The Future is Fractional
Your most valuable communications might not come from a full-time hire anymore.
By Laura Zahariou and Rachel Abad
The way organisations engage senior communications talent is shifting quietly but unmistakably. Not because the need for strategic expertise has diminished, but because the traditional employment model is no longer the only way to meet it. Fractional leadership is emerging as a really compelling alternative that makes sense for businesses watching budgets and for senior professionals rethinking what a rewarding career actually looks like.
The numbers are catching up with what many of us have been observing on the ground, like with LinkedIn profiles listing a "fractional" C-suite title jumping from around 2,000 in 2022 to more than 110,000 by late 2024. That’s a 5,400% increase.
We are both Fractional Communications and Marketing Directors, Laura founder of Growth Lane Marketing, and Rachel founder of Looped-in Communications. Between us, we've seen this shift from the inside, and we think it's worth talking about.
The stability myth is breaking down
Rachel: For a long time, the full-time job represented safety: salary continuity, a defined role, a place in the org chart. Contracting or fractional work, by contrast, felt like a risk – something you did between or on top of "real" jobs or when you couldn't find one.
That perception is changing fast. In today's environment, redundancies and restructures are so frequent that the certainty once associated with permanent employment has largely eroded. The psychological contract between employer and employee has shifted. More and more experienced professionals are realising that building a portfolio of client relationships can actually offer comparable, and in some cases greater, stability than relying on an employer.
I’ve spent 15 years in communications and marketing roles in-house, at places like Telstra and at Metro Trains, and in agency environments. Some of these roles looked secure until they weren't. I made it through two major redundancies, but the third one got me in the end, by working for a small business with no redundancy package to keep my afloat. When I founded Looped-in Communications, it was a deliberate choice to give working for myself a crack. And, I wanted to do the kind of meaningful, qualitative, insight-led strategy work I believe in, across industries I connect with, without having to wait for someone to approve my every move, or question my informed approach.
The shift for me felt cultural. According to World Bank and ILO data, close to 47% of the global workforce now works independently in some form. The OECD forecasts that by 2030, half of all professionals will work in portfolio careers rather than single full-time roles. More senior professionals are choosing fractional careers intentionally because they want to work on diverse challenges, build relationships with founders and leadership teams, and have the kind of variety and autonomy that a single organisation very rarely provides.
What this means for organisations, and why comms leads the way
Laura: From an organisational perspective, the shift to fractional engagement is less about cost-cutting and more about getting the right strategic capability at the right time. When communications sits at the heart of an organisation, where it shapes reputation, supports change, connects leadership to stakeholders. The case for senior communications leadership is clear. What fractional models make possible is access to that leadership for organisations that need it but aren’t yet structured to sustain a full-time executive hire. Hiring a full-time senior communications or marketing leader is a significant commitment. Fractional engagement offers an alternative pathway so that experienced, strategic leadership can move quickly and adapt to where the organisation is in its journey.
But even if they can’t afford it, the need for senior strategic capability doesn't disappear just because the full-time model doesn't fit.
I launched Growth Lane Marketing because I kept seeing the same pattern. Businesses with strong products, clear ambitions and talented teams, but without anyone at the helm to connect their communications and marketing activity to broader organisational outcomes. They were doing a lot, but it wasn’t adding up to a coherent direction. Fractional engagement allows those organisations to access experienced, strategic leadership with the flexibility to grow into a fuller arrangement over time.
The result is strategically grounded communications and marketing leadership, focused on outcomes rather than outputs.
A PwC survey found that 96% of CEOs who had deliberately onboarded fractional leaders said they met or exceeded their expectations. It’s also worth noting that when organisations engage a fractional leader, they tend to get more than a single person. They gain access to a professional network built over years and years, whether that’s agency relationships, specialist contacts, industry connections that can be activated quickly. For communications leaders, the ability to convene, connect and coordinate is often where the true value lies.
