Businesses, quite obviously, need employees to run them. The usual strategy is having people fully employed, with all the training and benefits that entails. The pandemic has shifted people’s attitudes towards both traditional employment and freelance projects. One isn’t a replacement for the other. In fact, both are complimentary. A well-managed business should use both in a proper ratio.
Freelancers are being hired for their competitive rate, skills, and versatility. Of course, it can’t all just be that, so today, we’ll be discussing why you should consider hiring freelancers for your business. It’s a net positive that is waiting for you to take advantage of. You simply need to know how and where to best utilize them.
Cost-Efficient
For small businesses especially, full-time employees are a huge investment. You are responsible for their training, salary, benefits, and time-off. These are all well and good for long-time roles, but what of positions with a high turnover? This is where hiring freelancers becomes a huge benefit.
Freelancers work on a contract basis and are subject to different regulations and reporting requirements. Often, freelancers are referred to as independent contractors, self-employed, or individual entrepreneurs. Sure, they may cost more upfront, but that’s because they aren’t long-term hires. All the overhead costs are on their shoulders, leaving you to worry only about their salary and their work output. Most freelancers are already skilled and require minimum guidance during the onboarding process. Having clear documentation and SOPs( standard operating procedures) will shorten the onboarding time dramatically.
Short-Term Projects
Freelancers are the perfect recruit for short-term projects. When there are deadlines to be met, and more hands on deck are needed, freelancers help immensely in those brief moments. It’s a second wind that you don’t have to worry about idle time and new assignments thereafter. Freelancers help your team accomplish more on a tight budget.
It also aids greatly in avoiding remote work burnout. By providing more staff, your core team is free to focus on the big picture and take care of complex, strategic tasks. It also gives them a chance to destress when needed. One of the bigger worries about deadlines is having to overwork due to a lack of manpower. Freelancers solve that issue solidly.
Versatile Schedules
Freelancers have flexible schedules compared to full-time employees. Your full-time employees work on a shift, and unless they’re on call, are absent afterward. To fill in these inactive hours, hiring freelancers is a good solution. For example, if a certain tech project requires constant upkeep, freelancers could be hired to fill in the gaps where full-time employees are inactive.
In addition, they are great for emergencies. Hiring freelancers to fix IT problems, for example, avoids the need for a 24/7 in-house IT team. It’s inevitable for technical issues to occur, and freelancers are available at the behest of their client’s needs.
Diversity
Freelancers come from all walks of life. In fact, most of them work remotely, so the potential of meeting people working overseasis high. A homogeneous business may feel safe, but it doesn’t lend itself to growth. Exposing your business to alternative ways of work could inspire new projects or work ethics.
Diversity helps the flow of ideas and rejects bias. There may be problems your core team has that these freelancers find incredibly easy, and vice versa. The bottom line, freelancers spice up the workplace far past the novelty of a new face.
Softer Commitments
People who choose afreelance career don’t take it too harshly when you decide to let them go. After all, the nature of freelance is that they are, in essence, their own boss. They understand that a long-term commitment to your business is a possibility, not a guarantee. They don’t hinge their livelihoods on your business.
This is a flexibility that helps greatly with your business’ turnover rate as well. Hiring people full-time in jobs that they don’t like costs far more money than a freelancer realizing a job isn’t for them. A freelancer simply shrugs and moves on to something better suited. A full-time employee is left much more stressed, in addition to costing the business more.
Easier Recruitment
The pool of freelancers is continuously growing. In fact, it experienced a huge spike thanks to the sudden boom of remote work. Hiring freelancers are great when you need to scale your business as it grows. There are dozens of online marketplaces where businesses can find skilled freelancers in all kinds of niches.
In addition to a large and diverse pool, freelancers are often more experienced and easy to hire. Not to mention, hiring freelancers is way less risky than hiring a full-time employee. There is far less paperwork to sort through, and replacement, if needed, is easy. It helps that freelancers are inherently competitive as well, so you won’t be lacking in willing recruits.
Agile Delivery
Freelancers are well-known for providing quality work at a surprisingly quick pace. Freelancers are competitive and so one of the traits they advertise most is fast deliverables. Their portfolios give you a quick overview of how good their work is. Freelancers are used to working in short timeframes and provide quality alongside speed.
Of course, the only reason this is possible is that freelancers are far more focused. They only need to worry about the duties you've given them. Freelancers are known for their speed because they need to move from one job to the next, without leaving anything behind. This makes them great assets for businesses that need fast results.
Specialized Talents
Full-time employees tend to become generalists in the workplace. They fulfill a plethora of duties in the office, and if assigned too much, will end up mediocre in all of them. In contrast, freelancers are very specialized, more so than most full-time employees. If a project needs a specific skill set, freelancers are fantastic for filling the gap.
Freelancers who are experienced could also be great generalists when needed, but the most successful ones tend to have their niche. For example, if a one-time business project requires knowledge of a certain programming language, it’s much more convenient to hire a freelancer instead of hiring an employee full-time.