Most businesses now rely on freelancers to perform a lot of crucial tasks, but managing their work can get quite tricky.
By implementing a series of changes, you will be able to control your freelancers better and increase productivity.
How to Manage Freelancers to Increase Your Business’s Productivity
People who run a business prefer to delegate certain tasks, like accounting or PR work, to freelancers, so the rest of the employees could focus on advancing in their own field of expertise.
Since the demand for freelancer only seems to be growing, more and more people leave the regular nine-to-five jobs in favour of self-employment. In the UK alone, there has been a dramatic 31% rise of people who wanted to work as freelancers in 2018.
People enjoy the concept of being in charge of their schedule and not having anyone to report to. The possibility of watching YouTube videos and reading UK online casino review whenever they want to is an appealing thought.
And there are a lot of pros to hiring freelancers to do technical work for your business: although they don’t charge less than regular employees, you won’t have to pay for insurance and pay for additional costs. Hiring freelancers also allows you to work with talented people from all around the world, therefore not limiting yourself to employees who live in the vicinity of your offices.
But relying on freelancers can also come with a cost. Since you don’t have direct contact with them, managing their work can get quite challenging. Freelancers might live in a different time zone, which means you’ll have to deal with lapses in response time.
Sometimes you might also have to deal with missed deadlines or freelancers who stop responding without an apparent reason. However, if you run a tight ship, you will be able to reduce the elements of risks to a minimum and make the most of the situation.
3 Tips to Follow
To manage your team to the best of your abilities, you should follow a few simple rules:
- Track work performance – To make sure freelancers stick to your deadlines, you can use a variety of time-tracking software, like Toggl and RescueTime. If the available software options aren’t relevant for your purposes, try to keep in touch with the freelancer in other ways. When you’re working with new freelancers, tracking their work will allow you to understand how efficient they are. Therefore, you will be able to decide whether you want to continue working with them in the future or not.
- Communicate better – Communication is a key element in running any business. However, it is even more crucial when your employees don’t always share the same office space as you. First of all, keeping in touch with your freelancers will allow you to establish a more personal connection, creating a nicer working environment for both of you. But apart from that, if you check in with your freelancers regularly, you will prove to them how serious you are, building trust and maybe even inspiring loyalty.
And on top of that all, an open line of communication will allow the freelancer to understand your demands better, therefore producing better content. You can use emails, Skype, or instant messages to communicate directly or opt for a task-management program such as Trello or Wrike that allow you to touch-base without actually speaking. You can also use software such as 15five to give and receive feedback from your freelancers, which will serve to improve your working relationship and help you become more efficient.
- Payment options – To be able to recruit and work with a variety of freelancers, you should be flexible when it comes to payment options, as every freelancer prefers to get paid differently. However, you should also set limits regarding the payment dates and rates, so the freelancers won’t feel they can jerk you around.
- There are various payment options you can work with, including Escrows – which is a good way to protect your interests if the freelancer’s work isn’t up to par. PayPal, Skrill, and an assortment of other e-wallets are also popular among the self-employed.
In Conclusion
Managing freelancers is a big part of running a business, but if you do it right – you will be able to increase your business’s productivity in an instant.
