Freelancers are the secret sauce in a promising startup hiring strategy, bringing agility and immediate impact to any new company they join. Founders recognize that they are cheaper than the cost of hiring full-time employees and bring specialized skills that are hard to find, especially in shallow talent pools.
But why settle for good when you can achieve greatness?
By investing in the growth and development of your freelance team, you can nurture a squad of enthusiastic professionals who not only share your vision but also deliver mind-blowing results.
But “why,” you might ask?
“Isn’t that the point of hiring freelancers? I don’t have to invest time and money in training and development.”While that is true that many talented outsourced workers will upskill on their own, there is good evidence to suggest that the companies they work for should also expect to bear some of the burden. By incorporating training and development into daily routine work, you can prevent them from finding more lucrative positions elsewhere and build a team loyal to you and your startup.
In this blog, we will show how many startups benefit from establishing a genuine interest in building the freelance career aspect of outsourced teams and explore how you can make small changes to your business to achieve the goals.
1. Set clear goals
Almost every freelancer intends to grow their portfolio and build their skills to enhance their attractiveness in a competitive environment. To do this, they will actively seek companies that vibe with their chosen career paths.
Here’s how you can expedite the process.
Align your startup vision with their career goals
Connecting their aspirations to the bigger picture ignites passion and motivation. This alignment creates a unified force that drives your startup’s growth and propels your team to reach new heights.
It makes sense that a team invested in your vision will perform expertly. The result will ultimately be stellar results for your end clients and added value to your offering.
Milestones that spark personal growth
Every new project should employ a granular approach with inbuilt milestones that give freelancers a sense of progress and enable them to acquire additional skills and level up their expertise.
Celebrating each win, no matter how minor fuels their motivation and cultivates a culture of continuous improvement within your team.
Embracing feedback and skill enhancement
While not everyone loves feedback, freelancers generally don’t fall into that category. Invested in constantly improving professional development and attractiveness to new clients, contractors can handle constructive input regardless of whether it is negatively or positively geared.
Some startups understand this and even go so far as to schedule performance reviews like other companies would with in-house employees. The entrepreneurial mindset of both groups lends itself well to ongoing feedback cycles.
It is important to note that not every task undertaken should be with creating value in mind. By embracing their growth journey, you can witness their transformation from beginners into top-notch professionals.
2. Foster a culture of continuous learning
The path to success for any business is ensuring that productivity remains high and clients gain value for the products or services they buy. The best way to maintain these standards is to give employees the training, development, knowledge, and confidence they need to do the job. By making this a priority, whether you have full-time staff or an army of freelancers should be irrelevant.
Consider the revenue boost of having a team of skilled workers consistently at the cutting edge of their craft. Operating at your maximum potential is both a wise business decision and fosters a culture of success.
Unleash the power of new skills
We live in a world where acquiring new skills is necessary to thrive and stay ahead. The rise of AI has meant a considerable paradigm shift in how we work and requires significant training to remain proficient in your career.
By not making av available resources such as industry-leading books, online courses, and workshops, you are doing your business and its employees a disservice. By investing in their growth, you equip them with the tools to excel in their roles and contribute to your startup’s success.
Collaborative skill-sharing initiatives
Create an environment that encourages freelancers to share their skills with one another. Facilitate skill-sharing sessions or cross-training opportunities where professionals from different backgrounds collaborate and exchange knowledge. This enhances individual skills and fosters a sense of collaboration and community within your freelance team.
Learn from the best
Encourage your freelancer to research best practice through online seminars, courses, and tutorials. Even if this sets you back a few bucks a week, it is well worth what you get out of it in the long run.
Inspired freelancers adept to industry changes better and gain insights that inform their work with greater ease. In turn, this fuels their growth and propels your startup to new heights.
3. Cultivate collaboration and teamwork
There’s absolutely no reason why you can’t have a great work culture in an online environment. In fact, the future of work for many industries will likely be online so unifying principles will be a non-negotiable rather than a perk.
From the beginning, ensure your new freelancing team is familiar with each other and any in-house employees you have. Don’t leave them on the outer; it may create an us vs. them-type scenario. Instead, hold regular team meetings and elicit proper introductions so people can put a face to the name.
