The layoff announcements from major global brands just keep coming. Big Tech companies like Meta, Salesforce, and Lyft and financial institutions like Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs have recently laid off significant percentages of their staff. Many companies that have avoided layoffs are turning to a less drastic but somewhat more ambiguous option: the hiring freeze. 

The Impact of a Hiring Freeze on Strategic Execution

Choosing to freeze hiring over implementing layoffs has notable efficiency, productivity, and morale benefits, but the impact of a hiring freeze on the business shouldn’t be minimized. When open roles are frozen, leaders are forced to make difficult tradeoffs and staffing decisions to still deliver strong business results with fewer resources. A waterfall effect of filling resourcing gaps and project rescoping can flow through the business and cause significant delays when executing strategic work. 

How To Work With Freelance Consultants During a Hiring Freeze  

The freelance economy has grown in the post-pandemic world. Catalant explored the cause-effect relationship in this video interview with Harvard professor and thought leader Joe Fuller — but the bottom line is that more and more business-critical work is getting done by individuals that aren’t working nine-to-five full-time jobs. Strategic work is being farmed out to independent consultants and freelancers, who manage their own workloads and schedules and reap the benefits of flexibility and work-life balance.

Turning to the freelance economy for strategic work enables business leaders to quickly harness the power of independent consultants and subject-matter experts. When faced with talent gaps caused by hiring freezes — be it project management, market research, data analytics, or another project — a business unit leader can turn to a strategic partner like Catalant to find an experienced consultant for the job. 

Check out this list of independent professional consultants who can help your business quickly execute strategic work during a full-time hiring freeze.

24 Expert Independent Consultants to Get You through Your Hiring Freeze

We’ve focused this list on areas where we’ve seen significant market demand from our clients. The following consultants are just a sampling of the experts you can find with Catalant and their areas of expertise. If you have a business need in a particular category that you don’t see here, please contact us and we can connect you with the right consultant. While we can’t guarantee the immediate availability of these consultants listed below, there are thousands more qualified experts in the Catalant community.

Marketing and Market Research

Digital Transformation and IT

Project Management

Operations

Pricing

Data Analytics