How to set up your freelancer for success

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Freelancing is here to stay. 2020 showed us the importance of being able to get things done from anywhere. Still, working with freelancers is a fairly recent movement compared to the traditional corporate workflow and procedures.

Here are 6 best practices of working with remote talent and make things run smoothly:

1 Be clear about your expectations

2 Have an onboarding plan

3 Be empathetic

4 Set up  clear communication methods

5 Be Accessible

6 Give regular feedback

1 Be clear about your expectations when working with a freelancer

Don’t be vague with your needs. If you are clear on what you want, at least the final result, then it will be an easy ride. If you hired a Graphic Designer project manager to avoid chaos and delays, make sure they're doing exactly that and don't waste time designing web assets.

Take the time to prepare and give detailed instructions and expectations. Also, outline the project scope and deadlines for its competition.

2 Have an onboarding plan

The onboarding phase is where most employers fail, as they don’t have a plan to properly introduce the freelancer to their way of working, don’t set clear expectations or KPIs and both parties feel lost and even frustrated. That’s why having an onboarding plan is crucial to start off on the right foot.

You can start by making sure the freelancer has access to all the tools - And make sure they are familiar with all of them otherwise take the time to explain the basics - and just be available for the first few weeks.

3 Be Empathetic

When you hire a freelancer, do it for the long term. They might contribute to your business in various ways. The more they grow so does your business.

It’s always best to build a trusting remote team and in order to do that, a healthy working relationship must be established. Micromanaging, negative feedback, and unreasonable deadlines are the most frequent reasons why freelancers quit.

Try to be empathetic yet clear with how you like things done and give proper feedback in order to fix problems and move on. Remember, their success is yours.

4 Set up clear communication methods

Having clear communications methods when working with freelancers is vital to guarantee a smooth workflow. The freelancer will have a lot of questions in the beginning and being there to answer all of them as promptly as possible shows interest and will help you build a trusting relationship.

You might be working with characters, cultures, and generations of all sorts, so talking as clearly and simply as possible is the way to go.

Also, try to establish contact preferences. Some people prefer to communicate over email only and others don’t mind exchanging WhatsApp messages. Setting up Slack channels is also a very popular remote communication method.

5  Be Accessible

Some people are still getting used to the idea of working from home. This new phase of productivity might result as baffling since they are not getting the personalized approach and points of contact they are used to. Some need more guidance than others. Being reachable is important to make sure we’re all on the same page.

This goes hand in hand with the points of contact. If you establish a certain channel of communication, try to reply as soon as possible and if you don’t have the answer right away, give notice you will reach back promptly.

6 Give regular feedback

At this point, you have been working with your freelancer for a while now. How is it going? How do you know you are all happy with the results? Giving regular feedback is great to point your workflow in the right direction.

Maybe you are satisfied with the results but there’s room for improvement regarding the deadlines. Or rather the freelancer finishes everything in no time but is full of mistakes. No one will perform a perfect job every time and errors are welcome, as long as there's learning involved.

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