5 Freelancer Management Tips That You Should Know About

The reason why freelancers are so great is due to the fact that you, as a business or an entrepreneur, only have a temporary obligation towards them. This means that you can hire them to handle a temporary increase in workload and then not have to lay anyone off when their assistance is no longer needed. Other than this, freelancers use their own resources and are in charge of managing their own work hours, which means that you get a lot less burden from a managerial standpoint. However, it’s not like you can just let them do their work without any supervision or involvement. Such a thing would be both impossible and dangerous. With that in mind, here are several freelancer management tips that you should worry about.

1.      Be honest about your expectations

One of the problems with people hiring freelancers is the fact that they often have unrealistic expectations of what they can and should do. Remember that there’s no easier way to get disappointed than to have unreasonably high expectations. So, put your demands in writing. Aside from this, there’s always a hazard when hiring freelancers, due to the fact that they are still outsiders but may now get in touch with some confidential information about your business model. As a solution, you can use a non-disclosure agreement in order to handle this situation in the safest way possible.

2.  Enrich your digital arsenal

If you were to run an actual office, you would have to invest in ergonomics, productivity-boosting trends and look for similar methods to accomplish an increase in productivity. In the digital world, the same effect can be achieved by enriching your digital arsenal with adequate tools. Project management tools, collaboration tools, employee monitoring software and IM tools all have something to bring to the table. For an individual user, time management software can also be a huge plus. You need all the help you can get and this might just be where you find the answers that you seek.

3.  Clarity of communication

Before we proceed, it’s pivotal that you understand a mistake in communication might be the single biggest source of problems in the world of freelancing. For this very reason, what you need to do is:

A) Establish an efficient channel of communication, and

B) Make sure that you’re clear about what you need.

The channel of communication matters more than you may assume and it’s something you need to discuss with every freelancer that you bring in your employ. Sure, some people prefer to communicate on Skype but what if your potential freelancer logs onto their Skype account once every several days or weeks? Make sure to ask this each time you bring in a new person on board.

4.  Freelance differs among industries

While it may not look like this from the outside, the very term “freelance” is something that differs across industries. Sure, there are some similarities when it comes to responsibilities and obligations of both the freelancer and the employer, yet, the specifics can make all the difference. Namely, hiring a freelance content writer and hiring a freelance SEO expert is not one and the same thing. It also doesn’t hurt that you, as an employer, learn a thing or two about the concept, so that you can keep your expectations in check much better. In this case, learning what you can about freelance digital marketing would be a solid first step.

5.  Make them feel like a part of the team

Brand loyalty is one of the factors that affect productivity the most but this is somewhat harder to accomplish with freelancers. From the very beginning, they might develop a feeling that they’re not there to stay, which will prevent them from socializing with anyone in your company. In theory, this doesn’t seem like that big of a deal but just because someone is a freelancer, it doesn’t mean that you won’t collaborate with them for years to come. In fact, they might even become a full-time staff member at one point in the future. While this is not something that you can count on, you shouldn’t discard this idea altogether. To avoid it, you need to build a relationship with them and make them feel like a part of the team.

Conclusion

Even on this comprehensive list, managing freelancers shouldn’t sound too intimidating. Although you need to invest a bit more effort and get used to a new tool or two, it’s still far from the level of micromanagement that usually takes place in the business world. The reward for this improvement in your freelancer management, nonetheless, is more than worth the effort.