Are you looking for the best ways to manage freelancers? Managing contract employees and freelance workers is tricky and can get cluttered very fast. Since there is no direct interaction with freelancers, you need an outside assistant and need to use some of the top expert (we) recommended strategies, tools, and tips to get the most out of your temporary hire.
Did you know that around 70% of businesses worldwide hire freelancers for their projects? That’s because of the various advantages organizations, employers, and businesses get from hiring such workers. However, how much profit you make depends on the methods you utilize for managing freelancers.
So, in today’s blog, we will provide you with the best strategies and the tool we use to effectively manage freelancers. Plus, there will be many useful insights along the way, assisting you in keeping a balance between managing your full-time employees and contract workers for maximum employee efficiency, productivity, and the highest level of profitability for your organization.
6 Key Differences Between Freelancers & Full-Time Employees
Before we can get into the nitty and gritty of freelancer management, we must understand how freelancers function differently from your full-time employees. These 6 key differences will give you a summarized insight into why hiring freelancers is better.
| Aspect | Freelancers | Regular Employees |
| Commitment | Project-based or contract work | Long-term employment |
| Work Schedule | Flexible hours: can work across various time zones | Set schedule, commonly nine to five |
| Compensation | Paid per project, per hour, or milestone-based | Fixed salary with potential bonuses |
| Onboarding | Minimal onboarding requirements | Extensive training needed |
| Benefits | No employer-provided benefits | Health insurance, PTO, and retirement plans |
| Organizational Loyalty | Works with multiple clients at once | Exclusive commitment to one employer |
Read Also: Top 10 Client Management Software in 2025
5 Reasons Why Businesses Work with Freelancers
As we mentioned before, most businesses, organizations, and employers worldwide work with more freelancers. However, why is it so? Let’s get right into the 5 advantages of hiring contract team members for your organization.
1. Lower Overhead Costs
Especially for small businesses, this is very helpful for reducing expenses. Unlike full-time employees, freelancers don’t need office space, employer-sponsored incentives, and/or long-term commitments. So, the overall overhead costs are always lower.
2. Access to Top Talent
When hiring freelancers, your scope is never limited to a specific industry or niche. Plus, the freelancing network is huge, so you can easily access the services of top talent as per your requirements. For instance, if you wish to hire a mobile game developer and script writer at the same time, you can hire them both from a single platform, which also saves you money.
3. Scalability
Hiring freelancers in various niches means that you can scale up or down as per your requirements. Whoever is required, you will get top services at a glance, which is again, great for small businesses.
4. Specialized Expertise
Need a specialized expert for a particular project. Hiring freelancers is your best bet. You can pinpoint where you need the expertise, and the platform will match you with the right talent. For instance, you can hire professionals in:
- JavaScript
- Python
- Interior designing
- Video editing
- Ghostwriting
- iOS development and more
5. Flexibility
This one is self-explanatory. You can hire employees from the same platform as:
- Full-time
- Part-time
- For hourly-rate-based projects
7 Common Mistakes to Avoid When Managing Freelancers
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So, you have hired freelancers for your projects. Good for you. However, as we mentioned before, managing freelancers is way different than monitoring your regular employees. For instance, you can falter by knowingly or unknowingly committing these mistakes.
1. Unclear Expectations & Instructions
If a freelance project fails, the freelancer’s skills are not to blame. For once, you can think that maybe you gave unclear instructions. This can lead to subpar results and many misunderstandings. Without a transparent scope of work, the freelancers you hire can misinterpret:
- Goals
- Timelines
- Deliverables
Your Solution:
- Provide a detailed brief on the project
- Clarify with bullet points
- Share examples
- Mention tool preferences
2. Poor Communication
Or unreliable contact methods, for the matter. You need to understand that freelancers often simultaneously manage multiple projects and clients. So you can’t communicate with them or contact them like they are your regular employees. Remember that slow manager responses delay work, as without structured communication, crucial details are always missed.
Your Solution:
- Talk it out before finalizing a communication platform
- Set response time expectations
- Schedule regular check-ins
- Use project management tools
3. Unrealistic Workload Expectations & Deadlines
As we mentioned before, freelancers usually work across multiple projects simultaneously. So, if you set tight deadlines or ask for last-minute changes, it can lead to rushed work and burnout.
Your Solution:
- Discuss deadlines in advance before hiring
- Buffer in extra time
- Set higher priorities on urgent work
- Respect their time zones
4. Micromanagement & Lack of Trust
Micromanagement and a lack of trust are never good for anyone. It was never good for your regular employees and teams, either. So, why would it make freelancers work any faster? Instead, it will slow progress and hinder creativity.
