Hiring full-time professionals has become the next impossible thing for businesses and organizations these days. The reason might be widening competition, lack of talent, or anything else.
Having on-site employees not only increases your expenses of salaries but also creates an unnecessary burden on you. This is why most businesses have started hiring freelancers and getting the work done.
But do you think hiring freelancers is easy? Hiring the right freelancers that meet your requirements is easier said than done.
Consequently, we have come up with this post to help you find the right freelancers. Here are some tips which will assist you in hiring and managing freelancers.
Tips For Hiring And Managing Freelancers
Hiring freelancers will not only save you money but will also help you create content with limited resources. But things don’t end with hiring freelancers. Once you hire them, you also need to manage the freelancers.
Consequently, here are some tips implementing which, you can easily manage your team of freelancers.
Build relationships
The primary thing you need to do is to build relationships with your freelancers. Instead of considering only one person, businesses should consider freelancers as their business partners.
Take out time to know the freelancer and treat him as a team member. It will help you to integrate them into your workflow. Figure out something with which you can build a positive connection.
Doing so will improve the quality of work done by freelancers and also improve their responsiveness towards your business.
Explain project details
Explaining project details to your freelancers is also a crucial aspect of managing freelancers. Freelancers are completely new to your business or work. Doing so will ensure that you get the desired results.
The best way to do so is to adopt the traditional project management system and accordingly define the requirements of each phase for your freelancers. Firstly, take note of high-level requirements and slightly move into specifics including tools & software, skills and knowledge, task completion, delivery, and final delivery.
Make sure to mention your technical requirements, and skills and provide an outline in your job description. Also clear your freelancers like how would you like to have delivery of the project.
Decide budget
The next best way to hire and manage freelancers is by deciding the budget and also expectations. Not deciding the budget and expectations can result in chaos between you and the freelancer.
Merely making the budget will not help. You also need to stick to the budget throughout the project’s tenure. Make sure to pay your freelancer for any additional work you ask them to do. Also, create the related work and budget expectations if you plan to pay freelancers on an hourly basis.
In addition to this, it’s better to ask the freelancers in advance what they would be doing within an hour and also that they should communicate the issues if any during the work.
Time tracking
Having time tracking for your freelancers is a must. It is also a great way to manage your freelancers and make them more productive. Some of the best tools to track the time of your freelancers include Upwork, clockify, harvest, Everhour, and many others to go.
Prefer to choose screen capture tools when you have hourly data entry tasks. Screen and time tracking may not be ideal for you if you are hiring a programmer or copywriter for completing your project.
No doubt that these tools make freelancers work more seriously and they end up becoming more productive in their work but this also shows your lack of trust in them. Instead of doing this, treat your freelancers as professionals and respect them for the work they do.
Provide documentation
No matter how busy you are but always take out time to provide freelancers with the proper documentation. The document not only conveys your requirements but also helps freelancers to ensure that their work meets your standards.
For instance, if you are hiring a copywriter, it will be better to provide them with documentation stating the tone of the content you like.
Communication is key
As you are hiring freelancers from far away places, having channels where you can communicate with your freelancers at regular intervals is important. It’s better to decide how and when you’d like to communicate with your freelancer in advance only.
For instance, if you want to communicate via email, then share your email address with them before getting started with the project. Besides this, you can also use tools to keep a record of all the communication between you and the freelancer.
Also, fix one time like when you’d like to communicate with your freelancer and at what time so that you both can be ready for the meeting.
Include freelancers in your team
Just because they are freelancers, it doesn’t mean that you treat them as an outsider. It’s important to treat your freelancers as your team members and include them in your team-building activities.
Communicate with your freelancers other than the project also and if possible, involve them in your business discussions. You can also create virtual celebrations for your freelancers to make them feel like they are a part of your team.
Feedback
Besides the ones mentioned above, another great way to hire and manage freelancers is by providing them with valuable feedback on their work. Freelancers are always curious to learn about whether you are liking their work or not.
They are interested in becoming your regular client and not a one-time client. Consequently, provide them with honest feedback regarding their work and also let them know the areas where they need to improve to bring you the desired results.
Final Thoughts
In addition to the ones mentioned above, you can also use project management tools to manage freelancers better. Also, take note of the above-stated things as this will give you the full worth of hiring a freelancer.