Considering hiring freelancers for your organization? Here are the things to know before doing so.
In today's ever-changing market, being nimble and lean could mean the difference between turning into a booming business or being forced to close your doors. One of those fastest-growing strategies enabling companies to become lean is hiring freelancing employees as opposed to full-time employees. In accordance with CareerBuilder, companies that are seeking short-term, contract employees climbed a whopping 47 percent in the period from 2016 to 2017.
Yet, like that in business and in life, there are pros and cons to hiring salespeople. By taking the time to do your assignments, you could save yourself loads of time, money and frustrations.
Here are seven pros and cons in regards to hiring freelancers.
Pros
1. The Cost
One of the most important benefits to hiring freelancers is, of course, the cost. Not only with salary, but also with other costs like health insurance, company perks, desk area is taken up within the office and more.
2. Less Financial Risk
Entrepreneurs just need to pay and hire freelancers when there's work to be accomplished. Almost all freelancing is performed on an hourly rate or per project-by-project basis, and that means you will never need to worry about distributing yourself with payroll processing during the "down times". From a fiscal perspective, this makes hiring freelancers more advantageous than hiring full-time workers for entrepreneurs.
3. Freelancing Platforms Make Selecting Freelancers Very Easy
With platforms like Freelancer.com, Upwork and Thumbtack over the rise, hiring freelancers is now becoming a speedy process. By streamlining the procedure for posting job requirements for freelancers, sifting through candidates, choosing the very best match and paying them for their work, these programs can save an entrepreneur valuable time which can be funneled back into their small business.
Additionally, similar to Yelp does for businesses, these platforms also permit you to observe reviews and also the job history for freelancers so you're not taking complete a stab in the dark. In my own experience with hiring freelancers, however, many of the testimonials are a bit more generous than their work reflected. Nevertheless, it will help to have the ability to differentiate a scrub from an all-star.
Cons
Hiring a freelancer is not all butterflies and roses though. While it's simple to see the positive advantages of hiring contract workers, there are lots of disadvantages that exist.
1. Lack of Monitoring
Contemplating that most freelancing is performed remotely, there is truly no way to know whether or not two of the 10 hours that your freelancer charged were spent working hard or scrolling via Instagram and watching YouTube videos. This is not to say all freelancers do this, but without oversight, immediate motivation frequently takes a backseat for leisure.
2. Uncertain Quality of Work
Since one of the main benefits of hiring freelancers is speed, a comprehensive interview process to vet freelancers does not tend to take place for entrepreneurs. Because of this, a freelancer portfolio and resume are occasionally breezed through by whoever is in charge of hiring and onboarding them relative to the immense amount of time dedicated to making sure a potential full-time hire is a great match or not.
3. Lower Investment with the Organization
Freelancers have bills to pay just as you do, therefore thinking you're their only customer would be like believing your waitress is only serving your table.
Almost all freelancers are juggling several projects at once, and so their loyalty to your brand is probably lower than a full-time worker who's sporting firm t-shirts, stickers, and other gaudy swag. Though this isn't always a "make or break", it's something to consider based on the job you are hiring the freelancer to do.
4. Inability to Train a Freelancer
Each business is different. As a company owner, you understand better than those that there are nuances in your company that only could be figured out by operating in the business. By not having the ability to properly prepare and onboard a freelancer, they could be missing out on crucial details which might be regarded as the second character to your full-time worker. Of course, the remedy for this is building wide-ranging, scalable methods your business follows religiously, but that is the topic for another article.
Freelancers can be a very valuable asset for entrepreneurs, and especially those who are at the first phases of growth or those operating on a strict budget. That said, just as with any other business decision, you should do your homework and consider seriously before leaping head first into the freelancer market. Best of luck.