How to hire freelancers safely

The freelance economy is growing inexorably and you can benefit from its many advantages. In this article you will find everything you need to know about this work format and how it can benefit your company.

What is a freelance job?

Technology has completely changed the way we work and there are more freelancers today than ever before.
Freelancers can be defined as people who work for one or several companies, temporarily or permanently, and who manage their time and their way of working autonomously.

For example, it is very common to find freelancers working in areas such as education, programming, design, translation, art, sales and others.
Simplifying this point a bit, there are different types of freelancers:

• The classic freelance : They work on one or several temporary projects simultaneously.
• Dedicated Freelance : They work for a single project for an undefined time. But later they will work on other projects and for other clients. Part-Time: They are freelancers who dedicate a certain number of hours to freelance projects outside of their main working hours.
• Business owners : They are freelancers and owners of a small business. They can work under your name or under that of your company.

Where to hire freelancers?

Where can we hire Freelancers? Doing a little Google search will find the best and most reliable options.  or IQ Talent more than enough.

How to hire the best freelancers?

There are certain aspects that it is important to take into account before hiring a freelance service to obtain the best results and for this link to be beneficial and productive for both parties.

Always carefully review the portfolio in the profile of the candidates you have selected. Read their recommendations and opinions made by previous employers. It is also very important if the candidate has a portfolio of previous work.

Clarity in objectives
A trained freelancer is not going to be interested in a project that is poorly written, or with little information. Describe as exactly as possible what your needs are, if the platform allows it, it is good to include images or graphics that allow a clear understanding of the real scope of the project. Never take any detail for granted, explain each point clearly: where and how each point of the project should be done.

Don’t make your own estimates about the project
When making a proposal to get freelancers, avoid making your own estimates about the degree of difficulty of a task or how long the work may take.
On occasion I have come across offers that included things like “This job will not take you more than 1 hour”. This type of statement will only alienate the best talent.

Be realistic
Another common thing in the Freelance world is to find offers that request to handle a ridiculous amount of technologies and languages. If you require certain knowledge in some technologies, specify it, but if the language or technology that you are going to mention is not really 100% necessary to work on your project, mention it as a desirable knowledge.
The same thing happens with the subject of experience. I have seen job applications, especially in the programming area, which is requested from recent graduates with 4 years of experience (!).
This will prevent good talent from throwing away any opportunity to work for you.

Do not lose your best elements
If you have found a competent Freelancer who is really responsible, maintain the best relationship with him. If you know that in the future you may need your help or plan to hire you permanently, having a good relationship and good treatment is essential, not all the experiences you will find yourself looking for Freelancers will be as pleasant as the one you have had.

Why hire a freelance?

Freelancers are people used to not having a fixed income each month, not having job security, not having the benefits of traditional workers and for this very reason:

• They are used to working hard and being organized. They are experienced, intelligent and highly skilled. If not, they would not continue in the labor market.
• They expect to be judged based on results, not based on the hours they have put into a job.

And precisely for these reasons, they are so interesting for certain specific tasks.

What is a freelance contract?

Surely if you ask a freelance he will tell you several anecdotes about labor abuses suffered by clients.

On the other hand if you ask clients, i.e. companies, they will very likely also have their own stories about how a freelancer reneged on their job.

To solve these situations there are freelance contracts.

Why hire a freelancer?

Since the freelance profession is not regulated like that of an employee who is covered by a contract in the Workers’ Statute, its figure is more similar to that of a company.

In fact, he is an individual entrepreneur and has his way of being accountable. However, in the face of the structure that usually characterizes a company, he finds himself as unprotected as an employee without a contract.

In general, the decision to mediate a contract between a freelancer and a company is a condition imposed by the company or the entity that contracts the service.

In that sense, what is protected are the rights of the company. However, for the freelance it can also be advantageous to formalize the relationship, as it is firm proof that the assignment has been made and the conditions in which it has been done.

How do you get a freelance contract?

Clauses contained in a freelance contract

There is no single pre-established format for preparing a freelance contract.
Normally the company proposes a series of conditions and the freelancer or freelancer accepts them or not. It may even happen that the latter proposes a modification and is accepted by the contracting party.
Below we will detail a general structure with very common clauses in freelance contracts, subject to modifications depending on the type of service provided by the company:

• Names of each of the parties.
• Description of the service or the type of work to be performed that is being contracted.
• Rate or full price of the task . It is common that at this point the procedure to be followed in case the assignment is not carried out or is done in an incompetent manner is indicated. For its part, the freelance could propose a clause on the rectification by the company in case the payment is delayed.
• Deadlines in which the contracted task should be completed . This section usually includes some restriction in case of non-compliance with the execution time. As in the previous clause, this is a good point for the freelancer to propose his conditions to the company. If his work depends on the company providing him with means or materials, the execution deadlines of the order must be related to the delivery by the company of what is necessary on the agreed dates.
• Confidentiality . This is one of the main reasons why companies require to formalize a contract with whoever provides the service. The need to protect information reserved for internal personnel motivates the appearance of this type of clause, since the freelancer is, after all, an external agent who could have links and may even work for the competition.
• Intellectual property and exploitation rights . Certain activities that require creative work on the part of the freelancer (such as writing or design) may be subject to rights derived from the Intellectual Property Law. What the person executing the service must take into account is that the rights that are transferred are those of exploitation, not those of authorship, and that it is convenient to determine a scope of application (time of exploitation or conditions of publication, for example). Of course, there could be clauses, depending on the situation, such as the non-appearance clause, according to which the freelancer cannot carry out tasks for any other entity.

It is highly recommended that both the company and the freelance seek professional advice on the conditions before signing a contract.

How much do freelancers get paid?

Although the price/hour of a freelance in some cases may exceed the price/hour of a normal worker, its cost may even be lower. The freelancer pays their own taxes and in many cases they won’t even have to offer you a desk or a computer because they usually prefer to work with their own team and in their own work area.