How To Work With Freelancers

A growing number of companies work with freelancers on a regular basis and they’re reaping the benefits.

Research shows that 84% of the most innovative companies find hiring freelancers to be the fastest way to work. Speed isn't the only benefit, though. From unparalleled flexibility to building a roster of professionals with specialized skills, here's what you need to know about how freelancers can help your business—and how you can work with them effectively.

Why you should work with freelancers

Freelancers offer business owners a mix of skill- and finance-based benefits. If you're unsure about engaging a freelancer to help you on your next project, consider the following:

• Freelancers can reduce payroll costs. The average cost of hiring a new employee is over $4,000—and it can cost four times as much just to hire that person. If you need a new skill on your team, but don't have enough work planned to fill a part-time or full-time job, you can save money by bringing on a talented freelancer only when you need them.
• Teams of freelancers can work around the clock. Most freelancers are independent contractors who work remotely. This means that you can strategically hire freelancers in different time zones and keep work moving around the clock. For example, you could hire freelancers in different regions of the world to provide support to customers in those countries, keep engagement going on social media all day long, and more.
• Freelancers can help you evaluate new skills. If you aren't quite sure how a skill or role will benefit your team, you can bring on a freelancer for a few weeks or months. Creating a test project can help you assess how well you work with the freelancer and evaluate what benefits their skill set brings to your organization.
• Freelancers let you scale your team up and down. If you know you have particularly busy times during the year—such as around the holidays or during the summer months—you can budget to hire more freelancers with key skills during those time periods.

Working with freelancers vs. in-house employees

From a management perspective, the core difference between working with a high-quality freelancer and a full-time employee comes down to tasks. You'll want to rely on freelancers for specific tasks within defined projects, while full-time employees may have varied responsibilities over a long tenure with your company.

Freelancers are also more autonomous. A full-time employee may need significant training, onboarding, and supervision—as well as software licenses—in order to work for your company. A freelancer, on the other hand, should come into a project with the skills and tools they need to do the job. Their onboarding with your company will be limited to meeting collaborators and learning about the project.

Common concerns and solutions

If you still have questions about how easy it is to work with freelancers, you aren't alone. These are some of the most common concerns expressed by first-time clients.

Can freelancers really produce quality work?

Whether you've relied on an internal team of traditional employees—or one marketing agency—for a long time, outsourcing work to a new freelancer can feel nerve-racking. One common reason for hesitation is concern about whether or not a freelancer can produce work that's up to brand standards.

Upwork clients will be some of the first to tell you that yes, freelancers can absolutely produce quality, branded work. Take Adrienne Young, lead art director at Amway, as an example. She turned to freelance talent out of necessity for a global video project and was pleasantly surprised by their quality work.

"I'll be honest, I went in with low expectations knowing how complex the project was and how low of a budget we had," Young said. "But when the first video came out, the work spoke for itself."

Can freelance talent be held accountable?

If you've never worked with a freelancer before, you may be wondering how on earth you'll keep such an autonomous team member accountable. But an important thing to remember is that when you work with a freelancer, you're working with a skilled professional who's used to being self-directed. They may have been self-employed and working as their own boss for years, so they want to ensure accountability and responsibility on every project—just as you do for your customers.

Can you trust a freelancer's work?

Many Upwork clients have found that they quickly grow to trust, and even rely on, freelance talent. The key is taking the time upfront to find the right freelancer with the right skill sets.

Priyanka Sreekanth is an architect and an interior designer who uses the Upwork platform as both a freelancer and a client. She sees test projects as beneficial to everyone involved in a new contract.

"Always start with a test project with your freelancer if you're apprehensive," Sreekanth said. "This has worked really well for me, now that I also hire freelancers through Upwork."

Can freelancers take on high-level projects?

Freelancers can absolutely take on high-level projects—just ask Vinod Kartha, vice president at UST. He's seen firsthand how freelancers can bring a wealth of knowledge to high-level and complex work.

"Personally, we've had zero failures in our use of freelance talent," Kartha said. "I think it's not just because we're getting their general expertise. It's that they've likely solved exactly what we need them to solve a thousand times."

10 tips for working with freelancers

1. Write a great freelance job post
2. Verify your payment method on Upwork
3. Build relationships with freelance talent
4. Define project details and expectations
5. Set a budget
6. Provide necessary documentation and templates
7. Establish communication channels
8. Use shared project management tools
9. Consider time tracking
10. Provide ongoing feedback
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1. Write a great freelance job post

The first step in finding a great freelancer is posting a clear, detailed job post. (If you aren't sure where to start, our Job Post Generator powered by Uma, Upwork's Mindful AI, can help.) You'll want to make sure that your job post:

• Includes a clear title indicating what kind of help you need
• Provides details about the work, including any specific skills or tools you need help with
• Outlines your budget and whether you prefer to work with talent on an hourly or fixed-price basis

And once you post your job on Upwork, you'll begin getting suggested profiles and proposals from qualified professionals who excel at projects like yours.

