One of the main reasons companies work with freelancers is the ability to hire a person with unique experience, according to a report by Solar Staff, a provider of agent-of-record services.

It found 68% of firms cited the ability to hire a person with unique experience as a main reason for working with freelancers. Other main reasons included lower hiring and labor costs, 61%; better results, 47%; and that time-to-hire is not a factor, 43%.

However, 93.5% of firms said competition for skilled freelancers has intensified over the last two years.

Among other findings:

• More than half of firms surveyed, 51%, cited finding the right talent as a pain point when working with freelancers. Other pain points were talent management, 18%; onboarding, 18%; and measuring performance, 10%.
• Fifty-seven percent of firms used both local and international freelancers, 14% used only international, 19% used only local and 10% didn’t use freelancers.
• Two-thirds of firms, 66%, say they have run into misclassification problems while working with international freelancers that has affected their business. In addition, 22% said they have run into difficulties, but those difficulties haven’t affected business. Twelve percent said they hadn’t run into difficulties.

The survey included 400 HR professionals.