The way we work together is changing, with technology making it faster and easier than ever to collaborate with virtual and local teams. Any time a project manager or entrepreneur wants to build something beautiful, they just need to go to an online freelance marketplace, find the right contractors, give them access, and work together to deliver something amazing...
If only it were that simple.
You know it doesn’t quite work that way in the real world. No matter how good a team you have, how powerful your technology is, or how efficiently you work, issues always crop up. These problems are even harder to solve when you’re working across multiple locations.
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Fortunately, there are several practical steps you can take to create better working practices, build stronger team relationships, and ultimately help your project to deliver successfully. As a former project manager and an active freelance writer, I’ve seen these techniques work from both sides. It does take effort and commitment to make these changes, but it’s undoubtedly worth it in the long run.
In this article we’ll explore:
- Why it’s vital to value your freelancers.
- Foundations — hiring for attitude.
- Expectations — the importance of writing stuff down.
- Habits — effective project management.
- Bringing it all together.
Why It’s Vital to Value Your Freelancers
You might be wondering why you need to think about this stuff. After all, you’re paying for a freelancer’s time and skills. You have expectations and needs, they have talent and services, why isn’t it just a simple exchange of money for work?
The simple reason is that when people feel valued and engaged, they work harder, faster, and produce higher quality deliverables. That's good for you, your business, and your freelancers.
Speaking as a freelancer, feeling valued isn’t just about paying my invoice. It includes:
- Being treated fairly.
- Sharing autonomy, feedback, and trust.
- Working to agreed practices.
- Knowing what you expect.
I know that many of my colleagues feel the same way. Spend a little time on those areas and we’ll repay you with outstanding deliverables, a great working relationship, and peace-of-mind. It all starts by finding freelancers with the right kind of attitude.
Foundations: Hiring for Attitude
Hiring the right people is an art and science all of its own. One thing to remember when you’re building any kind of team (but especially a remote one) is "Hire for attitude, as well as competence." While many contractors and freelancers can demonstrate competence — a strong portfolio, the right skills and talents, industry experience — attitude is harder to define. To make things easier, it can be useful to focus on three areas: communications, ownership, and being proactive.
Communications
A good freelancer should be a good communicator. This isn’t just about responding to email or Slack chats. It includes contributing to discussions, sharing ideas, taking the lead in their area of expertise, and demonstrating their thinking. In short, they shouldn’t be afraid to speak up.
Ownership
Although ownership is partly about confidence and self-management, it’s also about accountability. This means completely owning the work, understanding your business and project processes, letting you know about any difficulties, and delivering to your scope, budget, and timescales.
Being Proactive
You don’t have time to constantly chase down work and milestones. A good freelancer will keep you informed, manage your expectations, and actively enhance your working relationship.
The best way to hire for these attitudes is to interview your potential freelancers. Ask questions that help them demonstrate these values and listen carefully to the answers. Ultimately, a freelancer’s attitude should build trust and give you confidence that they can do the work and meet your needs.
Remember that with a remote team, communications, ownership, and being proactive are even more important, so hire people with outstanding qualities in those areas. Once you’ve found the right people, you need to set expectations. The best way of doing that is to write things down.
The Importance of Writing Stuff Down
Project managers and freelancers have something in common: they both like clarity. Working to a common understanding, agreed guidelines, and fair contracts keeps everyone happy. That’s why you should write everything down, communicate it to your contractors, and make sure they agree to it. There are three main areas you and your freelancer should be documenting and agreeing to:
- Contracts.
- Briefings and scope.
- Anything else.
The Contract: Protecting Freelancers and Businesses
A contract is essential to any working relationship. A good contract should define all of the terms, conditions, and expectations from both the freelancer and the business. This includes areas like roles and responsibilities, a brief outline of the work, rates and pricing, what’s in and out of scope, breakpoints, and anything else that needs to be defined.
As a freelance writer, I provide the contract about 90% of the time (here’s a link to my standard freelance writing contract, minus my personal details). Most good freelancers should have a standard freelance template that they can adapt for a client’s needs. As an entrepreneur or project manager, you might have a contract of your own. If not, and you want to develop one, there are lots of good templates and examples just a Google search away.
Because contracts are so essential, many freelancers won’t start work until there’s a signed, agreed contract in place.
Continue reading %How to Get the Most out of Your Freelancers%
by Paul Maplesden via SitePoint
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