How to… Support Freelancers if You Are an Employer

With a growing number of freelancers working in the advertising and media industry, it’s a great time to think about how best to support any contractors and interim staff working in your team.

Freelancers, like their permanent counterparts, need individual and targeted support in order to thrive. Take active steps to help freelance workers, and you’ll enable them to enjoy and perform in their roles better – which has to be great news for your team and your organisation. 

It’s important to note freelancers’ unique requirements and challenges, and to think about how you can support these. With that in mind, here are some ideas to help you to support your freelancers.

Cultivate community. Freelancers can benefit from a structure where they can gain support and information. Consider setting up a freelancers’ network within your organisation, where contractors can meet up and share knowledge of working at your company. On top of this, make sure you help to facilitate their relationships with people across the business who they’ll need to work with. 

Set expectations from the start. Your freelancers may not be part of your organisation’s formal appraisal programme, but they can still benefit from clear objectives, ongoing support with their tasks and ongoing evaluation of their progress. This sets your mutual expectations and also makes your freelancers feel valued, informed and supported from the outset.

Enable ongoing dialogue, mutual communication and support. Check in regularly with how your freelancers are doing; in particular, ask if they’re feeling included and have access to everything they need to perform in their role.

While you may not be able to offer freelancers access to your own organisation’s training programme, you could suggest other development opportunities to help them to thrive. NABS for example offers a range of Masterclasses and coaching sessions, all of which aim to boost people's emotional and mental resilience at work.

NABS offers a range of free, expert-led Masterclasses that help people to build the confidence and resilience they need to manage challenges and ultimately to thrive. Find out more and book online here. 

Annabel McCaffrey is head of support at NABS.