This is a long-standing debate that has left many business owners perplexed. Oftentimes, employers wonder if they should invest in hiring freelancers or full-time employees as their foremost challenge is a performance difference. At the end of this article, you will get a better understanding of what to do as regarding hiring labour.
Are Freelancers your employees?
While we all know what traditional employment generally entails, the dynamics of navigating working with a freelancer are quite different. Before you consider only hiring freelancers at your organization, it is important to have first-hand knowledge about how freelancers work.
Freelancers consider themselves partners as opposed to employees. Most freelancers start the practice because they want to achieve financial and time freedom. They would usually set their working hours, determine their pay rates and also decide the scope of the work or services they will offer to the employers.
Employers of labour will usually hire freelancers for project-based work that have stringent timelines. You will also see freelancers being hired when companies are short-staffed and have to deliver on a project.
Since freelancers consider themselves partners, they would usually strive to meet the client’s demands excellently as they know that they could get referred.
Pros of Hiring Freelancers
There are a few perks to hiring freelancers. Some include:
- Reduced Costs: By hiring freelancers, organizations can save overhead costs. Freelancers can work from home rather than from the office; thereby, saving the company a few bucks from running their building.
- No Employee Benefits: Since freelancers work on a temporary, project-based job, there is usually no need for an employment contract upon job resumption. Freelancers have no access to health benefits, pension payments, or add-on work benefits. Freelancers are also responsible for paying their taxes as well. At the end of the projects, they are paid the amount they requested. This also saves employers some costs.
- Simple Hiring Process: All a company needs to do when hiring staff is to contract the services of a freelance company such as Bookings Africa: Search, Compare, Book. You find a suitable freelancer, hire and get on with the project. This is a simpler process than employing traditionally. Recruitment costs companies money, time, and resources and as such, most companies would rather hire a freelancer.
Challenges of Hiring Freelancers
Just like life, nothing is perfect. The same goes for hiring freelancers. Some of the challenges listed below can be managed when they arise.
- No Organizational Growth: For a company looking to grow and expand, hiring freelancers might be a futile pursuit in the long run. You cannot desire to cut costs at the expense of your business growth. Freelancer hiring is often short-term. Establishing Company Culture becomes difficult when the hired personalities have no desire to grow or establish the business, learn the work culture, or adapt to the company’s values. In the long run, no business grows on temporary employment.
- Unavailability/Unresponsiveness: Most freelancers set their working hours. Deciding to work with a freelancer is deciding to work on their terms. If an urgency ensues, there’s no guarantee that the employer’s urgency will be responded to outside of the freelancer’s work hours. It’s best to delegate time-sensitive work to full-time employees as opposed to hiring a freelancer in such a case.
- Lack of Effective Communication: Employers will most likely encounter challenges in communication during the tenure of work with a freelancer. What we believe can salvage such an occurrence is signing a detailed contract before work kicks off.
Pros of Hiring Full-Time Employees
- Loyalty: Full-time employees are expected to be committed to the organization’s growth. Unlike freelancers, whose loyalty lies with the highest payer, employees are expected to be loyal to only their employers and not dabble in issues of conflict of interest.
- Cost-Effective: After some time of hiring only freelancers in any business, the organization might soon realize that is cost-ineffective and will eventually resolve to hire full-time employees.
In conclusion, it is best to hire a blend of employees and freelancers depending on the gravity of the work at hand. It is also important that employers take into consideration, the financial, behavioural, and company-standard implications of hiring either a full-time employee or a freelancer.