How to Find and Hire Gig Economy Workers
The gig economy can be a helpful phenomenon for optimizing your hiring strategy. Including gig workers in your staffing can improve flexibility, cost efficiency, and widen your access to niche expertise.
If you’re facing recruitment on a budget and are unable to commit to bringing people on board full time or long term, hiring gig workers could be your saving grace. In fact, there are more than 60 million freelance workers in the U.S. – any one of them could be your next addition to the team.
What is the Gig Economy and Who are Gig Economy Workers?
The gig economy is a term for a section of the labor market defined by contract, freelance, and temporary jobs. You can find a wide variety of workers for hire within it, from delivery drivers to technical professionals.
There are a variety of ways gig economy workers can help your business. For example, you could find someone to design a logo, build your website, photograph products, build office furniture, or make deliveries.
These workers are freelancers or independent contractors who complete short-term work for clients. They are self-employed and often work with multiple clients at once for an agreed-upon project fee or hourly rate. But they may also come in to exclusively work for you on a particular project for a set period of time.
Benefits of Hiring Gig Workers
From an employer perspective, some of the benefits of welcoming gig workers on board include:
- Help with completing recurring short-term tasks such as copywriting.
- Expertise for one-off medium or long-term projects.
- Cost savings from additional benefits payments such as PTO and health insurance that are incurred with full-time employment.
- Allowing you to avoid expenses of maintaining an office by hiring people set up to work-from-home.
- Access to a larger candidate pool because you can work with someone remotely in any location.
- The opportunity to run a trial period and potentially discover people you want to hire as employees when you have the budget or workload.
How to Hire a Freelancer
The process of hiring a freelancer or contractor for gig work is much like hiring a full-time employee, but there are some modifications that can help you attract top talent.
No matter what you need to grow your business, it’s likely you can find someone with the right expertise. Consider these five steps to a successful hiring process:
- Determine your hiring needs
- Write a job description
- Reach a large pool of candidates
- Evaluate candidates
- Complete onboarding
Determine Your Hiring Needs
The first step is to consider the projects you need completed that your team members don’t have the skills or the time to tackle. Make a long list of all the short-term projects you need help with, like editing videos, designing an app, or setting up software.
Next, determine your maximum budget for each project to determine whether you can find gig workers for each now or need to prioritize. To determine the hourly rate or project price for your gig work, it’s helpful to useour salary tools and check freelancer listings.
Write a Job Description
Your next step is to write a job description for each role. It’s helpful to write a job description even though you are hiring for a temporary project because it will help you clarify what you need and the necessary qualifications.
It also gives you the opportunity to share the logistics freelancers need to determine whether they want to take on the project, like the project duration, hours per week, and the pay range. You’ll save time because you’ll only meet with interested candidates.
If it makes sense for the role, ask candidates to send a portfolio, their personal website, reviews or testimonials, and anything else you need to decide.
Reach a Large Pool of Candidates
Your next step is to make sure your job description is seen by qualified candidates. Post your job description on Monster to reach gig economy workers looking for opportunities like yours.
Include relevant keyword phrases like “gig worker,” “contract,” “temporary work,” or “freelancer” in the title and description so freelancers don’t scroll past it thinking it’s a full-time job. People will also be more likely to find it when they use search engines and job board search features.
Find candidates who didn’t apply but might be interested by using job boards with public resume databases and freelancer listings. You can also expand your reach by asking people in your professional network for recommendations.
Evaluate Candidates
Start by reviewing the candidate’s portfolio, website, and reviews or testimonials to see if you like their work and what people have to say about working with them. Once you’ve chosen your top contenders, set up a short phone interview with each so you can assess their soft skills and ask any questions you have.
For example, if it’s relevant, you may want to ask:
- What is your typical process for working with clients on a project?
- How often do you stay in touch with clients throughout a project?
- Do you charge a project fee or hourly rate?
- Does this [time-commitment or deadline] work for you?
- How many hours do you think it would take?
- Would I be able to review drafts and make edits?
Skilled freelancers typically have a lot of work options, so it’s important to act quickly before they get booked. Try to make your decision based on their portfolio and reviews and one phone call instead of having multiple interview rounds with each candidate.
Onboard Freelancers
When gig economy workers accept your verbal offer, your lawyer may recommend that you send a freelance contract with details including the scope of work, deadline, and agreed-upon pay and payment schedule. If you will pay the freelancer more than $600 in a calendar year, your accountant may recommend you send a Request for Taxpayer Identification Number and Certification (W-9) form so you have the information you need to fill out a 1099 Nonemployee Compensation Form.
Next, set up a kickoff meeting to make sure your freelancer has the instructions, training, and resources they need to be successful. If someone else on your team will be overseeing their work, this is a good time to make introductions.
Hire Gig Workers Today
Put these best practices for hiring a freelancer to work. Go ahead and create a free job posting on Monster. We help you quickly reach qualified gig economy workers with the skills to boost your business. Whatever you need to support optimizing your hiring strategy, we’re here to help.