Analyse your recruitment needs
If you want to identify jobs suitable for external employees, first ask yourself how important the given role is for your company. If it has the highest priority but you are not currently employing anyone full-time, consider temporary outsourcing or part-time work. This approach can help ensure high quality work and motivation.
On the other hand, all non-essential business roles can be transformed into permanent part-time or contract work and assigned to independent suppliers.
Build a group of freelancers
Collaborate with proven people who have demonstrated their skills and repeatedly provide high quality work. Thus you will create a quality database for ad hoc needs. Historical information about freelancers who have worked on similar projects is invaluable when starting a new project with a limited budget and a demanding deadline.
At the same time, give your project managers enough information about projects that external staff used to work on. They must be able to contact the right people if a new project arises that requires a similar set of skills and expertise.
Create a system
If more than 10% of your workforce consists of freelancers, you will need a system for their organisation so as to track completed and ongoing projects, access past information, manage project budgets, assign freelancers to new projects, approve payments, and much more.
Also create a checklist to help you make your selection. Answer such questions as: "How many freelancers will I manage in the next three years?"; "Will I manage freelancers and remote workers in multiple geographic areas?"; "Do I need automatic invoicing?"
Enterprise solutions such as SAP Fieldglass and Oracle HCM are not usually an option for small and medium enterprises (SMBs) due to the high costs of integration and maintenance. Fortunately, there are alternatives available designed specifically for the needs of SMEs.
Manage project budgets
The plan and implementation of the project are often inconsistent. There are tasks that have been overlooked and not budgeted at all, skills that are lacking, and people who suddenly become unavailable. It is common for freelancers to work on more than one project at a time. The ability to move costs from one project to another while maintaining a budget is invaluable. Poor budget management can turn a promising project into one which generates losses.
Monitor efficiency
As external staff are often paid per hour, project managers must be able to identify any unusual discrepancies in "attendance" reports. If the same task took 10 hours in the past, why does it take 30 hours now? Team speed is also important because sometimes team members may be less effective than the team average. If inefficiencies and billed hours are not identified in time, this will inevitably lead to lost productivity, team tensions and increased costs.
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