2. Verify your payment method on Upwork

Freelancers look for a few different signals when evaluating a client's trustworthiness on Upwork—and a verified billing method is one of them. Taking the time to set up and verify your billing details right away helps to show that you're part of a real company and serious about working with a freelancer on Upwork.

3. Build relationships with freelance talent

A freelancer is a business vendor. Even if you're working with a one-person shop, the freelancer's organization is agreeing to do with yours. It's important to cultivate this relationship just like you would with a supplier or regular customer. And talented freelancers like those you'll meet on Upwork want to build strong relationships with their clients.

"I prefer to take on long-term working relationships than short-term projects," said Samir Bazzi, a freelance marketing professional. "While small clients are great, it keeps me on the sales hamster wheel. Every time I finish a project I have to go get a new client instead of keeping an existing client with continuous income."

4. Define project details and expectations

A freelancer doesn't know your company's inner workings or how you like to complete projects. It's important that you clearly define all project details and requirements to ensure that the final result meets your expectations.

Start with high-level requirements and then get into specifics like:

• Skills and knowledge that the freelancer should bring to the project
• Tools and software required for the work
• Whether you need your freelancer available at a certain time for meetings
• How you plan to handle task completion
• Who will be responsible for final approval of completed deliverables
• When the project will end

The best place to start is in your job description. It's a great place to outline technical requirements and lay out how you want the project to progress.

5. Set a budget

Your initial conversations (and agreements) with a freelancer should involve clear communication around budget. Be sure to stick to whatever is agreed upon at the start of a project and understand that additional requests for work may incur additional costs.

If you're paying a freelancer an hourly rate, discuss how many hours the project may take and establish a line of communication for the freelancer to notify you if extra hours may be necessary. And if you're working together on a flat-rate basis, establishing project milestones can help all parties stay aligned on progress.

6. Provide necessary documentation and templates

Many freelancers will need some upfront documentation to ensure that their work meets your standards. These documents not only set specific requirements, but they help freelancers make sure that their work aligns with your brand identity.

For example, copywriters will need editorial guidelines and a copy of your content brief template. Graphic designers typically need your visual brand guide and licensed photos or fonts. Freelance web developers, meanwhile, may need documentation that outlines when they should leave notes within their code so that your internal team can easily use, manage, and update their work as needed. This clear documentation minimizes confusion for freelancers and follow-up work for your team—ultimately increasing overall project quality.

7. Establish communication channels

Because freelance gigs often equal remote work, you'll likely need to engage in asynchronous communication. You can make this easier from day one by establishing a preferred communication channel. For example, if you like communicating via email, share your contact details and a first message as soon as your contract is signed.

Try to check in with all freelancers through the same channels to avoid missing notifications and minimize the places that you need to check for messages. (If you hire freelancers on Upwork, you can easily coordinate all of your communications through Upwork Messages.)

8. Use shared project management tools

Project management and productivity tools are another great help when working remotely or asynchronously. Some of the most popular project management tools used by clients and freelancers include:

• Asana. This project management platform lets you organize work and tasks in multiple visual styles. It also provides clear places to add requirements, files, project tags, and collaborator profiles.
• Trello. This board-based project management system is great for teams that like to follow the Kanban method—and its mix of color-coding and view adjustment features mean you can customize it to your liking.
• ClickUp. ClickUp bills itself as "the everything app" and it's full of features—including project tracking and dashboards, team chats, collaborative whiteboards, docs, and even an AI assistant.
• Basecamp. Basecamp organizes every project on one page, so it's easy to figure out which people and resources are critical to progress.
• Jira. Much loved by software teams, Jira is designed for companies creating and updating products. You can create tickets, track bugs, and do more with your freelance collaborators.
• Monday. The Monday platform is incredibly robust and allows you to create hundreds of different project configurations based on department, objective, or project type.

9. Consider time tracking

Time tracking is essential for hourly jobs or agency projects where you need to allocate your freelancer's time to different client initiatives. If you're working with a freelancer on Upwork on an hourly basis, they may log their time with our desktop time tracker. Other time tracking options include:

• Toggl Track for free time tracking
• Harvest for tracking teams across projects
• Everhour for managing team availability and integrating with project management tools

Your freelancer may also have an existing time tracking system they use for projects. This is especially true if they've been self-employed as an independent professional for some time.

10. Provide ongoing feedback

One of the best relationship-building tools you have at your disposal is feedback. Be sure to let your freelancer know if there's something that isn't correct and work with them to fix it.

You may say something like, "I really enjoyed the introduction you wrote, but the following sections need to focus more on the issues our customers face. I've shared some data on these issues with you, and I'm excited to see how you can communicate it within the article."

Find your first freelancer on Upwork

If you're ready to start succeeding like a work innovator and benefiting from access to specific skills, then it's time to find your first freelancer on Upwork. Sign up to post your first job and browse talent profiles today.

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Upwork is not affiliated with and does not sponsor or endorse any of the tools or services discussed in this article. These tools and services are provided only as potential options, and each reader and company should take the time needed to adequately analyze and determine the tools or services that would best fit their specific needs and situation.