Having a freelancer on staff has become essential. Today, 25% of workers in the European Union are freelancers, and in the last ten years the number of freelancers has increased by 145%. Their specialized knowledge and skills are indispensable to the success of any project a company needs to move forward.
Recently, the freelance recruitment company Malt has published a report explaining how to be competitive thanks to freelancers. In it, they reveal a series of guidelines and tactics to get the most out of their collaboration. In this Befree blog post we take a look at it and clarify a number of facts.
Some relevant facts
Malt’s report provides a number of statistical and numerical data that are worth taking a look at, such as average daily price by labor category:
On the other hand, we have some generalized opinions and views from the responses of the freelancers surveyed by Malt. This image summarizes some of the most important ones:
Five tactics to be competitive thanks to freelancers
1- Choose specialists for the tasks that require them.
The freelance work model allows you to acquire knowledge and skills that would otherwise be much more inaccessible. This gives freelancers the opportunity to specialize in specific tasks. Not only specialize, but above all be a real ace at them.
Most commonly in a standard workgroup, budget and size constraints mean that not all specifications are mastered. It is at these times that you should enlist the help of a specialized freelancer. Having their skills and knowledge in the specific work indicated will allow the project to go ahead even if you do not have the necessary talent from minute one.
2- Accelerate or unblock the project through a freelancer
A freelancer is a very effective lever to meet specific needs. By trying to do everything, work teams fall behind on tasks that can be done by a specialist. By delegating these issues to a freelancer, in-house staff can focus on their core business, where they can create maximum value.
In turn, using freelancers allows them to absorb peaks in operational needs, be it design, content or development. Once the strategy is defined and the project is launched, execution can be slowed by purely operational constraints. The use of freelancers makes it possible to adjust to the need by occasionally expanding the team to absorb the workload.
3- Staying on the cutting edge of knowledge
Freelancers are constantly learning. 78% of them appreciate the educational dimension of freelancing. In a context where new technologies evolve at an exponential speed, the presence of freelancers at the heart of the company and their direct contribution to projects ensures a pollination of technical and methodological knowledge.
In addition to this natural transmission of knowledge through work, it is possible to call upon freelancers whose main mission is the transmission of knowledge. Their specialization and their external point of view are valuable assets to increase the technical or organizational skills of their teams. technical or organizational skills.
4- Provide the means to innovate
Speed is a pillar of agility and a powerful driver of innovation. By calling on freelancers, teams are allowed to initiate more projects at short notice. This makes it possible to be attentive and reactive to competition and market changes, as well as to avoid obsolescence.
In addition to this potential for innovation in the development of the company's core business, autonomous work allows to innovate and experiment more freely with projects that otherwise wouldn't have been prioritized. You can develop a product in parallel, test or take control, always with controlled risks. Hiring freelancers allows you to temporarily acquire the necessary expertise to explore your market before expanding your team.
5- Gaining time while hiring employees
At the heart of the war for talent, finding and hiring the right person often takes several months, and the importance of experience in key positions does not allow for haste. How to be competitive thanks to freelancers? By hiring one in the meantime can save the time needed in a strategic hire.
When you are in search of an important position but there are immediate needs to fill, getting out of the way by hiring a freelance expert is key. You gain recruiting leeway without the trade-offs that sometimes come with time constraints. Plus, with their business knowledge and contacts, these freelancers can also help build the job description and find the needle in the haystack.
