It’s not just the BBC that encounters challenges with freelancers 🙂
The UK has between 4-5M freelancers and the trend of companies hiring freelancers and ‘remote freelancers’ is also on the increase. But as the trend of hiring freelancers increases, so does the risk of getting it wrong…
✅ Expertise. It amazes me how long it takes some businesses to figure out whether a freelancer they hire has the right skills or not. Depending on the role, you can’t always guarantee results, but there are ALWAYS opportunities to assess competence, prior to letting them loose in the business.
✅ Cultural fit. There’s a big difference between hiring a specialist for a week, to complete a specific task remotely – and taking someone on F2F for 12 months, who will be closely integrated within your permanent team. Freelancers will often have a very positive effect on your team, in terms of the overall dynamic, raising standards, introducing new ideas, or winning new business… but only if you choose wisely at the start.
✅ Cost. A common pattern I’ve seen with freelancers (the good ones), is they often get their initial contract period extended. Either a project overruns or you find further use for their skills elsewhere in the business. It doesn’t always get factored into your budget. And the other pattern I’ve frequently seen is freelancers unable to extend their contract due to other commitments, simply because the extension was left to the last minute.
✅ Communication. Sounds obvious, but you want to hire somebody responsive and with decent communication skills. Particularly someone who knows the right questions to ask. Even the best prepared companies, with a whole bunch of onboarding materials will never cover everything. You want the right balance between freelancers using their initiative and asking quality questions.
Making poor choices with who you bring into your business, even on a temporary basis, can cost you time, money, staff and even reputational damage. It’s worth taking the extra time, to get it right…