Solo Self-employed and Contract Workers as Catalysts of Digital Transformation in German Companies

This is the conclusion drawn by an empirical analysis based on the 29th and 30th waves of the IW Personnel Panel conducted in the spring and summer of 2022. Companies rely on solo self-employed and contract workers from outside companies when they need additional personnel only for a limited time and can obtain staff quickly from external sources. However, by using external workers, they also gain access to specific know-how not available in their own workforces. In addition, their use has an insurance function. It turns out that the use of external staff is a catalyst for digital transformation at the company level. Solo self-employed workers tend to play an important role in the introduction of digital frontier technologies, while contract workers from outside companies tend to be used in the implementation of more mature technologies.