21 Nov Freelancers Vs Employees
The full employment situation in Malta has created a number of gaps for employers seeking to recruit good workers. This means that employers have to become more creative in how they solve their employment needs. One of the options available to employers is that of hiring a freelancer to fit a particular role.
All over the world, freelancing is a growing trend. According to Forbes.com, the number of freelancers in the United States reached 57.3 million in 2017. This means that 36% of the workforce in the United States participated as a freelancer during 2017. In Europe, although not so high, the participation of freelancers is also on the rise, with a growth of 24% being cited for the last 7 years. In fact, companies of all sizes are opting for freelancers to help them out.
There are a number of advantages to opting fora freelancer vs a full-time employee:
Pro #1: Using a freelancer to support you during a Growth Stage in your company
You may wish to use the services of a freelancer when you are in a start-up or growth phase within your company. In this way, you are not bogging your company down with long-term fixed costs and can pay-as-you-go for the services you need rather than taking on the full commitment and responsibility needed with a full-time employee.
Pro #2: Using a freelancer for niche or specialised tasks
A freelancer may also be useful to engage for a specialised task that you may have limited need for. For example, you may wish to start organising a particular type of marketing activity such as a blog on your website or creating regular content for your social media channels, but may not have the resources or enough work to dedicate a full time person to this task. In this case, it may be cost-effective to use a freelancer to help you achieve your objectives.
This may also be useful when you are experimenting with a service you would like to provide and would like to understand whether to continue investing in this area.
Pro #3: Using a freelancer to give you flexibility
Whether you are a start-up or even an established enterprise, your business may be subject to seasonal fluctuations. Utilising freelancers and sub-contractors may help you iron out these troughs and peaks and avoid your having to keep on personnel when there is no work for them.
Pro #4: Freelancers are often cheaper
When you start calculating all the costs involved in employing a full-time employee, you may often find that engaging a freelancer or a small boutique agency may work out cheaper for you. When considering a full-time employee, you will need to factor in the hiring and training costs, salary, national insurance contributions, vacation and sick leave, office equipment and office space, software costs, and so on. While the boutique agency must still factor in these costs, these may be apportioned over a number of clients, giving you a more cost-effective solution.
Pro #5: Boutique agencies or freelancers may lend a new dimension to your creativity
Boutique agencies work with different freelancers and have a variety of clients. This is likely to create synergy and an increased level of creativity: working on one category continually may give a full-time employee tunnel vision. The aspect is avoided with a boutique agency, and broader vision that this gives is likely to have positive effects on the levels of creativity.
When does it make sense to engage a freelancer?
There are no hard and fast rules, but some good indications are the following:
- When you need help to complete a project and either do not have the skills within your team or do not have enough time for this particular task.
- When you have a tight budget and / or do not want to make a long-term commitment as you prefer to try something out before making such a commitment.
- When you are not quite ready or do not have enough work to fully occupy a full-time employee.
The secret is always to invest the appropriate time in selecting your freelancer. The time spent for such a selection should obviously be related to the level of interaction and involvement required. A simple translation job can be awarded fairly easily without too much evaluation. However, in the case where the service required is more vital to your operations, you must therefore invest more time and effort to select the right partner as a freelancer.
If you develop a good relationship with a reputable boutique agency or freelancer, the relationship may often prove to be extremely reliable as they are aware that their very livelihood depends on the day-to-day service they provide to you.
We Are What We Share is a boutique-style marketing service run by very experienced digital marketeers – Alison Bezzina and Claire Galea.
Services range from Facebook page management, to Google PPC and display campaigns, from content writing for traditional and online media, to artwork design and marketing strategy.
Need some help? Are you too busy to focus on a particular area of marketing or social media within your business? Contact us today and we will come up with a tailored solution for your business to help you grow your sales and profits TODAY!
We look forward to hearing from you!
