At my local coffee shop, the quality of the Wi-Fi is at least as important as the quality of the coffee. At almost every table, someone is hunched over a laptop, hard at work. A quick glance at their screens reveals that most of them are writers, software developers, marketers, and graphic designers. And if it seems like they’re everywhere, you’re right. According to a recent Kelly Services study, nearly one-third (31 percent) of U.S. workers are freelancers or independent contractors.
The rise of companies like Uber has spotlighted one segment of this market: independent contractors who deliver goods and services immediately to meet consumer demand. But the overall category is much broader, including highly skilled professional workers across a wide range of industries.
While freelancers have always been part of the workforce, recent advances in technology mean that freelancers can often work from anywhere. They might visit the central office rarely, if at all. While remote workers used to rely primarily on phone calls and email, this new breed of worker benefits from advanced tools that increase both the quality and the speed of their interactions with their peers.
For employers, this technological change brings two huge advantages. First, they can more easily scale their business to reflect changing conditions, without having to worry about finding more desks and office space. Second, they can employ talented but specialized workers that they don’t necessarily need full-time.
When managing a workforce that includes remote and freelance employees, here are three ways to make technology work for you:
- Make it easy to find project information: It’s essential to have a streamlined, online way to communicate project status. This could be an online whiteboard program, a Google doc, or even full-fledged project management software. What all of these approaches have in common is that it’s easy for team members to find out everything about a project without bothering the rest of the team. The one thing it can’t be is email. Imagine asking how a project is going and getting 10 forwarded emails by way of explanation. Yikes.
- Structure your communication: On a far-flung team, it’s easy for team members to get out of sync. Decisions take forever as everyone becomes buried in endless emails. Instead, create a communication plan at the beginning of a project to ensure expectations are set and met. One way to do this is through a RACI matrix (Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed). It lets you streamline communication by knowing which people need to be included for which things, and it also clarifies who ultimately makes the decisions.
- Encourage continuous feedback and creativity: A potential downside of a remote workforce is that team members start to work more in isolation. There are easy ways to prevent this with collaboration tools that yield real-time feedback, as if everyone were in the same physical room. Sharing an idea, providing a comment on a project element and multi-way dialogue are all easily achieved with online tools.
If you haven’t embraced the flexibility and skills of the modern workplace, you may be falling behind. There’s too much talent to ignore in employees who need to work remotely, or in freelancers who choose to remain a 1099 contractor. Leverage technology to help shape these workers into a seamless cohesive team who will deliver for your business.
Jes Sherborne is the founder and CEO of Team Everywhere, a startup that helps creative teams work together visually, whether they’re down the hall or around the world. Connect with him on LinkedIn or on Twitter @jes_sherborne. https://www.teameverywhere.com/
