(Actually) Operating a Freelance Program

Worksome hosted a breakfast last week, focussed around the discussion of “Operating with Freelancers”. Not theory, ideas or vision - actually operating with freelancers. A week on, I've put together some of the practical advice shared in the room for any companies wanting to support independent workers and bring in the often crucial skills that come with them.

“Come join our team, we’re fast-paced and agile!”

If businesses are to actually be all of the buzzwords they promote themselves as - nimble agile forward thinking - then you need a solid core team. These are your employees. Employees should have a vested interest in the business' success (although according to Gallop, that’s sadly not very often true). From a talent perspective, they have jobs that develop and remits that expand as you and they see fit; blurring projects, scope changes and, of course, are deducted tax from your payroll. Important right here that we make that distinction. Employees are that. Freelancers and independent workers, aren’t.

Without meaning to state the obvious - and it was clear from the questions we received before the meetup from attendees - freelancers are independent workers. They’re running their own business, on their own account. They find their own work, market themselves, handle their own taxes, and nurture their own specialist skills.

Reminding everyone of this seems obvious, but sets the tone for how to go about operating with freelancers.

In simple terms it's how you bring in individuals into your core team, whilst keeping independent workers just that: independent.

Here are the 6 key lessons learned from those *actually* doing it:

#1 Clearly differentiate Core Team vs. Independent Workers

At the heart of any successful business is a solid core team. These are your employees — people who have a vested interest in the company’s long-term success. Employees are committed to the growth of the business, can develop in their roles, and expand their responsibilities over time.Freelancers and independent workers, on the other hand, should be brought in for specific expertise or to meet a skills gap or project need.

And it's important to clearly distinguish between these two groups. While freelancers don't have the same vested interest as employees, they bring specialized skills that can propel a project forward faster and more efficiently.

“Draw the line. Tell the business: This is how freelancers should operate, and if they don’t work in this way, they’ll either cost more or we’ll hire someone permanently”

#2 Dedicate time for onboarding

Paying for time gives the worker the very best experience, of which the return on investment often comes in the form of faster project completion - and the obvious - access to specialized skills that your in-house team may not have.

“We budget for an extra half or full day to bring the freelancer into the core team meetings and give them time to gel and meet. It’s not about systems setup - it’s about making everyone feel comfortable with what this non-employee is coming in to help with”

Even though worker classification is a nuanced area, integrating freelancers like this doesn’t necessarily make them employees - it’s a fine line but worker classification is a spectrum. This won't automatically tip independent workers into being employee-like.

#3 Managing change to scope

Scope changes are inevitable in most, if not all, work - especially with delivery of projects. When they happen, be prepared to amend agreements and rescope the work. This will also require reclassifying the independent worker’s situation. Doing this effectively across multiple teams and communication channels can be tricky, but with the right technology (I might know a guy for this), changes can be streamlined and take minutes not days.

“If scope changes, amend the agreement. Re-classify the worker and the project. Keep that documentation up-to-date and be ready for audit. These people aren’t employees, remember”

#4 Establish who is Core Team and who is Not

One of the keys to integrating independent workers into your team is by clearly defining their roles. Bring in freelancers and project workers for their specific expertise, and recognise them internally and externally for that. One nice suggestion was to avoid using terms like "temp" or "contractor," which can undermine their perceived value. Instead, perhaps even refer to them as Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) or Independent Project Workers to reflect their contributions and expertise within the team or in front of clients or to your leadership.

One really interesting point made was the impact of this on the core team. It elevates them to being the project leaders, “team captains” who can be made to feel accountable for the delivery and outcomes. They don’t have to succumb to not knowing everything; that;’s what the subject matter experts are there for.

For companies struggling to be flexible with freelancers, open an honest dialogue with your hiring teams and ask where they struggle to deliver - then help them bring in the short or long term experts to deliver. Companies are seeing retention increasing directly due to the fact that work is more satisfying and meaningful a) being surrounded by experts and b) delivering good work.

Who knew, eh.

#5 Create your 'Freelancer Policy'

Having a clear policy in place that define what a freelancer is and how they differ from employees. How do we work with independent workers? What can and can't they do? Are there exceptions?

Use simple, understandable language to explain these distinctions and outline how freelancers are to be engaged within your organisation. Communicating this policy regularly, ideally with every hire, is essential to ensure smooth integration and to foster a culture where freelance and core employees can collaborate effectively - whilst knowing the boundaries of how they work together.

“Freelancers actually want to be kept at arm’s length to an extent, they want to work using their skills - and actually employees find it more freeing to have this relationship too so they can get the most out of the freelancer’s time - everyone wins”

#6 Build on a scalable foundation

If the existing process for scoping, hiring, and managing freelancers involves manual workflows that require coordination between hiring teams, legal, HR & talent, procurement, it's highly likely you're not setting yourself up for any scale with any of the advice given above.

It's essential to build a systematic, robust and repeatable process. This should be easy and straightforward for the people who will use it most — the core teams and the independent workers. No buzzwords or industry lingo. By streamlining these operations, you create a framework that supports growth, ensures compliance, and fosters the smoothest collaboration between your employees and the freelancers.

"If the process feels more mortgage application than shopping online, it's just not going to work long-term for the business"

Going back to the "fast-paced and agile" comment at the top, making sure that this line isn't a facade for bureaucratic and/or chaotic. Not only will the freelancer suffer, with "50% dropping out mid-process as another gig had come up" cited from one attendee. But as Jo at R/GA put it so well, if you're adding layers of administration, process and, ultimately, delays to work - emnployees won't be happy and will go off work somewhere else, too.

This will hopefully serve as an alarm bell for any large multinational that isn't practicing the above advice, often blaming complexity of scale. It's no surprise that only 10% of employees describe themselves 'thriving at work'... [from the same Gallop report]

Please do get in touch if you want to chat through any of this. We’ll be hosting another meetup on the other side of Christmas, and our team - from solutions, legal and compliance - are more than happy to help where we can with all things independent workforce. So:

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