Flexibility
Contracting freelancers takes away the commitment that comes from full-time employees. When you’re under pressure with a project or at a full working capacity and need help with extra work, a freelancer provides skills for the necessary period of time. The flexibility of using a freelancer also allows you to check out how they work under pressure, meet deadlines and their overall working attitude, meaning if and when you need to hire a new recruit you can offer it to them, being fully aware of how they may fit into your workplace.
Reliability
Freelancers are usually reliable and work well with the time they are given to complete a project as they generally have to hit a goal before being paid, which in turn increases their motivation. The work they produce is generally of a very high quality as being given a task gives them the chance to showcase what they can do and why they should be hired again for future projects. You can track their working hours through different software programmes including Tracking Time and Trello which enables you to check how long they take on each task and whether they are allocating their time correctly to different parts of a project.
Things can change quickly in the world of business, particularly for smaller businesses. Unexpected things can happen, for example, a company can be signing up several clients with lots of business one month and the next month the work can slow down. Freelancers can be contacted for tasks when business is busy, however when work is slow and income is low there is no pressure.
Time-Efficient
Hiring a freelancer is not as long a process as hiring a full-time employee as it’s a matter of checking their skills and qualities, having a chat with them to specify the exact work you would like them to produce and getting a feel for them as a person and their working attitude. This means that once a suitable freelancer is hired, they can begin working on a project as soon as possible and the work will be produced much more quickly than if you had to go through the long candidate/interview process. Websites such as LinkedIn allow the employer to search for the exact freelancer they are looking for as you can list the exact skills required for the work.
A workforce will always benefit from full-time employees as they help build the company brand and through teamwork can produce high-quality work in a time-efficient manner. However, when you need an extra pair of hands for a certain project, don’t rule out hiring a freelancer. They are more useful in a company’s time of need than you may realise.
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