FREELANCE OF INSOURCE?

I can reference 1,000s of articles on this subject however, the latest survey has brought some insight into this topic with individuals now stating that they prefer to become freelancers for the following reasons:

·??????The choose when they work

·??????They earn for work done and not a standard salary

·??????They are in charge of selecting who they work for

·??????They determine their own working hours

·??????Flexibility on travel

·??????Work life balance improvement

How is this affecting the Business?

You will be losing your top performers as they are in high demand within the market and doing their “own” think is, as indicated, a better option perhaps.?

You can retain their excellence through paying them as a freelancer which in return could be a higher amount than what your current employee liabilities are or it could be more financially feasible.

So, what to do?

As an owner of a Global Consulting Firm (UK, Africa and South Africa), I can honestly encourage businesses to decrease your financial liability and risk by outsourcing certain areas or deliverables.

The benefits outweigh the alternative inhouse employment by far in that you have access to specialists that only focus on the deliverable and not at all office politics or distractions that are associated with office bound personnel.?There are no “angry” colleagues, there are no financial or statutory liabilities upon the Business, there is no irregular working hours, disciplinaries, etc.

You pay for a deliverable and if that is not met, you have remedial actions like penalties, breach of contracts and requirements for replacements.

You still have the same amount of hours being offered or completed which is aligned to the task at hand and you only pay for what is done or the hours worked.?So in the case that your deliverable will only take 30 hours, you do not have to pay for 40 hours as per a normal employee.

What are the challenges with freelancers?

There are however some challenges that must be mentioned and kept in mind when you do decide to rather outsource services.

·??????A freelancer is an external person that will have internal company information and knowledge – you need to ensure that agreements are well constructed to legally risk mitigate.

·??????Communication with freelancers can become challenging especially if they are not immediately available – you have the right to add a requirement to the agreement that some form of communication channel needs to be available with a response time line.

·??????Costs rising – some Freelancers will charge you more and more for every requirement and it can be costly - you have the option to retain or obtain another freelancers when the fees are being raised rapidly or where it becomes more expensive than having an employee.

World is changing

COVID has provided individuals with the opportunity to realise that they can work remotely and for more than one “employer”.?This was inevitable the moment that the world went into Lockdown.

The option for an individual to offer freelance services are more beneficial than being stuck in an office with one employer for 8 or 9 hours a day, where they can charge an hourly rate that is sustainable to their living costs, have freedom to move around and work for more than one employer or even go as far to say “I do not want to work for you” and still be covered with income.