Gig Economy: How to Set Up Your Freelancing Team Optimally?

The gig economy is growing at a pace faster than ever, all thanks to the extraordinary hype for remote and flexible work. Even before COVID-19 uprooted our traditional in-office work mode, freelancing was incredibly popular in countries like the U.S.? The pandemic, however, transformed the way businesses pursue their operations too! Additionally, 20% of the current full-time workforce is planning to shift to freelancing. If you are an early-stage startup or a medium-scale enterprise, working with freelancers can be a lot more beneficial. The pandemic has made sure that we can now adapt to any mode of working and still come out to be more productive than before. But how to manage the big change? The key is an optimal setup. Before we dive deep, let’s discuss the various benefits of hiring freelancers rather than full-time employees for your small business.

Why Should You Hire Freelancers?

Hiring freelancers against full-time employees for your business can prove to be a really smart move. Think about it this way - what are the most important assets in your professional life? Time and money! Freelancers help you save both and still get the work done optimally. Here are the primary benefits you get access to:

1. Special expertise: Your business will have flexible access to more concentrated expertise because freelancers are niched workers. They know what’s trending in the market as they work for multiple brands!
2. Cost-effective: In the case of hiring freelancers, you need to pay for the work done, as simple as that. Additionally, the cost of hiring full-time employees often comes out to be more expensive than you would have assumed.
3. Flexibility: You can always lift up the headcount or drop it based on the work requirements. It helps you save costs and enables flexible modes of working.
4. Time-saving: There’s usually no need for lengthy recruitment processes or interviews, as you are working with the freelancer flexibly.?
5. High quality of delivery: Most freelancers want to work with you for the long term. They have even niched experts and hence are more skilled in the tasks they perform. No doubt the quality of work delivered will be much better than in the case of freelancers.

How To Grow Your Business With a Freelance Team?

More businesses are looking for freelancers every year. However, there is an inherent difference between freelancers and full-time employees. What you want as a growing enterprise is to make the maximum out of the services you buy and get them to do the most productive work possible. So how do you build up the sync among your freelancing team? How do you indulge them in your company’s core mission and vision? We have good news - it’s quite simple and doable.?

Set Clear Goals & Scope of Project

Building your ideal team starts before you even start hiring. Project scope and your expectations with the freelancers should be clearly described. Draft the answers to the following questions while setting up the project description:

• What are the hard & soft skills required for the project?
• What will be the duration of engagement?
• How do you want to manage the workload of freelancers you hire?
• What kind of work experience would be ideal for your requirements?

You can even add more questions based on your targets, the niche that you are catering to and your business profile.

Set Up A Virtual Workspace

Once you get freelancers on board, add them to your own virtual workspace. To manage your team optimally, setting up a workspace and centralized platform for team interaction is the priority. The platform should support internal communication and video meetings while taking care of your productivity as well as your privacy.?

Convey Your Company’s Aspirations & Vision

Freelancers are not full-time employees so they don’t usually know a lot about your business goals and deep mission. They are straightaway assigned work and hence don’t get enough time to be aligned with the organization's vision.?

You need to step up and make them understand the primary mission so that they feel a sense of belonging to the company. Once they become loyal to your company, nothing can stop the productivity from growing.?

Encourage Communication & Make it Easy

As freelancers don’t have deep information about your company and its goals, encourage them to communicate about even the smallest of the details. Be easily reachable and make sure everyone else in your team is easily reachable too for communication. The right amount of internal communication enables optimal productivity levels and helps businesses thrive.

Motivate Them With Constructive Feedback

Although they are called ‘self-employed’ and work on their terms, freelancers work for your business too! It is your duty to keep them motivated towards work and appreciate their efforts to bring in results. Also, don’t forget to provide them with regular feedback. Communicate clearly what you feel about their work and how they can improve while being completely positive. Being constructive in your feedback helps in pushing the team up to unexpected levels. Moreover, you will also build good work relationships this way.

How To Maximize Your Freelancing Team’s Productivity?

Choosing the right virtual workspace is vital for laying down an optimal flow of work for your freelancing team. You need to minimize the hassle in communication and collaboration among your team. At the same time, you need to take care of productivity and their well being.?

Wurkr is the unique solution catering to all the needs of managing a freelancing team optimally. It’s an immersive virtual workspace that enables an office-like work environment for your team. So now you can work remotely with all the flexible advantages while still boosting your productivity!?

Wurkr does not only offer a unique solution for your remotely distributed teams but also helps your business grow fast and efficiently. If you’re an early-stage startup, check out our startup-focused plan designed especially for the leaders of tomorrow! Are you one?

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