Transforming your business for the Freelance Economy

Contents

Introduction 3

Age of Freelance 4

Top talent wants more flexibility 6

How to restructure around freelancer 7

The Rise of the Specialist 8

Growing your talent network 10

Streamline onboarding and stay compliant 13

Book and engage freelancers more efficiently 15

How to Work More Productively with Freelancers 16

How to Pay Freelancers Easily and Securely 18

Final words 19

3

Introduction

Technology and the Internet has radically reshaped the business landscape and reset consumer expectations. On-demand services, accelerating innovation and global competition are driving a new business models. Agility, the ability to act quickly and change course when needed, is key to mastering this rapidly changing world.

In today’s world businesses need greater agility and creativity, while specialists want autonomy to create their own ideal working conditions. Automation, AI and global mobility are converging to transform the business world yet again, powering a future of work that is transactional, competitive and hyper-accelerated. Businesses in turn can benefit by tapping a talent pool that is highly motivated, self-skilling, and globally proficient. They can scale up or exit quickly, responding to emerging opportunities, conserving resources and reducing risk. The need for costly infrastructure is eliminated, as the cloud, inexpensive software solutions, and the freelance economy allow businesses to create a presence in markets around the world with little or no capital expenditure.

On the other hand, Freelancers, feel more secure when their interests are spread across a portfolio of clients, rather than relying on a single employer. They can rapidly gain new skills, stay mobile, and grow their influence and network.

Many businesses are having trouble accessing the talent they need through traditional channels. This e-book can help understand how you can transition your business to a more freelancer-friendly model, so you can find and engage the talent you need, when you need it.

Martin Konrad, CEO and co-founder at Shortlist

4

Age of Freelance

In this new world, ability to access top talent when needed is becoming the primary goal, so attracting, retaining, engaging organizing, administering and managing this resource becomes a primary concern.

Having the rights tools and organizational processes in place allows businesses to automate and manage talent at scale, while focusing on the human aspect of the talent equation: building working relationships that are mutually bene cial and productive.

The freelancer economy is on track to reach 86.5 million independent workers by 2027. That will mark the year when freelancers will outnumber employees and become the majority of American workers.

On the road to that new reality, many sectors have already seen vast numbers of traditional jobs reduced, automated or outsourced. As a result, the growth of the freelance economy has outpaced overall traditional employment growth by 3X since 2014.

5

Online and on-demand

In order to save time and be more productive, 72 percent of US buyers have signed up to use a shared, on-demand online service of some sort, in a study by the Pew Research Center. That’s a clear vote of confidence in real value of the online, on-demand business model used by freelancers, contractors, 1099 workers, part-timers, solopreneurs and floating project teams.

6

Top talent wants more flexibility

Google and Facebook can afford to offer the top salaries and equity packages to attract the top talent, but your business can offer a perk that might be even more enticing. Autonomy and self-determination are incredibly important to top specialists, who are often willing to trade money for greater control and fexibility.

Owning their work allows freelancers to fnd the best path to the desired outcome.

Trading security for greater control has paid off well for top talent, who are to set the terms of a more productive work environment, and to direct their professional destiny. It can work out well for businesses, too, who are able to transact work with a highly engaged, productive workforce.

The secret of working with top freelancers is to carefully define outcomes rather than processes, and allow freelancers the freedom to get there on their own. This is the exact opposite of an automation protocol, which requires detailed processes that can be replicated.

A FlexJobs survey confirmed that 66 percent of employees feel they would be more productive working remotely and 62 percent have considered quitting to gain more flexible hours.

7

How to restructure around freelancer

Take a closer look at which operations demand full-time employees and where you could achieve greater efficiency:

• Conduct a thorough task inventory – You might have your workflows organized by job responsibilities, but in order to understand where you can automate and hire freelancers instead, you’ll want to get a good grasp of all the tasks performed across your company, irrespective who does them.

• Transition to the cloud – Mobility has greatly simplified business critical functions by allowing business owners to assign and manage tasks from anywhere without working about providing the tech infrastructure. Freelancers are free to use their preferred devices and work remotely in their most productive spaces. Transitioning to the cloud will allow operation everywhere, anytime, across all devices and locations.

• Automate and digitize – Starting with a robust freelancer management system can make life easier both for your business and freelancers you work with. Automation can eliminate lengthy administrative processes and tasks that slow you down. Once you automate this process, you will make it simple or even fun for freelancers and contractors to work with you.

