Think about it: you’re a freelancer. You’ve simply landed a model new consumer. You don’t know a lot about them or their product, however you’re trying ahead to getting began on the venture you had been contracted for. You simply want some details about them and their product and you may get to work.
Besides… there’s no info. The consumer will get your W-9 and simply expects you to get began. You’re not precisely positive what their expectations are, and the one factor about their product is what you’ll be able to glean from their web site. As a contractor, I can let you know that this occurs typically, and it’s often an indication {that a} venture is off to a bumpy begin for each me and for the consumer.
This is the reason I like it when shoppers have a transparent and structured onboarding course of for freelancers. It units the tone for our relationship, and helps me to know the group I’m working with and produce higher work.
The significance of onboarding freelancers
Onboarding is an introduction. It’s a structured plan that welcomes somebody into your group, acquaints them together with your tradition, folks, and processes. Onboarding units objectives and expectations for everybody concerned, and supplies studying that’s important for a newcomer to achieve success together with your group.
It is smart that you simply’d onboard anybody who’s new to your group: workers, companions, and clients. Not each onboarding course of is similar, nonetheless. What about your contractors?
Contractors are an important a part of your enterprise; they supply key providers and are sometimes helpful workforce members. Nonetheless the legal guidelines governing contractors could make it troublesome to supply the identical onboarding expertise you’d present for a brand new full-time everlasting worker.
How can your group present the precise stage of onboarding on your contractors whereas staying compliant with trade and regional rules?
Key variations between contractors and workers
Your favourite freelancer could seem to be simply one other workforce member, however legally, there are some fairly massive variations between contractors and workers. Totally different nations have completely different legal guidelines, however the U.S. makes use of the Financial Actuality Check to find out the distinction between contractors and workers, which takes six components into consideration:
- Alternative for revenue or loss relying on managerial talent: does the employee negotiate the phrases of their very own work?
- Investments by the employee and the employer: Who pays for the gear and workplace area utilized by the employee?
- Permanence of the work relationship: How long-term is the connection?
- Nature and diploma of management: Are you able to inform the employee produce the work?
- Whether or not the work carried out is integral to the employer’s enterprise: Is the work central to your mission?
- Talent and initiative: Does the employee deliver their very own expertise to the job or do they want coaching?
In different phrases:
- Contractors signal a contract with a consumer, agreeing to supply a particular service or product at an agreed-upon fee. This can be short-term or long-term, and so long as they produce the work, the contract is fulfilled. The consumer can not inform them do the job. For instance, the consumer can’t require a contractor to work sure hours, or do the work in a sure manner. The contractor often pays for their very own gear and area, they usually can’t anticipate advantages from the consumer.
- Workers are employed indefinitely. They work set hours, you’ll be able to inform them precisely do their job, and sure behaviors could be required (like attending coaching). Workers are supplied with advantages, gear and workplace area by their employers. They get a wage slightly than submitting an bill.
Onboarding: workers vs. contractors
What does worker onboarding appear like?
Making a structured onboarding program for brand spanking new hires is essential. A powerful onboarding program for brand spanking new hires often consists of the next:
- Compliance info and paperwork
- An orientation
- An introduction to gear and instruments
- Integration with the workforce and firm tradition
- Data so the brand new rent can do their job nicely
- Constant check-ins with the brand new rent over the primary a number of months
Different greatest practices embody setting objectives for brand spanking new hires and offering studying for them.
What works for worker onboarding most likely gained’t work for contractor onboarding.
What does contractor onboarding appear like?
You may’t require a contractor to take coaching within the U.S. — it’s thought-about behavioral management, and the contractor is meant to be bringing their very own expertise and information to the job anyhow. They technically shouldn’t want coaching.
For that reason, contractor onboarding is often saved to a minimal:
- Paperwork, akin to tax paperwork, contracts and NDAs
- Provisioning, if the contractor wants entry to any platforms utilized by a consumer
- Compliance info if wanted
In some circumstances it’s much more fundamental than that — only a signature on a tax kind.
Ought to contractors be supplied extra onboarding?
As soon as you discover the precise contractor, you most likely need them to leap proper in and begin your venture.
Nonetheless, as keen as you could be to onboard a contractor shortly and get to work, each you and your freelancers can profit from a structured onboarding course of that goes past documentation and paperwork. Onboarding is supposed to set expectations for each you and the contractor, so even in case you’re solely bringing on a freelancer for a small venture, it may be useful to create a guidelines for onboarding.
This may occasionally embody:
- Paperwork: tax paperwork, NDAs, contracts, fee particulars, and every other paperwork that must be accomplished
- Expectations: What’s the scope of your venture? What are the obligations of the contractor? What about your obligations? How will you talk, and when?
- Introductions: Introduce the contractor to the workforce that they are going to be working with.
- Sources: If there are any sources the contractor must do their job, they need to have entry to these gadgets. This would possibly embody guides, demos, or programs that assist the contractor perceive your organization or product.
- Permissions: If a contractor wants entry to any programs or platforms, your onboarding course of ought to embody this.
Why onboard contractors in any respect?
It’s necessary to keep in mind that when you can’t require your contractors to attend conferences or have a look at sources, you’ll be able to set them up for fulfillment by offering the chance to get higher acquainted together with your group.
Actually, many contractors welcome onboarding. So many occasions, we’re thrown into tasks with little or no details about the group as a complete. However once I can see how the work I’m doing aligns with my consumer’s enterprise objectives, I could be more practical. When I’ve a robust understanding of my shoppers’ product, I can produce stronger tasks.
On the finish of the day, most contractors need to do the most effective job we presumably can; our portfolios are our livelihoods. The work we do for our shoppers now will assist us land extra shoppers sooner or later. Once you present us with an onboarding program, you’re giving us a chance to provide our greatest be just right for you, and for ourselves. It’s a win-win.
