As the popularity of outsourcing creeps ever higher, advances in technology mean agencies can draw on a fantastic stable of freelancers from all over the globe, whenever they require more hands on deck or a few pairs of fresh eyes on a project.
With so much possibility lurking in the wings of the internet, one thing is for certain: you'll have to manage your freelancers well to satisfy your clients' expectations. Since we're generous souls, we've come up with some points to help you in this regard…
Appropriate delegation
One of the advantages of a freelance network is plucking the right people for the job from a diverse talent pool, ensuring each assignment is delivered with the strongest qualities and skillsets at its heart.
You should think long and hard about who is suitable for varying client demands. For example, someone with 10 years' experience will be wasted (and potentially resentful) if you give them a very basic task to complete. Reserve your highest performers for the top jobs, and delegate easier projects to relatively new freelancers hoping to build their portfolio.
Clear briefs
Knowing exactly how a freelancer can perform is merely one aspect of setting your team on the right path. If you hire a bunch of freelancers regularly, they must know the timeframes and deadlines they're working to; otherwise, it'll reflect poorly on you, and could harm the client's trust in your abilities.
Decide what work you're handing out for the foreseeable future, and to whom, before giving each freelancer a comprehensive brief, just like a regular in-house team. Appropriate links to a client's website, or anything the client has mentioned for inspiration, can only serve to enhance the final product. Simply giving someone a title, concept or extremely generalised direction might not be enough.
Project management solutions
Guiding an armada of freelancers is no small task – their questions, updates and confirmations can assail you throughout the day, forcing you to sift through chains of emails and missed calls to stay on track of how well they're performing. If you're an agency, there are undoubtedly other concerns to deal with, meaning your handle on freelance operations can become slippery.
That's where a good task management tool comes in. With a platform like Task Board, you can see which tasks have been completed, what's in progress, and what's coming up. The kanban board layout makes it easy to visualise work across your team, and built-in time tracking shows you exactly where hours are being spent.
Keep all your project discussions in one place with task comments, so you're never hunting through email threads. There's a wealth of collaborative gold to be mined from freelancers, so start digging away today with the right tools to keep everyone aligned.