Your Solution:
- Focus on the outcome instead of the process
- Limit unnecessary check-ins
- Let freelancers manage their own schedules and workflows
5. Underestimating the Freelancer’s Value
The biggest mistake you will ever make is viewing your freelance hires as interchangeable. If you treat them as temporary help rather than valuable partners, it can and will lead to:
- High turnover
- Inconsistent work quality
Your Solution:
- Build long-term relationships
- Offer competitive rates
- Show appreciation
6. Payment Issues & Scope Escalation
Do you not want to damage your relationships with your freelance hires? We recommend not doing any of the following:
- Late payments
- Non-transparent payment structures
- Expand work requirements without compensation
Your Solution:
- Use third-party payment platforms or pay through the same platform from which you hired the freelancer
- Be transparent about the scope
- Pay on time
7. Ignoring Freelancer Feedback
Usually, freelancers have valuable feedback on:
- Content marketing strategies
- UI/UX improvements
- SEO optimization and more
However, as a manager, you might overlook these suggestions, which can reduce your chances of a long-term bond with the freelance hire.
Your Solution:
- Encourage collaboration
- Be open to suggestions
- Take action on their feedback
9 Effective Strategies to Manage Freelancers in 2025
So, now you know the mistakes to avoid during freelancer management. We are sure that you also have the solutions to them now. On top of that, we are providing you with 9 strategies to make your experience working with freelancers even better and more satisfactory.
1. Build Strong Relationships
As we mentioned before, you need to treat freelancers as valuable partners and not temporary assistants. These self-employed professionals appreciate transparent expectations and respect:
- Treat freelancers as partners
- Feedback and encouragement do you and them well
- Understanding their career objectives will always help
2. Have Work Transparency
For high-quality results, which you of course expect from the freelance hire, you need to define expectations beforehand in the job description:
- Be clear about the scope of work
- Establish particular milestones and deadlines
- Specify the tools required to work before hiring
3. Effective Onboarding
Freelancers must be integrated into your workflow like your regular employees are. For the same, you need a streamlined onboarding process:
- Provide documentation
- A structured approach is more effective
- Assign a point of contact
4. Communicate Openly
The more trust you have in your freelancers, the more efficient they are. Effective communication does just that. The idea is to align freelancers with your project goals and maintain autonomy:
- Set a preferred messaging platform
- Clarify response times
- Avoid micromanagement
5. Strong Budget & Contract Management
Misunderstandings are common in the world of freelancing due to these contract employees handling multiple projects and clients at a time. Transparent financial agreements and well-structured contracts assist you in avoiding these due to fair compensation and smooth collaboration:
- Negotiate fair rates
- Outline payment terms
- Prevent or avoid scope creep
6. Leverage Technology
Another great idea is to use advancements in technology to your advantage when you manage freelancers. For instance, you can incorporate project management software into the workflow to track and manage tasks:
- Use time tracking tools.
- Use software that can easily handle team availability and can integrate with your project management software solution.
- Use tools that can track teams across projects
- Use a secure tool for work-hour validation and payment protection
- Use AI for automating freelancer management. This lets you automate project matching, hiring, contract creation, payments, and task delegation.
7. Constructive Feedback
Providing feedback to the freelance hire always helps her or him improve in the future. This assists you and other clients in their next projects:
- Be specific
- The constructive criticism should be actionable
- Provide them with balanced criticism on what they did well and what went wrong
8. Make Long-Term Bonds
As we mentioned before, it’s crucial to retain skilled freelancers. It can save you valuable hiring time in the future:
- Offer projects repetitively to top performers
- Providing incentives, such as performance-based bonuses, is always a good idea
- Additionally, you should also provide referrals for additional projects
9. Be Professional
Freelancers are not Gods. They are also not 100% foolproof and can be inefficient. So, you should consider all this before hiring one:
- Address concerns in private
- Provide support
- End contracts on a professional note. Since the industry is small and networking is valuable, maintaining professionalism always gives you the edge.
5 Employee Monitoring Software Features that Help Effectively Manage Freelancers
One of the most useful software solutions for you to manage freelancers is employee monitoring software. Especially, the 5 features we are mentioning here will assist you in better tracking the work of your employees to success.
1. Time Tracking
Although freelancers simultaneously handle multiple clients and projects, they can’t ignore your work. You can identify if this is happening to you by tracking how much time they are taking on the tasks required to finish your project. If the idle time is more than expected, then you need to communicate with your freelance hire for answers.
