We asked our Linkedin followers: ‘Has hiring freelancers improved your company’s flexibility in managing workloads?’
With 84% of people voting yes and only 16% voting no, you can guess our stance!
With 84% of people voting yes and only 16% voting no, you can guess our stance!
At &FRIENDS, we actively implement what we advocate. As a small team, when our workload surges, we turn to our pool of freelance professionals. Just like our clients, we leverage our global freelance marketplace to seamlessly assemble the best possible team. This approach allows us to consistently deliver brilliant results to our clients, always meeting deadlines.
In today’s dynamic business landscape, adaptability and flexibility are crucial to staying competitive, and many companies are utilising freelancers to enhance flexibility in managing their workloads.
We know, as well as you do, that client work is never a consistent stream of projects – you win a pitch, you lose a pitch, you make cutbacks, you win a pitch, and you find yourself short on staff and need to hire a team to deliver said pitch! – Sound familiar?
The rise of the gig economy has made it easier than ever to tap into a pool of talented professionals with specialised skills. In this article, we explore how hiring freelancers can improve a company’s flexibility in managing workloads.
Scalability
One of the primary advantages of hiring freelancers is the ability to scale your workforce up or down as needed.
Companies often face fluctuations in their workloads, with busy seasons requiring additional manpower. Freelancers are the flexible solution.
Specialised Skills
Freelancers usually have years of experience in their fields and are known for their niche expertise. This can be a game-changer for projects that require specific skills that might not be available within your existing full-time team.
Cost Savings
Unlike freelancing and contracting, full-time employment is a long-term commitment and comes with all the fixed costs, including salaries, benefits, office space, etc. When compared with a freelancer, you’re saving on these expenses as you’re often paying them per day, per hour, or per project. You only incur costs when the services are needed and are eliminating that aforementioned overhead.
Faster Turnaround
Instead of the traditional Monday to Friday. 9-5 availability of traditional employees, freelancers have a more flexible schedule. They can usually get started immediately, avoiding lengthy onboarding and training processes, and can often work outside the usual business hours as they manage their own workloads and schedules.
Global Talent Pool: Freelancers can be sourced from anywhere in the world. &FRIENDS is a global marketplace with the option to post briefs globally and work with freelancers on-site, remotely – in the same country, or worldwide – It’s friction free and easy. And &FRIENDS even handles the payroll! Having a global community of freelancers gives our customers access to expertise that might not be readily available in their company or even locally. And if planned well, time zone differences can often be an advantage, with projects being worked on as customers sleep!
Risk Mitigation: Freelancers are engaged for specific projects and paid for their services as needed. If a project is cut short or doesn’t proceed, the freelancer’s contract can end with little to no complexities often associated with terminating full-time employees (with the obvious caveats!).
Hiring freelancers is a strategic choice for enhancing flexibility in managing workloads. The ability to scale your workforce, access specialised skills, realise cost savings, and enjoy faster project turnaround times are just a few of the benefits that freelancers can bring to your organisation.
To harness the full potential of freelancers, it’s essential to build effective systems for communication, project management, and collaboration. This is where having a Talent Management System like &FRIENDS can help. Source, book, manage, and pay your freelancers all from one platform.
Interested to see how we work? Book a Demo here
