Survey: How effectively do freelancers fit in your workplace?

Do you work more effectively with freelancers in the workplace or want to access and communicate better with freelance talent on a regular basis?  You need to read this blog!

For the last twelve years, I’ve been working with Australian and New Zealand freelancers as an advocate and mentor through my community of practice, the Freelance Jungle. In that time, I have surveyed, counselled, and coached thousands of freelancers. It’s led us to build up community that ends the isolation in the freelance world, and create hundreds of opportunities to network, educate, and manage the stress of countless freelancers.

Dealing daily with freelancers has taught me a great many things. But the most vocal thing is the importance of good client management. Good client to freelancer relations can make or break a project. The communication, an alignment of goals, the intersection of values, how supported both parties feel, the level of risk involved, and the desire to create in partnership has to be clear quickly to ensure a project is effective.

The standout qualities and the problems repeat themselves time and time again.

But in these days of hybrid working situations, ever-increasing financial pressure, and recovery from arguably the hardest six years we’ve seen in business for everyone in a very long time, the gap between client need and freelance response is widening. From issues sourcing talent through to effectively managing projects, financial issues through to a failure to communicate are creating stress on freelancer-client relationships like never before.

I know the freelancer side of the story intimately. Apart from running a large community of practice in freelancing, I have also freelanced for the last fourteen years fulltime.

And I know the client anecdotal stories through coffees with businesses, answering emails, and talking to business owners online.

Now is the time for me to act. I directly benefit from better freelance-client relationships personally and as an advocate. But more than that, I believe in freelancing as a way of offsetting the challenges business currently face.

I know through freelancers your workplace can:

• Access skilled employees
• Meet knowledge shortages head on
• Speed up compliance, accessibility, and workplace transformation
• Increase your options on price, education, ability
• Introduce new ideas, strategies, and approaches effectively
• Work with reliable and adaptable talent
• Find potential new employees without costly recruitment
• Focus on the work product instead of clock watching and workplace politics
• Meet self-starters who enjoy work and take pride in it
• Uncover and embrace a new flexible working model

However, I also know that workplaces are often frustrated, stressed, confused, overwhelmed, and overworked when accessing freelance talent. And that simple recruitment doesn’t solve these problems.

I want to hear from workplaces that are struggling to work with freelancers but still believe there is a better way. I’m currently conducting research into the relationship between Australian workplaces and local freelancers. And I’d love to hear from you.

What does the research entail?

I want as many people as possible within organisations to answer this survey survey.

This data will be used in four ways:

1. To create a quantitative study of challenges workplaces face when working with freelancers and a report we can all benefit from
2. To identify individuals and workplaces that have more to say on the matter for a qualitative sample to represent your experience
3. To combine this research with work I have previously done on freelancers to develop a model to help streamline freelance-client communication
4. To identify a pilot for that model for refinement

Why me?

I have 30+ years of client-relations experience and led a grassroots community that won the 2019 Wayahead Workplace Wellbeing category of the Mental Health Matters awards, despite not being a workplace. I’ve held positions as a senior account manager and business manager in an agency setting, launching campaigns across Australia and New Zealand. And when I was a product designer, created a communication model that helped streamline product updates and feature release communication the between systems, marketing, and customer services and enhance consumer communication in Australia and North America. I’m also backed by Rah Gardiner and Jessica Harkins, seasoned professionals in operations and systems building, visual communication, and creative direction.

Knowing both sides of the fence intimately, I know helping freelancers understand client management is necessary and important work. But it also won’t be as nearly as effective without tapping into workplaces and creating something that helps both sides communicate better.

Collecting this data is the first step to do just that.

Want to get involved?

1. Fill in the survey, Freelancer Value in the Workplace, now with your opinions on freelancers in the workplace
2. Share the survey with your colleagues, peers, and LinkedIn connections
3. Tune into the Unashamedly Creative blog and Substack for updates

Answer the survey now via this QR code

Got questions on the survey or how to work effectively with freelance talent? Contact me now.