Harness the power of teamwork
With many jobs based entirely online, it was feared that collaboration between teammates would diminish. Of course, we know that couldn’t be further from the truth. A plethora of online tools keep us in touch, and collaboration is as easy (if not more so) than it ever was.
With this in mind, encourage your in-house and freelance staff to work together—combining their expertise to achieve outstanding results. By fostering a collaborative environment, you create synergies within your freelance team, enhancing creativity and productivity.
Celebrate achievements
This is a big one.
Apart from getting paid, the next best currency startup founders can do business with is encouragement and praise.
Recognize and celebrate the achievements of your freelancers. Whether completing a challenging project, acquiring a new skill, or reaching a significant milestone, acknowledge their efforts and successes. Celebrations not only boost morale but also strengthen the sense of belonging and appreciation within your team.
4. Embrace agile strategies
In the dynamic world of startups, adaptability is vital. Strategies that aren’t rooted in just one way of doing things are valued much higher than those centered around singularity. When your freelance staff is exposed to an ‘anything can happen’ environment, they build resilience and can produce high-quality work no matter the circumstances.
Embracing a culture of speaking up
Let’s be honest. You may be the leader, but you certainly don’t know everything.
If you are comfortable recognizing this and value your team’s input, you shouldn’t mind when they inform you that something isn’t working as it should. Whether personal or professional, having team members who feel they can come to you no matter the situation sends the right message.
With a crew of emboldened professionals, your chances of success vastly increase. Don’t make the mistake of creating a culture of fear. This only leads to sub-optimal performance and resentment.
Encourage abstract ideas
There’s no such thing as a bad idea. I am sure you’ve heard that before, but this phrase couldn’t be more apt within the startup ecosystem.
Talented freelancers, the ones that have serious mileage under their belts, have worked across multiple platforms in numerous industries with all manner of CEO and founders. This experience has given them the ability to think outside the box and develop creative strategies that, at first glance, may not appear to be effective.
Be open to revolutionary thinking and carefully consider all options before making a hard-and-fast decision. Taking this approach opens doors that previously were not known to you.
5. Leverage technology
At Quickly Hire, getting our freelancers the best tools is like handing a great musician the perfect violin. Think of the result!
Great tools matched with talented individuals are a match made in heaven. While this does take some financial investment, the returns pay for themselves in no time.
Project management tools for the win!
A great project management platform is how freelancing teams shine. If this isn’t part of your day-to-day operations, change that now! In just a few months, you will be able to see how organizing tasks, assigning duties, and managing workloads free up considerable time.
When the top companies in places like San Francisco are using high-end project management tools, it’s probably an indication that you should too! Luckily these are available to smaller business owners and startups too. Before you buy, read reviews from past purchasers, or look at our great eBook, which details a few options you may be interested in.
AI is here to stay
From graphic design to marketing jobs, AI is making life considerably easier and more efficient. The power of AI allows users to be more detail-oriented and focuses on how people perform tasks with enhanced clarity.
The mistake some employees are making is either shunning the use of AI or over-using the technology in spite of humans. The happy medium is somewhere in between. Avoiding AI completely could put your business at a significant disadvantage, yet over-use may result in a service that lacks authenticity.
The best method is to encourage freelancers to understand the power of AI and augment its power with individualized creativity. This is the secret sauce to success.
Remember, AI is an incredibly powerful too. But it’s just that—a tool.
Quickly Hire: Freelancers who are game ready from day one
At least from this article, it’s evident that freelancers are the true gems when it comes to building a stellar startup team. Their agility, immediate impact, and specialized skills make them an invaluable asset for any new company.
At Quickly Hire, we understand the power of freelancers in driving startup success. That’s why we’ve curated a pool of over 100 freelance professionals sourced from around the world, all meticulously vetted and tested to ensure exceptional quality for our clients. We even take care of any pesky compliance issues, allowing you to focus on what you do best.
Why settle for mediocrity when you can unlock the potential for greatness? Commit today and discover how Quickly Hire can revolutionize your hiring strategy. The possibilities are endless, and the rewards are immeasurable. Take advantage of the opportunity to build a dream team that drives your company to success.
