The search has ended, and you’ve finally found the perfect freelancer to contribute to your business! The hard part’s over and it will be smooth sailing from here on out, right?
Not exactly. In fact, many tasks still lie ahead for your in-house team. Your list of to-dos likely includes:
- Classifying the worker correctly as a 1099 or W2 so your business doesn’t risk any fees or penalties from the IRS, the U.S. Department of Labor, or state agencies
- In certain jurisdictions, drafting a contract that protects you and the contractor by outlining exactly what’s expected from both parties
- Verifying compliance with all federal, state, and local laws to ensure the freelancer receives the correct benefits – and your business doesn’t face fines or legal action
- Preparing, gathering, and processing all kinds of paperwork, such as tax and payment forms
- Formally onboarding the freelancer and having them complete and sign any required company documents
- Setting up an effective workflow for quickly approving and paying frequent invoices so nobody has to chase down late payments
- Working with IT to add the contractor to the various systems you use for managing and tracking schedules, attendance, timesheets, budgets, expenses, and more
Some of these requirements might take just a few minutes of attention, while others can saddle multiple full-time employees with hours of extra work. Still, it’s a worthwhile investment if partnering with external talent can help fill in critical gaps and support your business.
A problem of scale
But what happens when you need to fill roles rapidly to accommodate growth, launch a new project that requires unique expertise, or staff the sales floor for the holiday season? Instead of that lone freelancer, you’re suddenly dependent on an entire fleet of independent contractors, each with their own job description, work location, and regulatory context.
It’s one thing to onboard, pay, and manage a single worker, but what about 10 – or 100? That’s when things start to get tricky – and time-consuming.
The future is freelance
Chances are, your business will continue to expand its flexible workforce in the very near future. Indeed, six in 10 C-suite executives from around the globe expect gig workers to substantially replace full-time employees at their company within the next three years, a 2022 study by the management company Mercer found.
In the United States, 36% of the working population identifies as a contract, freelance, temporary, or gig worker, according to the spring 2022 edition of McKinsey’s American Opportunity Survey. That’s a sizable jump from the 2016 estimate of 27% – and a solid indication that businesses aren’t just dipping their toes into the gig economy. Increasingly, they’re diving in headfirst.
A complete freelance toolkit
If you occasionally engage one or two contractors, your business can probably withstand a more manual and effortful approach to payments, compliance, scheduling, and more. It won’t be easy achieving correct classification, monitoring ever-changing compliance regulations, juggling multiple applications, and issuing payments on time, every time. However, it’s doable.
But if you have more than a few freelancers, try AllWork instead. Our end-to-end platform includes everything you need to onboard, manage, and pay all of your contractors while ensuring legal compliance with state and federal employment laws.
Here’s how it works:
- We onboard and pay all types of freelancers on your behalf, taking care of all federal, state, and local tax and labor law compliance and filings. Just click to approve timesheets and invoices, and your workers will get paid within 48 hours. Since 71% of freelancers report that clients pay them late or not at all, this quick turnaround gives your business a significant advantage.
- Both your internal team and your flexible workforce can use our freelancer management software to manage and schedule shifts, book talent, track attendance, control budgets, and view reports from any location or device. Our platform uses cutting-edge technology and the power of automation to eliminate manual data entry and help everyone focus on moving your business forward.
See it in action to learn how you can take laborious administrative tasks off your team’s plate while reducing your company’s exposure to risk – and setting your business up to partner more effectively with the growing freelance talent pool.
Planning to hire flexible workers this year? AllWork can help you onboard, manage, and pay them. We offer fast, easy, and compliant payment options. Get in touch at info@alloworknow.com to learn more and see a demo of our platform here.
