Anna ČepjolkinaAlthough freelance architects and engineers don’t work for your firm consistently, it’s still your responsibility to give them the insight to help them perform the project tasks you want them to do. Although managing a team of freelance engineers might feel daunting, there are several ways you can simplify this process.
To keep your business’s workflow steady, you’ll need to make a good impression on freelancers to ensure they want to perform more projects for you. Here are a few things you should consider when selecting and managing your ideal team on Workalike for long-term and short-term deals.
When managing a team of freelance engineers, one core aspect you should consider is building a trusting relationship. Whether you’re working with a group or letting one person onboard, you need to make them feel as comfortable as possible.
The relationship you build with a freelance engineer should be similar to how you create one with onsite engineers or architects. Networking allows you to understand their working schedules and their skill sets, allowing you to integrate their expertise into your firm’s general workflow.
When a freelance engineer or freelance architect contributes to your projects, they might not know everything about how your business runs or what they need to complete. Therefore, before assigning them a construction project, it might be wise to define every detail and requirement to ensure nothing goes wrong.
One way you can do this is by dividing each project into phases and giving a freelance engineer an explanation of what needs to be done. You can also highlight specific prerequisites and skills in a job description and describe the services they will participate in.
Before hiring your freelance engineers, you’ll need to provide the proper documentation to ensure their work matches your firm’s standards. This documentation can be as simple as creating a contract between you and the freelancer to finalize their agreement on the project before working on it.
Before you and your team of freelance engineers agree on your project, it would be best to establish expectations and a budget for the work you want to accomplish. Consider compromising a price range for freelancers who might charge more for their services.
Paying for what a freelancer is worth depends on their expertise; you might get more done hiring a skilled engineer for more than a less experienced one for less. Idea
Another essential aspect of team management is providing a reliable communication platform between every offsite freelancer; a secure communication channel allows freelance architects or engineers to contact you about their progress for your projects.
Many design contractors enjoy using email as their main communication channel for notifying their freelancers due to its swift access and easy-to-use interface. However, before starting a project, consider sharing your email address with your team and sending test messages early to detect communication issues.
You might prefer direct messaging if your team works on multiple daily or hourly tasks that need your oversight. Consider using the same channels to avoid missing notifications or wasting time sifting through messages for the most effective workflow. Sending daily or weekly check-ins is another strategy you can implement to keep your team in check.
Another way to manage your team of freelance engineers is to establish timekeeping. By meeting deadlines, you can determine which freelancers are best for your team from those who aren’t. In addition, this process allows you to pay your team by the hour accurately. It also gives freelancers a professional look at how they manage their gig work’s finances.
Timekeeping is an excellent technique for freelancers to use when dividing their work into measurable time frames to keep them from becoming overwhelmed by their workloads. This process can be as simple as spending a few hours working on high-priority tasks before tackling the less urgent ones.
Got a large freelance team that needs more streamlined communication and work delivery protocols? Try incorporating project management tools to make work more accessible during each phase of a project. Ideally, using multiple tools for communicating with teams, timekeeping, and submitting work might be more efficient than using one digital outlet for everything.
With many project management tools available, you can choose the one that suits the needs of your company and your freelance team the most. Some examples of applications you can use for your daily routines include:
Ideally, it would be best if you used project management tools compatible with several workalike models.
When managing any team, you want each member to feel that their voice matters when contributing to a project; each component plays its part, no matter the size.
Freelance and internal remote workers deserve recognition for their work, so it would be best to include them in various team-building activities. In addition, boosting their morale makes them resonate with the company more and encourages them to perform better for upcoming projects.
Setting up meetings where you can answer their questions about projects encourages problem-solving in all project phases. You can also hold meetings to socialize and discover each freelancer’s hobbies; by getting personal, you can create a connection that encourages them to work with your firm’s projects more often.
Performance reviews and constructive criticism are efficient methods for giving feedback to freelance engineers of any experience level. When building a relationship with your freelancer teams, you should give them regular feedback to highlight their progress, strengths, and ways to improve their work.
Suppose you don’t want to work with a specific freelancer because they can’t deliver quality work or follow guidelines. However, after completing the project, you should still give them feedback to let them know how things could be improved. By doing this, you provide them with advice for new opportunities.
When managing a team of Workalike freelance architects or engineers, you can use several techniques to make their experience more flexible. Try experimenting with each to see which works best.
Workalike is a personalized online service that connects architecture and engineering firms with independent remote professionals.
Our mission is to offer a new way of work for the architecture and civil engineering community.
Workalike is a personalized online service that connects architecture and engineering firms with independent remote professionals.
Our mission is to offer the architecture and civil engineering community a new way to work.