Every small business’s workforce is its backbone, making recruitment a critical challenge for entrepreneurs. Unfortunately, their budget isn’t always fortified to handle all the full-time workers they need, and the workload can be overwhelming.
That’s why outsourcing work to freelancers is now the popular way to do things. According to reports, the freelance platforms’ market share will enjoy a 15.3% CAGR from 2021 to 2027. This number indicates the growing interest in freelancers and the potential of the gig economy.
Freelance Work Is Beneficial To Small Businesses
Using these workers comes with many benefits. Your small business won’t have to worry about the cost of hiring too many full-time staff, and you can hire from anywhere in the world.
You’ll also have access to a deep talent pool, hiring professionals and specialists with rich work histories.
What About Challenges?
Using freelancers comes with communication and collaboration challenges. For example, external professionals may not know or embody your company’s culture and may struggle to synergize with your team.
There’s also the security concern. Entrepreneurs often feel uncomfortable allowing freelancers access to sensitive company data and systems. Since they can move on to work for other companies – and competitors, you risk having your private data in the wrong hands.
But You Can Make The Most Of Freelance Work With The Right Strategy
All that said, you can get the best out of freelancers if you do things the right way. This article contains tips on working with freelancers as a small business.
Assess Your Needs
One of the secrets of working with freelancers is using them for the right jobs. Some roles are too critical for outsourced workers and require in-house staff. Other positions don’t justify paying full-time employee compensation.
So, before you start hiring, assess your options and identify jobs and roles suitable for freelancers.
Don’t just make your assessments based on budget and convenience. You want to ensure that your freelancers excel at what they do.
Some jobs require a significant amount of access to company records and sensitive data. You have to trust such roles to internal staff to mitigate security exposure.
On the other hand, you can use freelancers to execute specific jobs without sacrificing security and straining your budget.
Employ The Right Professionals
The first step in using an agile worker is getting the right hands. This process includes weighing everything from specific skills to experience.
Indeed, outsourcing allows you to choose from a deep talent pool. However, looking for workers from anywhere around the world also means you can easily land the wrong people for the job.
Hiring the wrong freelancer will erase your progress and seriously cost you.
So, you must look out for client testimonials and proof of work experience. You should also conduct thorough interviews and assessments to confirm your job applicants are the right fit for your company.
You can use freelance hiring platforms to look for workers. These channels come with ample information to help you make assessments. For example, you can find genuine work history, client reviews, work completion rates, and earning power on a freelancer’s profile.
If you’re using job boards, ensure you go through each worker’s qualifications and assess the skills and abilities that matter to you.
Be Realistic With Budget Expectations
Most entrepreneurs hire the wrong freelancers because they want to save costs. While you don’t want to strain your budget, you need to make realistic estimations. Employing the right talent means paying proper wages.
A freelance worker’s compensation determines their output. For example, if the average price range for freelancers in a specific field is $300, don’t expect the same work quality from someone who charges $100.
So, if your budget doesn’t match quality standards, consider adjusting it. In the end, using sub-par talent means you’d have to make corrections and do a lot of work yourself. You may also waste more time and money trying to replace worker after worker after streaks of disappointment.
Indeed, there are premium freelancers and agencies that your company won’t be able to handle. However, that doesn’t mean there aren’t talented workers that match your specifications.
You can save costs by going for experienced full-time workers who are starting their freelance journey and want to make a name for themselves.
Ease Them In
Freelancers work with different clients, and in some cases, in various industries. One of their qualifications is adaptability. They can learn new work cultures and make the necessary adjustments for each client.
That doesn’t mean it’s always easy.
You don’t want to bombard freelancers with too many responsibilities during the early stages. Instead, you should ease them into your work process by starting with non-critical assignments. This way, you can show them the ropes and teach them how you do things.
This process allows them to get a taste of your operation and adjust their approaches accordingly.
It also allows you to assess their teamwork abilities, soft skills, and discipline. In addition, you’ll learn how they approach tasks, meet deadlines, and how much supervision they need.
Provide Training
Expecting your freelancer to come fully ready-made may be a mistake. This outlook prompts you to throw them into your business after signing the work contract. And that will inevitably lead to conflicts and chaos.
You have to put every freelance worker through an onboarding phase where they learn your company’s do’s and don’ts, processes, and culture.
You can prepare materials that outline everything from company hierarchy to freelancer policies. In addition, they should learn the workflow procedure, know who to report to, and find out how to resolve issues.
You should also conduct training sessions on using tools such as project management solutions.
Encourage Communication
Most freelancers are deep into remote work, and working with a remote team comes with communication challenges.
People who work from home find it hard to reach out to colleagues to resolve minor issues. This reluctance leads to lots of guesswork and mistakes.
You must prevent your freelance workers from working in silos if you want to achieve success.
Indeed, some freelancers produce great results after receiving project briefs and requirements. However, some situations require collaboration with your in-house team.
So, you must encourage communication from the outset.
During onboarding, tell your freelancers to always reach out for clarifications and discuss project progress.
You can set them up in the company’s Slack workspace and project management system. This way, they’re a core part of critical processes.
You should also give and receive feedback to understand and resolve communication challenges.
Efficient Management
While freelancers are professionals, they still require efficient management to boost productivity. So don’t expect them to produce high-quality work without the right tools and working environment.
You must provide the necessary support and management. This involves allocating the right amount of tasks with realistic deadlines and expectations.
You should also consider workload while assigning tasks. You don’t want to risk burnout and undue pressure, which will hurt productivity.
If you use workers from different parts of the world, you also have to consider time zone differences. This way, you can sync up communication and streamline project delivery.
Measure Productivity
Understanding each worker’s productivity level helps you fine-tune and improve work processes. For example, you can use a time tracking app for freelancers to measure how much time they spend on specific tasks.
This way, you’d better understand their capacity and skills. This understanding allows you to provide training for improvement and ensures you assign suitable tasks.
When you assign tasks to workers with the right talent, you ensure efficiency across the board and your business’s overall productivity increases.
Don’t Micromanage
One of the primary reasons for hiring freelancers is to reduce your workload. In addition, they allow you to focus on other aspects of your business and work on critical tasks.
It becomes counterproductive when you try to control everything, including how they do their job and when they do it.
Also, micromanagement kills trust, reduces morale, and sinks productivity. That’s because no one feels comfortable working while someone else is looking over their shoulder.
A Trinity Solutions survey found that 79% of respondents admitted to experiencing micromanagement, and 69% of them wanted to quit as a result.
If you want your workers to excel, give them autonomy to define their work process. This freedom allows them to work comfortably and flex their creative muscles.
In Summary
Freelancers will be the best thing to happen to your small business if you know how to use them. You must treat them as partners, give them autonomy, and communicate efficiently. You also have to identify the right people for the job and expertly manage their workload.
