In today’s working world, freelancers have become indispensable. The reason is that they are a profitable alternative to permanent employees.
They are in high demand not only because of their flexibility, but also because of the knowledge and experience they bring from many different projects. In addition, freelancers are adaptable and can be used in a wide range of fields. Hiring a freelancer also means predictable costs and a short time-to-hire compared with permanent employees. On top of that, freelancers contribute to the rapid digitization of companies thanks to their extensive experience.
Knowledge Workers
- Freelancers enrich companies especially through their existing expertise, because they gain experience by constantly changing clients.
- Because of the fixed time available for a project, freelancers work efficiently and with focus.
- Hiring freelancers brings more innovation to companies and helps prevent operational tunnel vision. Thanks to their long-standing experience, freelancers also look at problems from different angles and can contribute new insights.
- Freelancers work in a solution-oriented and goal-oriented way, which is also supported by their fast onboarding phase. As self-employed professionals, freelancers are also able to think and act entrepreneurially.
- Freelancers are motivated at work and therefore deliver above-average results. According to a study by Freelancer Kompass, self-motivation is one of the most important soft skills for 64 percent of freelancers.
Adaptability
- While permanent employees are usually employed by the same company over a long period of time, freelancers become more adaptable to different situations through their constant change of clients. This allows them to transfer and contribute a great deal of know-how from other projects.
- Our working world is becoming increasingly complex and fast-paced. Freelancers react quickly to crises, changing workloads, revenue peaks, and demand. This gives companies a competitive advantage. Especially during the coronavirus pandemic, remote work has become the norm, which was not a new way of working for most freelancers. They had already adapted to these conditions early on. Read more about remote work in our blog post Remote Team Building.
- Depending on the project at hand, freelancers can be used in many different ways. For example, they can quickly create the foundation for a new product or technology, or help out when there are bottlenecks. The required expertise can be accessed flexibly on a case-by-case basis.
- Freelancers outperform permanent employees especially in terms of time-to-hire, because most freelancers do not require the lengthy hiring process.
- Thanks to their fast adaptability and short time-to-hire, upcoming projects can be handed over to freelancers seamlessly.
Cost efficiency
- Hiring freelancers leads to lower administrative costs, because they have their own computer and work materials. They already have everything they need to do the work and are therefore not tied to any single company.
- Because they have their own insurance and do not require additional paid vacation days, a freelancer’s costs remain low compared with permanent employees.
- Costs can also be controlled in advance, because clients only pay for what freelancers ultimately deliver.
- Even if a freelancer’s hourly rate may initially seem high, they can offer a cost-benefit advantage over permanent employees for time-limited projects.
- Hiring what appears to be an expensive freelancer is also an investment that usually pays off through increased efficiency. You can read more about this exciting topic here.
Future-oriented mindset
- According to Boston Consulting Group, freelancers enable companies to transform quickly and digitally, which in turn fosters a digital culture overall. Freelancers are the driving force behind modernization within companies.
- The future-oriented aspect matters because already every second company works with external experts. Anyone who falls behind here risks losing their competitive advantage.
Since the beginning of our collaboration, the highly qualified team at ElevateX has played a key role in the development of our apps. With a proactive, communicative, and self-responsible way of working, ElevateX lays important foundations for project success and is an ideal partner for us.
Alexander Lehsten - General Manager DKB Code Factory
Conclusion
Ideally, freelancers contribute with the know-how they bring into the company to faster growth and project success. The goal of every company should be to keep or transfer that knowledge and expertise into the organization long term. This can be ensured especially through proper onboarding and offboarding of freelancers in the company. Read more about that here.
Today, freelancers are no longer hired only out of necessity because of workload peaks or temporary spikes in demand. Instead, they are deliberately brought into companies for projects. You can also find helpful information about alternatives to freelancers in our blog post on external IT support.
If you are also interested in working with freelancers, we will be happy to help you find the perfect candidate. At ElevateX, legal compliance is especially important to us, and that is ensured by vetted experts. Read more about protection against bogus self-employment.
