Traditional business models, one where the boss provides office space and any necessary equipment for the job, are gradually becoming a thing of the past. The formation of new models of business relations, together with quarantine restrictions, has become almost canon for hiring for a specific task, rather than the permanent maintenance of an entire worksite. 

So now the moment arises when you need to start a conversation to find the perfect candidate who can fulfill the order and … here is where we stop to consider our options.

How do we choose from the thousands of applicants? How do we assess each applicant’s qualification for the job? And, after all that searching and sorting, how do we decide who will provide us with the results we are looking for?!

Let’s Look at our Options 

Freelancer, I choose you!

Few people in the modern world have not heard the terms “freelance” and “outsourcing”. For now, let’s focus on the first one. In some cases, the term freelance is associated with a traveler, a person who can find work wherever he is. It’s romantic, isn’t it? And some consider this type of self-employment to be… almost unemployment. Each of these opinions is true in its own way and here’s why.

In the modern hiring market, the freelancer is the most competitive niche; the name, experience, and quality of the work performed are valued, but you should not expect that they will stay with you forever after one order. That is, freelancing is a workshop format in which an employee is an independent specialist and can, and do, lead several projects for several clients at the same time.

So it would seem that here he or she is – the ideal worker. Unfortunately, a long-term working relationship has risks when a freelancer got sick, lost interest in the project, decided to change the profile of his activity, go to sabbatical or downshifting. 

The lack of guarantees is one of the biggest disadvantages of such employees. If the terms of reference or the desired result were not overly accurate, the result may be unpredictable. After all, “as they said, so they did” and there is nothing to oppose.

How can you build work with outsourcers?

What is the difference between hiring a freelance employee and outsourcing? First of all, let’s figure out what outsourcing is. 

Outsourcing – in simple words – means hiring a company that will take on all aspects of a specified project or project with a full set of related contracts. Outsourcing the work means transferring responsibility for the implementation of a long-term project to a group of specialists, each of whom performs a specific task.

An indisputable advantage of outsourcing is that the outsourced company or business fully manages the project or task during the period specified in the contract, which means that your product receives long-term service. In addition, outsourcing work will allow your business to reduce the cost of maintaining individual systems and infrastructure.

Pros and cons

Now, having figured it out, let’s try to consider the positive and negative aspects of hiring forms.

Freelancer.

Pros:

• “can” do everything;
• the price is lower than outsourcing;
• works both remotely and in the office;
• hourly or piecework wages;
• a simplified form of payment.

Minuses:

• it’s hard to find a responsible employee;
• no guarantees;
• knowledge remains one person, with his passing – they are lost.

Outsourcing.

Pros:

• take full responsibility;
• turnkey work with the necessary documentation;
• they independently implement the project under the specified conditions;
• less likelihood of delays;
• they work in the office or remotely;
• preserve knowledge about the client’s company, project, and processes and transfer to all new participants;
• select and onboard new members themselves;
• can provide additional service;
• ensure the growth of performers (productivity, team) along with the growth of the customer’s company;
• guarantee the quality standards of the work performed.

Minuses:

• price.

The Big Question: Who is safer to give money to?

Now, having a clear understanding of each, it’s time to answer the question, which is better? 

A freelancer is always a risk that the service may end up being provided, hence the resulting loss of accumulated knowledge about your company (tasks, processes, expectations, communication). And another important point – when you need to increase capacity due to business growth – a freelancer will not be able to increase quickly, he is alone. 

Outsourcing company – preserving the expertise, knowledge of your company, and everything that is listed above within the company, if one person for some reason cannot continue to perform tasks, the second is connected, to whom the knowledge accumulated by the company is transferred without the client’s time and efforts. Plus, you can increase the team, add employees of other profiles. For example, if you need development, and you do not need to look for a freelance designer if you need to correct several design pages, or conduct a business analysis of a new module. It is very important to make sure that the outsourcing company provides all the listed services.

Contact managers of Itera Research, they will be happy to tell you about our guarantees and processes.