Best practices for hiring a digital freelancer, Dos and Donts

Right, so you have finally managed to grow your business and it is now at a point where you are in a need of additional help. But you want to avoid the tedious and time-consuming task of hiring full-time employees. So you might want to try working with freelancers, but you don’t yet know how to hire. In addition, you also don’t know what are the best practices for hiring freelancers.

Don’t worry you have come to the right place. 

In this blog, I will be listing down some of the best practices for hiring freelancers which you can follow to scale your business to the next level. 

But before we get into the nitty-gritty of these best practices, let us first understand what are some of the benefits of hiring a freelancer. 

Table of Contents:

• Benefits of Hiring Freelancers
  • Here are some of the benefits of hiring a freelancer
• Best Practices for Hiring Freelancers
  • Define the project’s guidelines and scope clearly
  • Set up an interview process for hiring freelancers
  • Negotiate ownership upfront
  • Ask for a sample
  • Make sure the online hiring platform uses Escrow
  • Negotiate the price upfront
  • Protect your work assets
• Some Do’s and Don’t which you must follow
  • Do’s
  • Don’ts
• Managing Freelancers
  • Try to create a healthy relationship
  • Communicate Regularly
  • Stay away from micromanagement
  • Shower your digital freelancer with awards and recognition
  • When nothing works, terminate the contract
• 7 best marketplace platforms for hiring freelancers in 2021
• Conclusion

Benefits of Hiring Freelancers

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There are a lot of benefits of hiring freelancers over full-time employees and why not. 

You just have to assign a specific project to these freelancers and they will deliver you the complete work in a specified period of time. This all comes without you having to bear a cost for their in-office stay, as freelancers will be working remotely.

Here are some of the benefits of hiring a freelancer: 

1. Your company does not have to provide employee benefits such as medical, travel, bonus, etc. to freelancers. So there are a lot of places where you can save up some crucial money.
2. You get access to top-quality talent as most of the freelancers are highly specialized and qualified professionals. 
3. The freelancers offer high-quality work as compared to in-office employees. This is because freelancers require repeat clients to work with to generate consistent income. 
4. Hiring freelancers reduces the risk your company might face significantly. This is because freelancers do not have the freedom to collect unemployment insurance. On top of that, you can even terminate them then and there only if they are not doing their job properly. 

Best Practices for Hiring Freelancers Table Of Contents

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You can reap the unparalleled benefits of working with freelancers if you adapt your hiring practices according to the points mentioned below. 

Here are some of the best practices for hiring freelancers which you should keep in mind:

Define the project’s guidelines and scope clearly

Do not be too vague with your project’s deliverables and scope. Let the freelancer know clearly what the project is really about and what are the things on which he/she has to work. 

To avoid misunderstanding you can clearly mention the expectations and deliverables in the description of your project.  

Set up an interview process for hiring freelancers

Now, this might seem odd but it’s quite necessary. You need to set up a clear and well-defined interview process for shortlisting the talent. 

By making the freelancers go through a short interview process you can filter out the best from the best. You even get to know the person a bit more during an interview and you can easily judge if he/she is suitable for carrying out the assigned task. 

Negotiate ownership upfront

This is quite a common mistake that a lot of people make while hiring freelancers. They ask the freelancers to do a specific task and forget to let them know that the employer’s ownership will be maintained by the employer itself. 

You can avoid this by drafting a simple document stating that the ownership of all the work done belongs to the business owner. And make the freelancer sign this document before he begins the work. 

Ask for a sample Table Of Contents

This is one of the best tactics for hiring excellent freelancers. 

Once you have narrowed it down to one freelancer, ask him/her to provide or work on a sample project first.

Doing so will help both sides in figuring out if you both are the right fit for each other. 

Make sure the online hiring platform uses Escrow

Whenever you are hiring a freelancer through any of the online platforms such as Fiverr, Upwork, etc., make sure that the payments process is handled by Escrow.

Escrow is a third-party platform that acts as a trustable source of payments between the buyer and the seller. 

Escrow collects payments from the buyer and delivers them to the seller only when the work is completed and delivered to the buyer. 

By using this third-party platform you can eliminate the risk of your money or your work getting stolen by the freelancer. 

Negotiate the price upfront

With all being said, this point should be the most important thing which you should keep in mind while hiring freelancers. You should always negotiate the price of the gig up front before you go ahead and place the order. 

Protect your work assets

Make sure that your delivered work and projects are completely confidential and the freelancer does not share them with anyone else. 

Also, there are high chances that the freelancer might forfeit the agreement and steal away your work and deliver it to other clients.

You can avoid this by making the freelancer sign a non-compete agreement. 

Here are some Do’s and Don’t which you must follow while hiring freelancers: Table Of Contents

Do’s:

1. Write clear and concrete proposals
2. Narrow down on the best platforms
3. Pay fairly to the freelancers
4. Seek long term relationships
5. Have an open mind to feedback and change

Don’ts

1. Let low price be your selection criteria
2. Work unless a work agreement has been signed
3. Let the communication gap affect your work
4. Hire someone who is not fit for your job
5. Settle for quantity over quality

Managing Freelancers

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Try to create a healthy relationship Table Of Contents

Do: Have meaningful communication with the freelancers and try to understand their problems and needs

Don’t: Avoid treating them as a short-term, one-time contributor to your company’s success. 

Communicate Regularly

Do: Try to build relationships with the freelancers and communicate with them regularly throughout the duration of the project. Make them feel comfortable with sharing their ideas or thoughts on the project. 

Don’t: Never assign a project or a task to the freelancers and communicate with them just at the end of the project or before the deadline arrives.

Stay away from micromanagement

Do: Maintain a level of trust with the freelancers and trust their ability to manage the work according to the requirements of the project.

Don’t: Refrain yourself from poking your fingers at each step of the project. Doing this will only hamper the quality of work produced by the freelancers. 

Shower your digital freelancer with awards and recognition

Do: Appreciate the hard work and extra hours put in by the freelancers. Honestly congratulate them at the end of the project and tip them off if you find their work to be extraordinary. 

Don’t: Never just collect the final delivery and go away without thanking and appreciating their hard work.

When nothing works, terminate the contract

Now, this point might sound a bit harsh to you. But, in reality, you might stumble into situations where the freelancer is not delivering on time or is refraining from listening to your advice. 

You might want to terminate the contract as a last resort when you can no longer resolve the issues with the freelancers.

I hope by now you might have got an idea about what are the best practices for hiring freelancers and how you can manage them. 

Let us now take a look at some websites where you can find freelancers.

Online Marketplace Platforms for Hiring Freelancers

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Here is a list of 7 best marketplace platforms for hiring freelancers in 2021: Table Of Contents

1. Fiverr
2. Upwork
3. PeoplePerHour
4. Crowded
5. 99Designs
6. Simply Hired
7. Toptal

Conclusion

Hiring and managing freelancers can prove to be a game-changing move for your company. 

You can get your work outsourced while your in-house employees focus on more crucial tasks. 

An important point to keep in mind is that you need to treat freelancers just as you treat your in-house employees. These freelancers are just an extension of your permanent employees, the only difference is that they are working remotely for you. 

Through this article, I hope I was able to clear your doubts related to the best practices for hiring freelancers for your business. 

Comment what tips or practices you follow while hiring freelancers down below!