Still more changes in self-employed work than before corona

The survey was conducted in early 2023 among 6 800 independent entrepreneurs. One of the questions in the list is about changes in the working method. In 2021, when there were many restrictions due to corona, 62 percent indeed said they would work differently. This year, 47 percent gave that answer. That is even higher than the outcome of 2019, before the corona outbreak. Then 41 percent reported a change in working method.

The share of self-employed entrepreneurs without employees (self-employed persons) who have experienced a change in the amount of customer contact in 2023 has almost halved at 22 percent compared to 2021. The percentage is higher than in 2019.

Professions with a lot of personal contact are experiencing just as many changes as before corona

In almost all professional classes, self-employed people have had to deal with changes in work more often from 2019 to 2021. Self-employed people working in a pedagogical profession or a healthcare and welfare profession indicated in 2023 about as often as before corona that they worked differently. These are examples of professional classes where personal contact with the customer, student or patient plays a major role. For self-employed entrepreneurs without employees with an agricultural profession or an IT profession, approximately as much changed in 2023 as in 2021, i.e. during corona.

Changes in pedagogical professions are also back to pre-corona levels

Self-employed people in the pedagogical professions changed their working methods much more often during the corona period than in previous years. For example, they combined teaching at school with online education. In 2023, the level of changes was the same as before corona.

This same pattern occurred among self-employed people in other professions where customer contacts play an important role. Business economics and administrative professions, for example, or transport and logistics professions and the healthcare and welfare professions. For example, during the corona period, doctors and medical assistants partly switched to telephone consultations instead of appointments at the practice or in the hospital.

In the ICT and agricultural professions, there is little difference on this point between the three measurement moments. Moreover, the percentage that experiences changes in the way of working among self-employed people in the ICT professions has been relatively high in all years.

Customer acquisition less personal even after corona

In addition to actually performing their profession, self-employed people must also ensure a full order book or sufficient customers. The ranking of the methods they use for this has remained virtually unchanged over the years. This means that orders are largely acquired through our own network and through previous or current customers.

Almost all recruitment methods are used less on average than before corona. Recruitment via our own network, via customers or our own website already declined during corona and decreased again in 2023. This is only offset by an increase in unspecified ‘other ways’.