“We don't always need to hire, we just need to connect the right people”
Rachel: One of the most interesting patterns I'm seeing is the rise of what I'd call the consortia model. Instead of a single agency or a full internal team, clients are increasingly working with assembled groups of specialists. This might look like a production agency, a multicultural communications expert, a PR contractor, a digital strategist working together, coordinated around a specific project or outcome.
This reflects something real about how demand is changing. Organisations need a broad range of capabilities like client and relationship management, project management, communications strategy, content, research, digital. But they often can't afford, or don't need to hire for each of those disciplines permanently. What they need is access to the right expertise at the right time, with someone who can hold the strategic thread and ensure everything connects.
Fractional leaders are well placed to play that coordinating role. We're used to working across disciplines, managing multiple stakeholders and translating insight into action. And increasingly, we're working alongside other fractional specialists and contractors to deliver outcomes that no single hire could achieve alone.
This is a different model from how agencies or in-house teams have traditionally operated. It’s more fluid, more responsive, and when it works well, it delivers senior-level thinking with genuine strategic integration.
The organisations that benefit most
Laura: Fractional communications leadership tends to have the greatest impact in a few specific contexts. Small to medium businesses ready to grow but not yet at the stage of hiring a full-time executive. Think of companies going through transitions like scaling, entering new markets, repositioning their brand, restructuring their function. Organisations that have experienced rapid growth and whose communications capability hasn’t kept pace with their ambition.
In each of these situations, what's needed isn't just execution. It's strategic leadership with someone who can look at the full picture, make clear decisions about where to focus, and build the foundations for sustainable growth.
What fractional work offers is a partnership. Not a vendor relationship, not a temporary fix, but a close working relationship with founders and leadership teams, aligned around meaningful outcomes.
What this means for our profession
The fractional model isn't a trend at the margins of our profession. It reflects something more fundamental, which is a recognition that strategic communications capability is truly valuable, and that there are now multiple ways to access and deliver it.
For senior professionals in our industry, it opens a different kind of career path that is built on expertise, relationships and variety rather than hierarchy and tenure. For in-house comms professionals, the fractional model offers a lens for thinking about how you work, not just where. For organisations, it offers a way to get what they actually need, which is clear expert thinking, experienced leadership and purpose-driven work that connects communications to the heart of what they do.
The workforce is changing.
The way businesses engage talent is changing.
And for those of us in communications and marketing, the fractional model may well be one of the more interesting places to watch — and one with lessons worth borrowing, whatever your career path looks like right now.
What in-house comms professionals can borrow from the fractional playbook
You don’t need to go fractional to think like a fractional professional. Some of the most valuable shifts we’ve made to be more visible, strategic and in how we work are entirely applicable inside an organisation. Here are four ways in-house communications professionals can apply the fractional mindset to their current roles.
Position yourself as a strategic partner, not a service function Rather than waiting for a seat at the table, frame your work in terms of organisational outcomes. What problem did the campaign solve? What shift did the programme enable? When comms professionals speak the language of strategy, they are much more likely to be included in it.
Build your internal network like a portfolio Make it a habit to build relationships across functions: finance, operations, HR, customer-facing teams. The more you understand the full picture of your organisation, the better placed you are to provide communications counsel that is useful, and to be seen as a resource beyond your immediate reporting line.
Think in outcomes, not outputs It's easy to count deliverables. It's harder, but more valuable, to track what those things actually achieved. Did stakeholder understanding shift? Did the leadership team communicate more effectively through the change programme? Reorienting your metrics in this direction strengthens your professional case and makes the invisible work of communications visible to those who hold budgets.
Keep building your expertise beyond your organisation Deliberately invest in your external professional community. Whether through IABC, industry events, peer networks or mentoring, staying connected to what is happening across the profession keeps you ahead of the curve, and makes you the person who can bring that knowledge in when your organisation needs it.
Written by:
Laura Zahariou is the founder of Growth Lane Marketing, a fractional marketing consultancy working with businesses focused on profitable, sustainable growth.
Rachel Abad is the founder of Looped-in Communications, a fractional agency communications partner specialising in insight-led strategy, research and communications design across government, infrastructure, health, technology and purpose-led organisations.
