Recruiting staff the freelance way – Subcontracting

If you’ve come to the conclusion that you really need to have someone help you in some areas of your freelance work, recruitment of a new member of staff may be for you…or you may want to subcontract for a while. Follow the guide below to consider sub-contracting, and if you wish to follow up on it, how to start to find the services you want.

Subcontracting

If you are really busy, and feel that, for a time, you need the services of another, try offering a short term ‘subcontract’ to another freelancer. This really is you, paying for their services for a short amount of time, without the hassle of being an employer. A ‘subcontract’ is, by definition, a contract to provide all or part of another contract, carried out by a third person. Subcontractors can be useful, in the short term, but of course you need to ensure the subcontractor will adhere to your ethos, perpetuate your business brand and not steal your custom.

Projects particularly suited to subcontracting are those without a customer facing aspect. Preparation of documents (backup procedures, operating manuals, training manuals, company marketing literature etc.) can all be done by purchasing the services you want online, with the subcontractor never actually making contact with the end user or customer. Program or code creation also lend themselves to this type of work. The process for subcontracting will be similar to that shown below:

1. Check that your main customer has not ruled out the use of subcontractors (check your contract or service level agreement carefully, and take advice on the terms of your contract).

2. Decide how the process of the subcontract will work. The list of questions is by no means exhaustive, but will give you an idea of where you should start:

a. Will you give a task at a time to the subcontractor, or give them a full brief?
b. How do you see the process working?
c. How will you know if it is successful on an ongoing basis?
d. What time will you give the subcontractor to complete the work?
e. How will you measure that it’s complete?
f. When will you pay for the completed work?
g. How much will you pay for the work?
h. What will you do if things start to slip?
i. What contingency plans do you have?
j. What contact will your subcontractor have with your customer?

3. Check that this works for everyone involved. Often, especially if it’s in a non-customer facing capacity, the only person affected will be you, as you’re the one contracted to supply your customer with the service or goods, and it’s up to you to ensure that things go smoothly. You’re also the only one to blame if things go wrong, from your customers’ point of view.