11.3 THE SKILLS YOU NEED TO BE A GREAT BOSS: Managing Part-Time Staff vs Home-Based Team Members vs Contractors vs Freelancers

(SHORT NOTES FROM TEAM MANAGEMENT:

Managing Different Groups of Workers at http://www.mindtools.com)

 

Managing a team that includes part-time workers can be challenging.  Assigning part-timers to team projects can be tricky.  Many managers find it best to assign specific projects and tasks to their part-time staff, and then leave larger, team-oriented projects to people who work full-time.

Home-based working is hardly new.  Modern technology has changed everything.  There are certainly many arguments in favor of working at home:

·        easier for people to concentrate

·        free of the distractions and interruptions of a busy office environment

·         increase worker retention, particularly among those who need to care for relatives (like children or aging parents)

·        Eliminating the daily commute

·        ever-increasing proportion of the workforce rank work/life balance high on their list of criteria for choosing an employer

·        opens the possibility for your business to work with the best people in the world, wherever in the world they are

·        opens up the opportunity of running a completely different type of business that's been talked about for a long time: where self-employed "free agents" work together to deliver specific projects flexibly, adaptably, and on-demand

When you've got more work to do than you've got hands to do them you have the option of hiring contractors to help with the sudden influx of short-term work.  Inevitably, contractors have their own set of challenges and drivers.

One of the most common reasons for taking on contractors – temporary, full-time staff in "business as usual roles" – is because of the situation described above: a short-term requirement for extra members of the team.  This is usually because you need to run a special project, but it might also be to cover staff absence as a result of a secondment or long-term sick leave.  With contractors you have the ability to hire people based on specific skills they have that you need, and once the job is done they happily move on to another company.  And even if your project is cut prematurely, shedding contract staff usually carries few of the issues involved with downsizing your permanent team.  Contractors are also invaluable because they're so flexible.

A freelancer is a professional who is hired to work on a specific task or project.  Good freelancers can be worth their weight in gold.  Freelancers are typically experts in their field, they're flexible, and they're often much more cost-effective than hiring full-time people to do the same work.

Freelancers typically differ from contractors   in two main ways. First, freelancers tend to work off-site, often from a home office.  And second, unlike contractors, freelancers usually work on projects for several different clients at any one time.