2. Activity Monitoring
Want to know whether your freelance hires are doing your work or playing online games? You must use the file, application, and URL monitoring feature of the tool. Doing so will provide you with useful insights into what’s happening and what’s not happening.
3. Screenshot Monitoring
The screenshot monitoring feature is the most ethical for collecting proof of work. Not only that, it also helps you identify whether any freelancer is trying to hack into your email or doing something fishy by sending you notifications and alerts in real-time.
4. Task Management
The task management functionality is either a built-in or an integrated functionality of staff monitoring software. It helps break down projects into simple tasks and track them individually. You can provide the freelancer with access to yours to ensure that the project goes smoothly.
5. Team Analytics
Another useful feature is the team analytics and reports. Although this feature provides you with useful insights into the work performance of your teams, it’s also great for identifying how the freelancer did against your expectations and whether she or he should be hired in the future or not.
Read Also: Top 10 Surprising Employee Time Tracking Secrets You Need to Know
3 Key Legal & Financial Considerations to Effectively Manage Freelancers
Just like hiring and monitoring regular employees, it is also essential to abide by legal and financial considerations for effective freelancer management. Here are the 3 areas where you need to be extra careful.
1. Understanding Tax Needs
In a usual case scenario, your freelance hire will handle her or his own taxes. However, you might also need to issue relevant forms like the 1099-NEC in the USA.
2. Avoiding Missclassification
The next thing to do is to avoid misclassification. If you also have regular employees, then the chances of wrongly classifying hires are high. In such cases, you might pay a monthly salary to a project-based freelancer and/or a one-time payment to your regular employees. A strong suggestion here is to use the best HR software.
3. Availing of the Services of a Lawyer
There are state and federal laws that limit what kind of freelance work you can get done. So, it’s essential to hire a professional to review, change, and/or approve your project assignments and/or contracts beforehand.
Why Do Businesses Use DeskTrack to Manage Freelancers?
Still managing freelancers with multiple tools? This is time-consuming, not foolproof, and can lead to inefficiencies. DeskTrack provides you with the best of real-time time tracking, employee monitoring, productivity tracking, project management, and performance management features integrated into a single user-friendly interface. Additionally, you also get these functionalities for your remote teams, field employees, in-office teams, and all other human resources.
- Know the reason behind project delays and the amount of delay with time tracking with data analytics
- Keep your data secure and prevent insider threats and outsider threats with data leak protection, blocking blacklisted URLs, behaviour analytics, and screenshot monitoring.
- Identify employee and freelancer pain points with real-time screenshot monitoring for improving efficiency.
Conclusion
Now, we hope that you have wrapped your head around all the tools, tips, and tactics we have provided you with and can now effectively manage freelancers. As a final word, we can say that more and more employers, organizations, and businesses worldwide are hiring freelancers due to the various benefits they get, such as lower overhead costs and scalability. However, when it comes to managing these temporary or contract professionals, it can get cluttered and complex very fast. Nonetheless, you don’t have to worry, as you now have some of the best proven expert-recommended strategies for effectively managing contract professionals. Looking for the best tool to monitor and manage your hires? You only need DeskTrack.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Q. How Do You Manage Freelancers?
Ans. Here are 9 expert-recommended strategies to effectively manage freelancers.
- Build Strong Relationships
- Have Work Transparency
- Effective Onboarding
- Communicate Openly
- Strong Budget & Contract Management
- Leverage Technology
- Constructive Feedback
- Make Long-Term Bonds
- Be Professional
Q. Which are the Tools for Effectively Managing Freelancers?
Ans. You need these tools to effectively manage your freelance hires.
- Time tracking software
- Project management software
- AI and automation tools
- Secure gateways
- Activity tracking tools
Q. Which are the Mistakes to Avoid for Effectively Managing Freelancers?
Ans. Here’s what to avoid to have a long-lasting bond with your freelance hire.
- Unclear Expectations & Instructions
- Poor Communication
- Unrealistic Workload Expectations & Deadlines
- Micromanagement & Lack of Trust
- Underestimating the Freelancer’s Value
- Payment Issues & Scope Escalation
- Ignoring Freelancer Feedback
Q. Do Freelancers Have Managers?
Ans. Yes, freelancers have managers. However, only till the project is completed. Simply put, if you hire a freelancer, then either you are her or his manager or you have to appoint a manager to manage the professional.
Q. What is a Freelance Manager?
Ans. Freelance project managers are management professionals who plan, lead, and execute projects in multiple industries. Instead of working for a set employer on multiple projects, they offer their services to organizations that want to temporarily hire a project manager for particular work.
