Simple Tips for Managing Freelancers
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The freelance market is trending and taking over the future of employment. Freelancers give businesses an ingenious pool of dedicated and flexible resources that provides high-quality work.
Freelancers who are hired to write blogs or design a logo may not be very difficult to manage. But, if you hire freelancers for large-scale projects, you may need to put in some extra efforts to manage them properly.
Managing freelancers does not have to be difficult once you maintain the right routine for your company. Let’s take a look at how to manage freelancers for your business.
Communication is the key to success
A frequent problem that causes a difficult situation for your business is a lack of communication. If you want to get the work done on time, you need to make sure that both you and your freelancer are on the same page.
For communicating effectively, provide:
Deadlines-
Since your freelancer may have many clients, it’s essential to discuss and set deadlines so you can receive your work on time.
Milestones-
It becomes easy to achieve your goal by breaking large projects up into milestones. You can easily track progress and help your freelancer feel more secure by setting milestones.
Vision-
If you want your freelancer to work for you, let them know what your expectations are. Communicate with them and let them know your requirements as clearly as possible.
Context-
Describe your freelancer how the task or sub-project fits into a strategy. A right freelancer always finds ways to tailor their output to align with your overall business strategy.
Small things may go a long way in managing freelancers
Freelancers are different from your traditional employees. They’re not bound to one particular employer. This means freelancers don’t get benefits that an employee does, but they get the freedom to work on their own terms.
Sometimes companies misclassify their workers as independent freelancers, although their work conditions indicate they are actually employees.
It really matters how you treat freelancers as a whole. Generally, it’s best not to:
Dictate schedules-
It’s essential to specify output and deadlines. Give the freelancer the freedom to choose their own hours given that at the end of the day your work is done.
Cover their costs-
In a project, freelancers make their own investments and shoulder some risk of loss. When you have a freelancer who you can count upon for a longer-term, you can even pay expenses for training, transportation, tools, etc that help them to become better.
Supervise their work-
It’s best to avoid asking freelancers to regularly report to you or asking them to follow specific methods to do work. Set up a weekly or bi-weekly schedule or follow a system like Jira/Github to manage task status and completion.By giving freelancers a longer-term vision and continuous work you can be their only customer. This way you save their time in looking for new opportunities and freelancers will have focus on your work only. This will help to evolve your relationship gradually which in turn will result in better output and greater quality.
Show your appreciation
If a freelancer has done good work and you are satisfied, then make moves to keep them on your radar. You may need to hire them for your future projects as well.
Here are a few things you could do:
- On the freelancer’s profile, leave positive reviews as it helps in promoting engagement.
- On social media, send thank you notes publicly as it’s a good way to express gratitude in writing.
- After the end of a project, invite them to celebrate as they were part of the project.
All of these actions will help in demonstrating your respect for the work your freelancers do for you and can enhance your employer brand.
Conclusion:
When you need freelancers, they bring expertise and experience in their work to give the best results. If you take some time to hire and manage freelancers properly, you will reap the rewards of a mutually beneficial collaboration.
