Surely you already know the advantages of hiring freelancers for your company and outsourcing projects remotely. But did you know that by doing so you could also be promoting positive change in the working culture on a global scale?

The teleworking scheme is a wonderful alternative to speed up processes and scale your business at low cost. But it also has the potential to become the engine that changes the work paradigm as we know it today, opening up countless benefits not only for your company, but for the society in which you live.

Today we will show you how and why promoting freelance work makes you an agent of change so that we can all enjoy a better quality of life.

Disadvantages of the on-site work scheme

Our traditional employee-displacement-office work scheme is unsustainable. Just look at how most office workers feel when they get home after a day and you’ll see.

The psychological, environmental and cultural consequences of pushing people to develop their activities without flexibility include exhaustion, loss of time, loss of productivity and even somatization of diseases.

These risks are very real and are present in the lives of thousands of on-site workers. Although they have become invisible to the degree that they seem normal to us, the theory of psychosocial risk factors at work clearly indicates that this type of work has elements that systematically undermine people’s quality of life:

1. Psychological demand for activity: It refers to the impact of the effort required to do the work, but this impact does not only depend on the complexity or difficulty of the activity itself, but is also significantly affected by the time spent performing the same task, the time schedules imposed and the level of responsibility involved.

2. Occupational stress: The job stress that challenges us to adapt to through training, organization and experience is good because it helps us grow professionally. The work stress that comes from things we cannot control, such as a bad work environment or poor mobility conditions, tends to somatize and predispose us to contracting diseases.

3. Lack of autonomy: When people are subjected to very inflexible and repetitive work schemes where they do not have the freedom to make decisions or creativity, they end up feeling underestimated, which affects their self-confidence, motivation and performance.

4. Excessively vertical working relations: Every organisation requires a hierarchical organisation chart to function well, but an excessively vertical scheme in which there is no openness and trust between managers and subordinates can lead to harmful situations of dissatisfaction, harassment and other types of workplace violence.

The study of psychosocial risk factors at work has found that there are three key strategies for increasing the worker’s well-being:

• Increase their autonomy
• Adopt new technologies to make work as efficient as possible
• Establish less vertical employment relationships.

And you know what? They are all part of the remote working scheme.

Advantages of migrating to a freelance work scheme

Today, companies in the technology, marketing and design industries are the ones that hire the most freelancers, but most of them do so to carry out isolated tasks and projects, and only 20% use them to complement their work team on a permanent basis, according to our report on remote work and entrepreneurship 2018.

The notion that there are many jobs that must necessarily be done in person remains one of the main obstacles to the independent scheme. We, however, argue that there are a similar number of activities that can be carried out remotely without problems.

For example, almost everything that has to do with accounting, design, MKT, customer contact and technical support can be done from the workers’ home with tools they usually already have, such as a computer with a good Internet connection, to which they install some business management software or CRM and the relevant telephone equipment.

On the other hand, many people are afraid of becoming independent because they think they will have to sacrifice all their job security in doing so. In fact, despite the stigma, you’ll be surprised to learn that the two things freelancers value most about self-employment are the stability it offers them, along with the convenience of choosing their place of work.

Turning to the positive impact of the freelance working model in urban areas, the study “Teleworking and improving mobility in cities“, published in the Business Management and Economics Research magazine, suggests that companies adopting some form of remote working are encouraging:

• Significant improvement in urban mobility: less travel and congestion.
• Equivalent reduction in the amount of environmental emissions.
• Reduced need for office space.
• Gradual reduction of overcrowding on the periphery of workplaces.
• Increased economy and demand for products and services in less urbanized areas.
• Less job discrimination and more opportunities for people with young children or disabilities.
• Decreased work stress and increased productivity.

In addition, data from our latest surveys indicate that trends in the freelance market show that companies that adopt this work philosophy will be able to offer better pay, flexible working hours and real growth opportunities, all factors that Millennials consider to be priorities for their work well-being, according to a study by the University of Southern California.

As you can see, this picture can benefit us all, whether we are employers, entrepreneurs, business owners or workers. Hiring freelancers helps more and more companies to check the quality of teleworking and to create better and better conditions for it.

How to promote a healthy teleworking culture

Encouraging you to hire freelancers is the first step, but it’s not the only one. Remote working can also entail risks and displeasure for both parties if not managed in a conscious, ethical and fair manner, so if you want to contribute to a better work culture by hiring remote workers at Workana, consider the following points:

• Retribute adequately: 51% of freelancers at Workana agree that what they like least about their job is that the pay can be very low. Consider that the freelance work scheme allows you to save many costs related to insurance and payroll taxes, as it is the freelancer who is absorbing the impact of these expenses.  

Offering fair payments is a great way to maintain competitiveness and quality among the freelancers competing for your project. And will ensure greater motivation and better results for the worker. Remember, this is an investment for your business to grow.

• Build long-term relationships of trust: If you find a freelancer who worked well for you, try to maintain a long-term relationship with them. Perhaps in a similar project someone else will offer you a cheaper quote, but the added value of someone who has already demonstrated their commitment to you and knows your company’s requirements is invaluable. The second most frequent complaint of freelancers regarding their work is that there are few opportunities for growth, but by creating stable relationships it is easier to create them.

At Workana, we are committed to fostering long-term, remote working relationships, so we manage our commissions in a scalable way that increasingly benefits both the employer and the freelancer who choose to work together on various projects.

• Transparency and clarity: Communication between client and freelancer is of vital importance, and the intermediation of a platform such as Workana allows both to be secure and have guarantees about payment and work. Managing user profiles, projects and payments transparently within the platform is essential to continue growing together as a community.

Now that you know that betting on the remote working scheme is good for you, for your company and for the world, you can create your project in Workana and start receiving bids from hundreds of qualified freelancers in minutes.

You can also go to find just the talent you need in our freelancer search section by activity, skills, region and ranking.

See you soon!

Assul