We recently talked about the huge increase in freelance work in the past few years, but how do you know when to hire employees versus freelancers? Employee vs. Freelancer: What’s the Difference An employee is someone who typically performs job tasks that are controlled by others (a supervisor, owner, CEO, etc.). Freelancers, on the other hand, are typically in charge of their own projects and workload. This doesn’t mean freelancers don’t work with anyone else at your company, it simply means the freelancer is the one who can bid on or accept (depending on the industry) the jobs they want to do by picking and choosing for themselves, rather than projects or tasks being assigned to them by management. Quick Pros and Cons of Employee vs. Freelancer There are pros and cons to hiring employees over freelancers and vice versa. The biggest pros to hiring full employees are that you are able to control their workloads, you have a dedicated presence in the role, and you can train them to your own specifications and needs. There are also very few restrictions on what kind of work you can assign to an employee. However, there are some cons to employee hiring. There are more laws and regulations attached to hiring and paying an employee. Hiring an employee also means you will need to invest more time and money into this person to help optimize their participation in the role you’ve given them. The pros for hiring a freelancer are the opposite of the pros associated with employees. While you can set a deadline and dictate certain projects or parameters, you can’t tell the freelancer or independent contractor how they should do the work. They get to do it how they want to, often with you or other leaders in your company having some say or final approval in the deliverables once they’re finished. But the responsibilities associated with a freelancer as a worker do not rest with you. Freelancers have more freedom, which means the regulations that you must follow …
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