Our research into the issues that freelancers face, consistently show some common themes around financial uncertainty, issues of confidence and isolation.
However, many of the negative influences on wellbeing - over 50%, come directly from working with clients.
Issues like late payments, ghosting and poor communication have a very direct impact on the mental health of freelancers.
We can’t look at the issue of mental health of freelancers in isolation of how they work with clients - despite being independent, almost all work has an element of working with a customer, client or partner - and the relationship matters.
Much of our work in the past has been focused on supporting individuals who are working for themselves, but if the river is poisoned upstream, there’s little point in dealing with the symptoms. Tackling the cause is also important. I often describe mental health as a symptom - of the things you’re dealing with in life. So if you want to improve your mental health, you need to look at the things which impact it.
So, in 2026, Leapers will be very much additionally looking towards working with those organisations who hire freelancers - to make a marked improvement in how companies hire, support and work well with freelancers.
A. BEST PRACTICE: We’ll be looking at those who are already doing it well - curating examples and best practices, so that others can learn from what is already working to demonstrate the ROI of working effectively with their freelancers. There’s a strong business case for building stronger relationships with freelancers.
B. POLICY FRAMEWORK: We’ll be working with those who want to publish a Freelance Friendly policy statement - our 10 point framework for making it more transparent what a business is already doing, and a roadmap for making improvements each year.
C. SIGNPOSTING TO SUPPORT: We’ll be plugging signposting and support into organisations who want to, at the very least, ensure there are useful resources and links to support from third parties for their freelancers.
All of the work is based upon our research, and a “stepped approach” which hirers can adopt:
Signpost to Support - the bear minimum, to ensure freelancers know where they can find support when they need it.
Do no harm - removing behaviours which have a tangible negative impact on freelancers, such as late payments
Mindset shifts - moving to a model where freelancers are an integral and supported part of an organisation’s workforce
None of this means we’ll be stepping away from supporting freelancers - ultimately, this is a way to both distribute the work we’re doing to a wider audience, and shift internal behaviours from hirers, to mean we’re less needed as a project.
How can you help?
If you’re a freelancer - nominate businesses who you think are already doing it well. If you’ve worked with an organisation who treated you with respect, got the basics right like paid you on time, or went above and beyond to support and work well with you - introduce us to them. We’ll include them in our work.
If you’re a hirer - get in touch, and we’ll walk you through the stepped model. There’s zero cost to get started.
