO NOT EARN AN INCOME TRADITIONAL EMPLOYMENT 38% 82% 36% ONLINE FREELANCE ONLINE FREELANCE * EARN AN INCOME n=50 n=50 82% 2% MICRO-BUSINESS EARN AN INCOME 2% TRADITIONAL EMPLOYMENT + ONLINE FREELANCE 18% 2% MICRO-BUSINESS + TRADITIONAL EMPLOYMENT DO NOT EARN AN INCOME † *The total amount of 38% includes a respondent who was traditionally employed but also worked in online freelance part-time. † Includes is the total count of respondents 9 out of 50 respondents reported not earning an income for one of the following reasons: not being able to find work, attending a school or job training program, or going on maternity leave.
AVERAGE MONTHLY INCOME Respondents working as online freelancers earned 1.5x more than those traditionally employed. $428 $286 $96 = 19 = 22 = 2 Online Freelance Traditional Employment Micro-business Owner 50% of respondents reported their 79% of respondents reported 73% of respondents reported earnings based on calculations their earnings based on their earnings based on and records, rather than a best calculations and records, rather calculations and records, rather guess. than a best guess. than a best guess. n=41; *Note: 2 out of the 41 individuals had multiple sources of income. The question was phrased as ‘select all that apply’. The totals of each of the employment types equals 43.
Approach going forward Samasource Digital Basics is working on: ● Technology that will enable more training and placement to be automated ● Automation of toolkits to best enable other NGOs and agencies to deliver our training and freelancing agencies ● Enrichment of personalized skills development and career discovery through machine learning ● Further investment in technical curriculum development
Approach going forward - Dadaab refugee camp A collaboration with Norwegean Refugee ● Council and International Trade Corporation ● 100 refugees trained in online freelancing Training of trainers implemented ● ● 4 months support for students to bid for work
CURRICULUM and TRAINING-RELATED SERVICES We work with other organizations to deploy our model to reach other vulnerable populations Our team of experts partners with other nonprofits or agencies to assess workforce baseline skill level, goals and cultural context ➢ Based on our assessments, we develop a customized curriculum tailored to local needs ➢ We assess community partners for training infrastructure, resources and long-term sustainability if required ➢ We review the local landscape for employer profiles and hiring practices and make recommendations for employment ➢ Post-training, we perform an assessment of the cohort against the initial baseline to determine work readiness ➢ We use our proprietary impact measurement methodology to monitor success obtaining work and resulting economic change ➢ Local employer Post-training work Baseline skills Customize Training site Impact evaluation & readiness assessment curriculum assessments measurement recommendations assessment 15
Training Our experienced trainers provide on-the-ground training to worker cohorts ➢ Training entails high-touch sessions for each module within the curriculum ➢ Empirical exercises and real-world work simulations are included in each training ➢ Training sessions are typically conducted initially with pilot cohort, followed by scaled-up training for larger cohorts ➢ We conduct “training of trainers” sessions for maximum outreach ➢ Foreign language translation of the curriculum is provided upon request ➢ 16
CURRICULUM LICENSING Our curriculum is specifically tailored to address 3 primary contributors to unemployment: ➢ Lack of in-demand skills ○ Lack an understanding of job-search process ○ Lack of connections to employers ○ We use insights gained from Samasource’s years of training and employing marginalized people ➢ Within weeks, trainees learn basic digital as well as specialized occupational skills ➢ SAMASOURCE ● Provides trainees with in-demand digital literacy and DIGITAL BASICS market-aligned vocational skills ● Prepares them to work and succeed in a professional CURRICULUM environment SAMASOURCE ● Introduces the world of online job platforms and categories and create an online job profile FREELANCING ● Search for, apply and prepare to secure employment as a CURRICULUM freelancer 17
FREELANCE AGENCY SETUP The quickest and most flexible way to connect workers with employers is to set up an online freelance agency ➢ This option has the least overhead and lowest cost and overcomes geographical barriers ➢ We training partners in agency administration to standing up a fully-functional online agency complete with ➢ operations & maintenance processes 18
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