How Staffing Agencies Help You Manage Freelancers

A growing number of employers prefer to hire freelancers to handle their various work requirements. The reasons for this may vary from wanting to keep the business costs down to wanting to find more capable workers, to wanting to hire only for short-term projects or wanting to maintain a more efficient production model. Whatever the exact reasons, the many advantages to employers are undeniable.

By employing freelancers, employers can benefit from their superior skills and talents, and pay only for the contracted work. They can bypass the taxes, insurance payments, and benefits that they would have had to legally pay for permanent employees.  While the top freelancers do charge what they are worth, their fees are still significantly less than what it would cost an organization to maintain a full-time workforce.  

There are definite benefits to hiring freelancers. The tricky part, though, is finding and retaining the right talent. It can be a gamble for many employers and quite time-consuming too. Staffing agencies can be of invaluable assistance here as they can take over the search and leave you free to conduct your business. Also, they not only know how to find the right talent, but they also know how to manage freelancers.

The time and effort they take to match you with the appropriate talent fully justify the recruiting fees they charge for their services. It saves you from having to divert your managerial staff to handle the hiring process; they can continue with their existing workloads. Your day to day business operations won’t suffer any disruptions.

Let’s look at the various ways in which staffing agencies can help you manage freelancers:

They can prescreen and select the talent

Many organizations don’t have enough staff or experienced staff to screen and interview candidates. On the other hand, staffing agencies are in the recruitment business, and they know how to manage freelancers. They have industry-wide contacts and maintain a database of freelancers that can include some of the most sought-after talent in town. These people sign up with staffing agencies for the work flexibility as well as the work variety that comes with the territory. The staffing agency will dip into this talent pool and find qualified candidates for every required level for your organization.

They can help you fill your workforce requirements

The staffing agency will partner with you to understand your organization’s hiring needs and what you expect from freelance talent. They may then match you with the freelancers in their database, or they may advertise on various job boards for the positions you need to fill. In the latter case, they will screen the applications they receive and interview the selected applicants on your behalf. They will also perform background checks, if necessary. Their vetting process is generally quite thorough, and you can be sure that their recommended candidates will deliver quality work as expected.

They can help you to negotiate flexible work contracts

One of the main reasons many employers prefer to hire freelancers is the flexibility that this type of workforce affords.  Different freelancers can handle different scopes of a project. You can hire people only for the required work and pay them for the same. The staffing agency will help negotiate a work contract that is fair to both parties, will spell out the work terms and expectations clearly, and will avoid any legal disputes further on.

They can guarantee replacements and refunds

While the staffing agencies take every possible care to match you with the right talent, sometimes the freelance work placements may not work out for various reasons. If that happens, the staffing agencies will find you suitable replacements as soon as possible so that your organization will not suffer any loss in productivity. They will offer a refund should you decide against a replacement. In either case, you won’t lose out financially.

Since staffing agencies have relevant experience with recruitments and know how to manage freelancers, your organization will be better off partnering with an agency than striking out alone. By having them hire experienced talent for your organization, you can enhance your work productivity.