What Makes Freelancers a More Appealing Option for Employers than Traditional Full-Time Employees?
The workplace has changed significantly since the global pandemic, and gig, or freelance, workers represent a big part of that transformation. Leaders from large and small businesses weighed in with their thoughts on why freelancing is great for both the company and the temporary employee. Here’s what they had to say:
Benefits of Specialized Expertise
In terms of accessibility and proficiency, freelancers present distinct benefits compared to conventional full-time staff. They contribute specialized expertise to temporary assignments without obligating themselves to maintain long-term employment.
Based on my personal experience, we have utilized freelancers for a variety of technology initiatives in which we required specialized knowledge that was not readily accessible within our organization. Their availability on demand enabled us to efficiently scale our workforce. Additionally, freelancers also boost our initiatives with new perspectives and ideas.
Freelancers avoid perks and long-term contracts, making them cheaper. Both parties benefit: freelancers have flexibility, and employers can get exceptional personnel.
To maintain corporate culture and continuity, we must strike a balance between freelancers and full-time employees. Successful, flexible workforce strategies require effective freelancer integration.
Quick Delivery and Cost-Savings
In my business, I exclusively use freelancers for several reasons. They usually offer quick, and often early, project delivery, allowing me to work on demand and save costs. If a freelancer isn't a good fit after a project or two, it's easier to replace them.
For me, even if a freelancer works full-time hours, the financial burden is lighter than hiring a full-time employee because of fewer taxes and my commitments to them.
I love working with digital nomads; their different time zones complement my workflow, so I can review their progress and assign new tasks efficiently.
Katharine Gallagher
Short-Term Commitment and Global Talent
Being brutally honest, it is the short-term commitment that attracts me to hiring freelancers. I feel like I have more control over my projects and can hire talented people easily from an online platform like Upwork or Fiverr for specific tasks without the need for long-term employment. This approach offers me cost control and a global talent pool to choose from.
So, I feel like there is less risk, and I have the flexibility to cover the peaks and troughs of business. I will consider hiring a full-time member of my team, but only when my business grows to the point that I can guarantee being able to cover all the additional benefits required with a permanent position.
Diversity of Thought
I have both worked as a freelancer and hired freelancers during my career. I've found that working with a team of freelancers from across the country, and even around the globe, brings diverse thoughts and opinions to the team. We end up working with people with experiences and perspectives different from our own.
This means that when there is a problem, or we're brainstorming for ideas, we get so many different suggestions and solutions. We all learn from each other, and our perspectives evolve.
By bringing freelancers from around the world onto my team, I have hired people from so many different backgrounds with unique experiences that I might not have been able to do had I been restricted to hiring people within a commutable distance.
Flexibility and Talent Acquisition
Flexibility is the most appealing factor when hiring freelancers. There are always going to be short-term projects that require specialized talent or numbers for repetitive tasks. With freelancers, we can hire them for specific hours without needing to pay extra benefits. The short-term benefits include being able to terminate the contract at short notice with no obligations.
We hired several remote freelancers for our latest email marketing campaign. Their role was to categorize emails and build our email lists using our email-finder tools. It took about two weeks, and we ended every contract amicably. Their work helps our full-time marketing team save time on repetitive tasks and focus on crafting compelling content.
This is a perfect example of how freelancers can help us out. It gives our full-time employees a breather and the opportunity for us to maybe acquire new talent if the freelancers overperform.
Intrinsic Drive for Quality
In my experience, the drive for quality is intrinsic to freelancers. Since they manage their own business, maintaining and nurturing client relationships is paramount. Every project becomes a testament to their dedication and expertise. Unlike traditional employees, who might experience performance fluctuations, freelancers are consistently motivated to deliver top-notch results.
This commitment to excellence is because they understand that their next contract hinges on the satisfaction of their current client. In essence, their entrepreneurial spirit ensures a consistent pursuit of quality.
Swift Onboarding and Integration
They make an impact sooner. Freelancers have become a game-changer for many companies, including ours. One of the standout reasons we've found is the speed of onboarding. With freelancers, the hiring process becomes notably quicker. There's no need for those prolonged onboarding sessions that we often associate with new full-time employees, and firms feel they must do in 2023.
Freelancers are adept at diving straight into projects, honing this skill from working with various clients. This swift integration means projects can get off the ground faster, and, from our experience, it has been a substantial advantage.
This is a crowdsourced article. Contributors' statements do not necessarily reflect the opinion of this website, other people, businesses, or other contributors.