Freelancer or full time employee is not an either-or decision. The wisest companies are determining their own perfect mixture of employees and freelancers. In many case, the employees on staff will have an even greater stake in the company, and more responsibility. The freelance economy, automation and software enabled solutions can help a small team do more.

8

The Rise of the Specialist

The complexity of markets and rate of emerging technology makes it very difficult for a staff of generalists to keep up.

Automation is reducing the back office and eliminating many low-skilled, repetitive jobs. At the same time, businesses entering new markets and industries or adopting new technology require incredibly adept expertise. The requirement for agile operations compounds the equation, requiring highly specialized, on-demand talent, sometimes spanning several knowledge bases.

When companies find that high quality talent is too expensive to maintain, the intelligent deployment of freelance teams based on the current business needs becomes a much more practical option.

How Shortlist Helps

Restructuring for this new reality starts with building and curating your own ecosystem of freelance experts across disciplines and talent areas.

Shortlist is the leading freelancer management systems (FMS) that automates and streamlines that entire process for you.

Once your freelance talent network is in place, your company will be ready to scale up operations to meet surges in demand before you lose customers to the competition. You will be able to mobilizea contingent workforce without wasting precious time on complex talent sourcing procedures or the frustration of trying to onboard your talent time.

With Shortlist your team can create a private talent network Easily group and catalogue your specialists, and engage when needed.

9

Growing your talent network

Attracting and securing talent remains one of the most difficult hurdles to clear. Although online talent databases have deepened the talent pool to cover the entire planet, finding an applicant who has both the right skills and the right culture fit is both a science and an art. Having the right tools in place can help you scale your talent search, while engaging with applicants in a professional and timely manner.

To help you get started on tracking down the best talent, start with the following list of curated online talent portals. The most common searches for freelancers are usually for writers, graphic artists and developers, but there are actually many functions in the business that could benefit from additional freelance help on a temporary basis. This is only a sample and you should expect a continuous stream of new sites coming online that will appeal to specialists in every field:

Dribble – One of the top online community for designers

Behance – Adobe’s site for freelance designers

Stack Overflow – One of the leading Q&A community websites for developer. A great place to post developer jobs and connect with active, dedicated users.

Github – This leading software versioning providers also hosts great community forum that will bring you recommendations for the most talented developers on the market.

ProFinder – LinkedIn’s sister site for connecting with local freelancers and team projects.

Indeed – A popular job board for remote workers all over the planet. Employers tend to offer higher quality jobs and the sites charges no fees or commissions.

Skip the Drive – Telecommuting job database, specializing in business, accounting, web development, human resources, customer service, engineering, and more.

10

The true cost of the talent search

Over a fourth of small businesses (27.3 percent) said they couldn’t fill a job opening in the past six months, in a study by the SBE Council. More than half of them said that they weren’t able to find qualified applicants. Inability to find the talent they needed was listed as the most significant factor that was holding back their success in the market.

11 How Shortlist Helps

In this new world, ability to access top talent when needed is becoming the primary goal, so attracting, retaining, engaging organizing, administering and managing this resource becomes a primary concern.

Having the rights tools and organizational processes in place allows businesses to automate and manage talent at scale, while focusing on the human aspect of the talent equation: building working relationships that are mutually bene cial and productive.

The freelancer economy is on track to reach 86.5 million independent workers by 2027. That will mark the year when freelancers will outnumber employees and become the majority of American workers.

On the road to that new reality, many sectors have already seen vast numbers of traditional jobs reduced, automated or outsourced. As a result, the growth of the freelance economy has outpaced overall traditional employment growth by 3X since 2014.

12

Streamline onboarding and stay compliant

Once your selection process has identified top freelance talent, bringing them onboard still requires special attention. One of the biggest concerns for business owners is the that the line between an employee and a contractor is constantly shifting along with new case law and legislation. Therefore, many companies have turned to outsourced services or specialized on-boarding software to automate and streamline the complexity.

An incomplete understanding of the law can lead to tax liabilities and unintended legal responsibilities. In addition, employers are responsible for keeping track of whether the contractor’s required certifications and training are complete and up-to-date.

Even though the job may be temporary, risk and compliance practices require your company to hire with the same care and rigor as you would use for full-time employees. At scale, that can be a bottleneck without automation designed for handling freelancers.

How Shortlist Helps

Every critical process, from checking background info, to verifying referrals, to logging interview notes, to tracking final document signatures, are streamlined into a single onboarding dashboard on Shortlist.

