In times like these, employers are tightening their belts and certainly more cautious when hiring new recruits. Most companies that we talked to are only obliged to hire a full time staff when they are looking for replacement or when certain job functions are clearly management-related. However, most are uncertain when come to short projects or deals secured. Getting permanent or full time staff may be far too risky now. No company wants to be known as having the history of laying-off staff.

What are the alternatives? Have you ever thought of hiring freelancers?

Check out the pros and cons below.

The Pros

• When your job is small such as copywriting, designing, system support or networking problems, using freelancers have to be the best option. In our office, we do not have a full time Networking Engineer but whenever we have issues with connection to the server or internet, a call to our freelancer is all that is required. He charges on hourly basis. Sometimes the work is so small that he did not even charge us at all.

• No headache of hiring the wrong person and subject to the Labour Laws requirements. Do you know that it’s very difficult to fire an under-performed staff? An employer must be seen to give enough opportunity and warning to an employee that does not perform. A lot of time is wasted this way. Fire a freelancer that cannot fix the job is by far much easier.

• It was not easy to find a freelancer a decade ago but with online job sites and portals mushrooming nowadays, accessing to a pool of freelancers is just a click away. At Allyhunt, you can contact them directly without any charge. As such, you can have a few potential freelancers on stand by even if the first freelancer that you get to do the job did not meet the mark.

• With a pool of freelancers to work with, you can negotiate for the best price. You determine who gets which piece of job depending on their skill level and price. With a permanent staff, you are stuck with paying the same salary regardless of the tasks performed. Some consulting firms run into this problem when they have a few high level Consultants sitting in the office waiting for projects while taking a fat cheque at the end of the month.

• Most freelancers started out this way because they just like what they are doing. The quality of work produced is usually of higher standard because they do it out of passion. If they can’t do the job or does not like to do it, they probably tell you they can’t accept it. You save time by not having to deal with a reluctant staff that happened to be hired.

The Cons

• Not all jobs should be given to a freelancer. The scope of work may be too big or involves many parties that the process is better handled by a team of committed people working from the office. Most freelancers do not have such commitment because they are handling other jobs at the same time too.

• Some freelancers are difficult to deal with even though they can produce great work. They follow their own rules. You set for a meeting and they may not turn up at all. Probably you have heard this, “As long as I can deliver the work, who cares about coming for meetings.” So, discipline can be an issue. You may have to determine the job scope earlier if attending meetings is one of the requirements and part and parcel of completing the task.

• If this is your first time engaging freelancers, you may run into some hiccups. With the short nature of freelancing projects, you may not spend so much time evaluating the suitability of the candidate as compared to hiring a full time staff. By the time you realize that you got someone with half-baked skills, half of your budget is gone and worst still, the entire business deal may be at stake.

Though there are a number of disadvantages, it is worth a try especially if the job is short-term and the nature qualifies a freelancer to do it. Like any staff hiring, just make sure you determine the job scope well in advance. Take time to draft out the terms of business clearly and when both parties reach a clear understanding, you may just be way ahead of other companies in best managing your staff overhead during uncertain times such as these.