The traditional working process of several businesses has been challenged over the past year by the COVID-19 pandemic. Remote work has become a well-understood work concept that organizations and their stakeholders worldwide continue to adapt to. In recent times, several employees have lost their jobs, and several more continue to work remotely while battling with the uncertainty of imminent job losses. This uncertainty has driven many employees to take advantage of a growing freelancing economy.
This is to diversify their income sources, fully utilize the extra time on their hands, and explore other passions. Increasingly, full-time employees are fore-going full-time employment and taking up freelancing opportunities instead. It will be right to assume that this shift will leave a skills deficit in the jobs market for employees willing to commit to full-time work. In fact, most software developers have adapted so well to freelancing that it is currently difficult to hire one willing to work full-time.
As a business owner or manager, it is wise to incorporate freelancing into your hiring strategy as a proactive measure to keep ahead of the changing times. The following reasons are why hiring freelancers will be totally worth it for your business now and in the foreseeable business future.
Cut down costs and make huge savings
Hiring freelancers comes with no overheads. With freelancers, you will not spend money on rent, Wi-Fi, office equipment, incentives, insurance, as most of them work remotely. You will not spend money training freelancers as they come experienced and learned. Freelancers don’t need the benefits that come with having employees. Most, if not all freelancers prefer to either be paid per hour or per the jobs they perform. Freelancers only get paid for the work results that they produce, and nothing more.
Tap into a diverse talent pool
Most businesses find themselves facing a skills gap for certain operations. Hiring additional staff is an obvious way to bridge that gap, but adding outside expertise on a freelance basis makes the most strategic and commercial judgment.
This freelancer hiring strategy empowers you to scale your business with agility. You are rewarded with skilled individuals without added salaries and benefits. Whatever the skills needs may be for your business, freelance professionals can fix them.
Freelancers deliver high quality work on time
Freelancers are business owners, and as such, they rely on repeat work and repeat customers to grow their businesses. They produce quality work to keep great relationships going. Full-time employees get paid for doing no work at certain times, but money spent hiring freelancers is accounted for till the last penny.
Managing Short-term contracts are easier
The business owner controls how long he/she chooses to work with a freelancer before parting ways amicably. These short-term contracts are easy to manage compared to long-term contracts. With short-term contracts, you will have (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely (SMART) objectives that work can be measured by.
Operate your business around the clock
Freelancers work from all corners of the world. It leaves no breaks in your work processes. Your business can run effectively around the clock when you schedule freelancers to work when your core teams take their much-needed breaks from work.
Focus on what really matters
Running a business is exhaustive. You spend a lot of time making decisions, managing people, satisfying customers, delegating, networking, researching, and more. It barely leaves time to concentrate on strategy and even indulge in some personal passions. Take some of your load off as a business owner to focus on other competing priorities. Hiring a freelancer will save your company by giving you ample time to think, strategize, find new niches, attract new customers, retain the customers you have, and be a better business owner.
Fresh eyes, fresh perspective
Freelancers are the most versatile people. They understand that their earnings are directly tied to the quality of their work output to their clients. With this understanding comes the need to always educate and train themselves to keep up with knowledge trends. For a technology company that is expanding into new markets, a freelance professional from the outside looking in will help you with expertise that will help you to scale better and be agile.
Conclusion
If the goal is business continuity and profitability, it is an undeniable fact that freelancer hiring is an essential component of any modern hiring strategy. As part of your company’s hiring strategy, you should place some consideration on integrating freelancers where appropriate. Overall, freelancer hiring is not a full-proof human resource strategy. It has great benefits but comes with associated challenges. Consider it as a backup strategy to fill in gaps in your work processes to help you innovate better and quicker. Start small and work your way to managing full freelance teams. You will have to find a reliable site for freelancers like kreekafrica.com that houses qualified, verified, and trusted freelance professionals from across the globe.
Source the right freelancers for your business here.