Hire Freelance Developers: How to Hire the Top Gig Talent?

In the last few years, the gig economy has shown exceptional growth. A whole new market of employers is gaining momentum. To hire freelance developers is as important as a regular employer. According to reports, almost one-third of workers in the U.S. were freelancers in 2017. The number has grown post-COVID, with more than 7 million people opting for gigs and freelancing instead of regular jobs.

It has become a trend today where many employees are choosing better opportunities and pay in freelancing gigs and leaving jobs for it. Working remotely on a contract basis and part-time has allowed people to be more independent and have a flexible work-life routine. As a company, you need to tap into this market of new-age employees but you also need to maintain your existing workforce, so they don’t leave you for gig work.
In this article, we will tell you how you can attract and hire top developers for your company in the advancing gig economy.

What are Gig Workers?

The gig economy or freelance market is a particular job market where companies hire gig workers on a contract basis or for part-time work instead of a permanent job. The contracts are usually on a short-term basis. The gig worker is usually an independent freelancer who is hired for consultation, short-term projects, and for deliveries. Sometimes companies hire freelance developers to fill in temporarily till they find a permanent employee.
There are certain benefits when you hire freelance developers –

They can complete projects and can assist while you are having a shortage of employees or if you can’t afford many full-time developers.

• Remote developers are often cheaper compared to In-house developers.
• No cost of infrastructure or resources either. Freelancers are generally self-employed with their own resources.
• You can hire as many freelancers as you want at any given time. They are available 24/7 and work on weekends too. You can even filter them based on region, price, etc.
• You can easily set up multiple freelancers for different projects. You might even find a potential full-time employee also or a project manager.

Why is the Gig Economy Growing?

Why is Gig-Based work Becoming so Popular?

Gig workers have been in the market for a long time. However, there has been a major shift in the perception regarding this line of work. Earlier, people used to consider it as a last resort for getting a job, but today it is a very desirable employment model. A 2021 report by McKinsey shows that a substantial number of employees are leaving their jobs for flexibility.

Another research by Statista shows that more than 2 million people newly joined the gig world. The gig economy has roughly grossed up to $400 billion in 2022. But what’s driving them? After COVID hit, many businesses went through a tough time. Millions of people had to opt for gig work to pay their bills. Now, the economy has stabilized but people don’t want to leave their gig work. Freelancing and remote work have given them autonomy and flexibility which traditional jobs can’t provide.

Moreover, companies and startups are looking to hire freelance developers, enabling them to build an agile team that can adapt to market changes, provide quality work, and gives value for money.

Important Factors Before You Hire Freelance Developers

There are a few factors you need to consider before you go looking to hire freelance developers. Understanding them and putting them into practice will be crucial to your business and its growth.

1. Consider The Value

Before hiring gig workers, ask: What value will this person provide to the projects? What skills do I want from this technician? Often for big organizations, short contracts hold very little significance. Mostly because it’d take a while for an employee to get comfortable with the technology and protocols of the organization. But for startups and middle-level businesses, hiring freelance developers is a viable option. Moreover, it also depends upon the type of work you require. A programmer working on a specific project will have different needs compared to a business-oriented developer.

2. Right Expectation

Before you hire freelance developers, make a clear list of well-defined tasks. So that you know what to look for in programmers. It will also help the programmers in working efficiently and avoid confusion. It will also help you in knowing if the said programmer is meeting your expectations or not.

3. Standardize Yourself

After briefing them about the job, it is also necessary to provide them with the industry or company guidelines, protocols, and standards. You also need to review their works to see if they are following the conventions properly or not. So after you hire freelance developers, it is mandatory to check their codes and ensure that everything is top-notch.

4. Eliminating Bottlenecks

One of the most important things after hire freelance developers is to quickly provide them with all the necessary guidelines, software, and other requirements so they adapt quickly to it and don’t become a bottleneck. It is better if you pre-plan all the requirements and keep them ready during the onboarding process. You surely don’t want to waste time setting things up and explaining things over and over.

Lastly, give them some freedom so they incorporate their own skills and technology to be more creative and productive. Also give them enough time to get comfortable in learning about the codebase, standards, and architecture of the project.

5. Keep Your Tools Updated

You obviously need to have the necessary pieces of equipment to support the remote jobs. The gig work is not going away anytime soon and maybe it is in the future, so it’s better if you invest in providing facilities to remote workers. You should also set up a full-fledged system with proper workflow management, time and ticket tracking, communication tools, etc.

Moreover, most gig workers use their own set of hardware and software which might put you in a rough spot with them. It is a hard pill to swallow, but many companies have obsolete technology and freelance programmers might have issues working on such systems. So it’s better to keep up to date with new technologies as well.

How to Hire and Find Freelance Developers

The process to hire gig workers is as arduous as hiring a full-time employee. There are a few steps you can follow to help you in the hiring process-

Determine Your Needs

As I said before, you need to set up all the guidelines and have clarity on all the project requirements before you hire freelance developers. Make sure you know precisely what you are hiring them for. Is it to code a specific program, develop application, project management, or scale up your business performance?

After that, also determine the budget of your project and how much time it needs to be completed.

Post a Job Description

After determining all your needs with utmost clarity, you can go to any freelancer hiring platform and post a job description. Write all your requirements, the project needs, the technology or programming language, skills and qualifications, and the price you are offering in the job post. It will help you find the ideal developers who are interested and are qualified for the job. Moreover, you can look into their portfolio, websites, and work history to filter among the candidates.

Enhance Your Reach

What is the benefit of writing a good job post if it is not reaching the candidates? Make sure you pick up top marketplaces, job boards, and freelancing platforms such as Optymize, that have pre-vetted expert technicians and can connect you with suitable candidates in a short time. You can include certain keywords such as “hire gig workers” “contract work” “part-time job” etc. in the description so it can be picked by search engines. You can also hire freelancers directly but make sure you do a little research about them before. You can find individual freelancers in the website’s databases and listings.

Evaluation and Interview

Many job boards provide pre-vetted candidates which you can directly onboard. But still, having a personal interview helps in knowing them better. After selecting freelance developers based on their expertise, portfolio, and client reviews, you can conduct a technical test or an Interview to assess their technical and soft skills.
Though you can do the technical round to know if they are suitable according to your project and prepare the questions according to those needs.

For the interview, you can have it on an audio or video call, whichever you prefer. Have some questions ready to evaluate their skills, communication, and other abilities.

Some Sample Questions

• How do you prefer to work with a client on a project?
• What do you consider your best skill?
• How many hours do you think you can take to complete “this” task?

Experienced technicians are hired quickly and usually have many options to work at, so it is better if you are precise and quick with your hiring process. So try to base your decision on one interview, instead of going on for multiple rounds.

Onboarding

After you hire the freelance developer, instruct them about everything regarding the project, and the technology and protocols you use. If you are hiring them for a longer schedule, send them a contract with details about the scope of work, salary, and time requirements.

Conclusion

Do you need the developer’s experience and skills for a particular project or for a specified period of time? Be very sure before you hire freelance developers. The future of work is changing and companies should adapt to the changes and incorporate this new economy into their operations. If you are looking to hire freelance programmers, Optymize can be a great place for you.

Optymize is an online platform that lets you hire freelance developers and remote teams to develop projects and provide consultations at a reasonable cost. They provide developers in blockchain, IoT, Web development, data analysis, and many more. Hire now!