12 Reasons Why Companies Hire Freelancers

The market of work is evolving. Millions of businesses worldwide are shifting away from traditional employment and hiring freelancers. Skilled freelance talent helps these businesses unlock their potential by solving complex problems, getting more work done, and completing projects faster.

If your business is debating hiring a freelancer rather than a full-time employee, you may be interested to learn that freelancers can bring a variety of benefits to your business. Freelancers present an opportunity for short-term, long-term, and highly skilled technical projects. This article will cover 12 of the reasons to consider hiring a freelancer to help grow your business.

Why are more companies hiring freelancers?

There are many reasons companies are reevaluating “business as usual” and turning to freelancers rather than hiring full-time staff. First, the recent pandemic caused one of the most significant shifts in hiring practices as traditional businesses were forced to adapt and change. Business owners and managers recognized that their workforce no longer needed to sit at a desk in an office from nine-to-five to be successful. The rise in remote workers, online collaboration tools, video conferencing, and talented workers dispersed around the globe has led many businesses to hire more freelancers.

At the same time, there has been a shift in how the world views freelancers and contract employees. Freelancers are increasingly seen as highly skilled professionals with valuable abilities that businesses need. Through online work marketplaces like Upwork, freelancers can build a business with flexibility and uncapped earning potential.

Below is a list of 12 reasons why more companies are hiring freelancers:  

1) Cost savings

Traditional full-time employees are expensive. In addition to paying their salary, business owners are responsible for training costs, benefits, health insurance, paid time-off, and payroll taxes. In contrast, hiring a freelancer allows your business to eliminate many of these overhead costs. Freelancers don’t require a dedicated workspace in your office or training. Hiring a freelancer allows a business to reduce costs without sacrificing work output.

2) Access to specialized talent

Talented freelancers offer expertise that businesses can tap into with ease. If your business requires a specific skillset for a project, you can identify a freelancer that has spent years perfecting that same craft. The more experienced a freelancer is, the more value they can bring to a project. The business can benefit from the freelancer’s experience without devoting internal resources or adding a permanent position to their payroll.

3) High-quality work

Freelancers can deliver consistently high-quality work due to their range of experience. Before hiring a freelancer, you’ll have an opportunity to evaluate their past work portfolio, check out reviews from clients, and interview them to make sure they are the right fit. Since freelancers are often competing for projects, you can look for those who will give your project the attention and quality your company needs. By successfully completing your project, freelancers build their reputation, expand their portfolio, and increase their chance of future employment or referrals.

4) Faster deliverables

In addition to offering quality work, freelancers can often provide faster deliverables than full-time employees, and more quickly and accurately. Generally, full-time employees are tasked with multiple projects simultaneously. This often slows down projects and causes delays. In contrast, freelancers generally focus on one project at a time or work within shorter timeframes, which results in increased efficiency and faster project completion.

5) Larger talent pool

When hiring a full-time employee, companies are usually restricted to the area in which their business operates. By opening the opportunity to freelancers, companies can access a larger talent pool from around the world, which allows companies to find the specific talent, qualifications, and skills they require without settling for the best available person in their immediate area. Plus, with a work marketplace like Upwork, it’s easier than ever to find and hire talented freelancers.

6) Company risk reduction

When you hire a full-time employee, you invest in that individual’s future with the company. Training and onboarding them costs money and time, which generally involves some risk. Rather than losing that investment if the employee decides to leave the company, working with a freelancer allows you to build a contract with specific deliverables before payment. Working with a freelancer also reduces the risk as you can make changes without impacting your internal processes.

7) No long-term commitment

When you hire a full-time employee, you’re now responsible for that individual’s livelihood, and they are expecting to have long-term job security. Freelancers can be hired for a short-term project, for a set amount of time, or to help with long-term projects with specific deliverables. This lack of a long-term commitment affords companies greater flexibility when hiring freelancers.

8) Ease of finding, hiring, and onboarding

According to a recent freelancing study, 36% of the US workforce is now freelancing in some capacity. That means that more than one in three people in the United States could be available to help your business. With those odds, your business will be able to find, hire, and onboard a freelancer quickly. To begin your search, you can browse through millions of freelancer profiles or create a freelancer job listing on Upwork and receive personalized proposals from qualified freelancers.

9) Increased diversity

Freelancers create an opportunity to expand the diversity of your company. Diversity helps increase the flow of ideas and often leads to better business solutions. A team of individuals from different geographic areas, educational backgrounds, cultures, and work disciplines can significantly increase your ability to handle various projects.

10) Schedule flexibility

One great benefit of freelancers is that they’re available to be hired 24/7. That means a freelancer is there to help you resolve last-minute emergencies when you need them. For example, a website may go down on Friday evening. If you have to wait until Monday morning for your full-time employee to come back to work, you could be losing out on a full weekend’s worth of potential business. A conventional employee may clock out and go home at 5 o’clock, but freelancers often have a more flexible work schedule that can revolve around a client’s needs.  

11) Short-term deadlines

Freelancers are excellent options for meeting quickly approaching deadlines. They can step in if something comes up, if you need additional support on a project, or if you need to make up for an absence on your team. Freelancers are often used to dealing with project deadlines and may have the schedule flexibility to help you complete your project even at the last minute.

12) Fresh perspective

Freelancers can bring a new and fresh perspective to a project. As an outsider, they may offer a unique idea that can greatly benefit a project. This fresh perspective may be a solution to a problem or a different way of understanding your customer’s needs. Plus, freelancers aren’t trapped in your company’s historical mindset, which lets you break free from the “that’s how it’s always been done” mentality that may be holding your business back.

Common freelancing services used by companies

Companies often turn to freelancers to help solve a variety of challenges, below are links to many popular freelance services:

• Writers and editors
• Website designers
• Programmers
• Mobile app developers
• Online marketers
• Graphic designers
• Customer service representatives
• Virtual assistants and admin support

There are over 5,000 unique freelancer skills offered on Upwork. Whatever type of freelancer your business is looking for, you can find them on Upwork.

Where do companies find freelancers?

The companies that recognize the opportunity provided by freelancers set themselves up for an excellent return on their investment and access to an alternative workforce with increased flexibility at a lower operating cost.  

It’s easy for companies to find a freelancer online. Upwork, the world’s work marketplace, makes finding the right freelance candidate simple. On Upwork, companies can search for the skill set or position they need and browse a list of freelancer profiles with matching experiences. Companies can also post a freelance project and receive personalized project proposals from qualified freelancers. Upwork’s platform makes finding, interviewing, and hiring freelancers easy. If you’re ready to hire a freelancer to help your company, sign up for an account on Upwork today.