13 Customize your own detailed on-boarding workflows and ensure all the paperwork is order, including essential tax info, W9 forms, and the freelancer’s bank information. You’ll collapse the time needed to move them into position while you stay compliant with changing laws. All of your freelancer information will be in one place so your freelancers can instantly engage when it’s time and turn around the work to meet your deadlines.

14

Common penalties for misfiling

US tax laws do not recognize misunderstanding of the law as an excuse. Businesses are expected to get professional services that assure compliance. Whether you accidentally filed 1099 forms incorrectly or missed your deadline, the IRS starts calculating penalties from the date the correct ones should have been filed

15

Book and engage freelancers more efficiently

The uncertainty of freelancer scheduling can be frustrating when your company has hard deadlines that must be met. The most talented freelancers are able to book their time well ahead for optimal productivity. That means that choosing the right freelancer to call and finding time in their busy schedules are two interdependent challenges.

Back and forth emails hammering out details and nailing down deadlines can be time consuming, particularly if you are communicating with multiple different specialists across multiple platforms and channels. Automating this process can save time and resources and provide a better experience for everyone involved.

How Shortlist Helps

Get a handle on your freelance resource utilization by deploying Shortlist to chart out the availability status of all your freelancers.

Automate the booking process for more efficient operations and a better experience for freelancers. Send out bulk requests, manage multiple profiles, and cut out the fees and infrastructure of external talent brokers and marketplaces.

16

How to Work More Productively with Freelancers

Successful project managers prioritize clear communications from the start, both in terms of budget and deliverables. Although freelancers will apply their expertise to the formulation of project details, they work best when starting from a written brief that lays out deliverables, goals, target audience, essential points to convey or branding guideline.

The success of the project largely depends upon the quality of the initial brief. The more planning you put in on the front end, the fewer changes you will need when time is short and budget is tight. Whether your freelancers are paid by hour or the project, they should not be wasting their creative time dealing with mistakes or miscommunications.

Here are a few best practices on working with freelancers:

• Plan far ahead to secure the best talent and budget for additionalfees to handle rush jobs.

• Check references and look carefully at work samples.

• Write out a well-defined job description (brief

• On bigger projects, prepare a contract or statement of work.

• Set a firm deadline, post-deliverable time added to manage revisions.

• Open up a dedicated communication channel for clarification and support.

• For larger projects, establish a timeline for project updates (milestones).

• Review positives and negatives after the project conclusion and share those with the freelancer so you can both improve before the next job.

17 How Shortlist Helps

Use a freelance collaboration tool like Shortlist to work more efficiently with your freelancers.

Keep all stakeholders across your organization up-to-date on project timelines. Changes, updates, edits, modifications, upgrades all exist in one place.

Project and task templates save time and effort by standardizing workflows.

Budget tracking tools, and invoice automation help you ensure that your projects stays on the budget and freelancer receives his payments on time.

18

How to Pay Freelancers Easily and Securely

After project completion, payment processing can be frustrating for businesses and freelancers. Both domestic and international payments can generate unexpected delays. Extra charges for wire transfers or currency conversion will affect impact either company budgets or the freelancer’s experience. In order to retain a positive relationship with top talent, a business must extend their professionalism in interactions all the way through to final payment posting.

Best practice in this case is to make sure that all of your freelancers have been fully on-boarded in your payment system long before project completion. This way, you’ll be able to smooth out any payment transfer roadblocks and clearly communicate with the freelancer about when payments should be available. The success of your next freelance project can depend on it.

How Shortlist Helps

Avoid the pain and confusion of sorting out individual payment processes for all your freelancers by processing payments through Shortlist.

Collect and or generate freelancer invoices, then submit them through your internal approval process right inside the Shortlist tool. If freelancers need updates on payments, all the information on progress is right there for them, from approval to payment dates. Paying freelancers doesn’t have to be any more complicated than that.

19

Final words

Freelance project teams are the foundation of a more agile and resilient business model. However, succeeding in the freelance economy can be difficult using manual processes and administration.

Shortlist can be your long-term partner in scaling your business using agile workforces. Our intuitive platform keeps all your workforce management data in one place, and makes it easy to find, manage and nurture the best talent. Building your own talent network gives you both the flexibility and control you need to grow your business.

An enhanced experienced, ease of use, and reduced uncertainty will attract the best talent and help you build lasting relationships with qualified freelancers.

Want to learn more? Please contact us at sales@shortlist.co