As the labour market undergoes big shifts, driven by rapid advances in digital technology and the changing nature of the global economy itself, more businesses and organisations are finding themselves reliant on a contingent and freelance workforce.

Another name for the “gig economy”, a ‘contingent workforce’ consists of freelancing professionals and independent contractors who are not employed full-time on a company’s payroll, but instead are engaged on an as-needed basis.

This includes experienced freelance lawyers, amongst other professionals. With freelancers forgoing many of the benefits afforded to full-time staff, managing their wellbeing and productivity does require careful thought. Here’s a few tips to get the best out of yours:

Communicate clearly & frequently

Like any employment arrangement, maintaining open lines of communication between management and staff is crucial to a happy and productive workplace. This rule also applies to freelance and contract workers, who might not be on your company’s full-time payroll, but will obviously appreciate being kept in the loop on task status updates and other relevant information.

Set clear goals & expectations

Continuing with the theme of open communication, one of the most effective ways to manage your contingent workforce is to set clear goals and expectations around your tasks from the very beginning. The human mind craves structure, so giving your workers a tangible goal to strive towards will help keep them on-track and engaged.

Consolidate your project management and communication tools

Often one of the biggest challenges of managing multiple contractors and freelancers across sprawling projects is coordination. Thankfully, coordinating multiple workers has been made much easier through cloud-based project management and collaboration tools, including Trello, Slack and Dropbox. Just be sure your contractors / freelancers have access and know how to use these productivity-enhancing tools.

Update/renew their contracts as early as possible

Freelance professionals are used to moving from one workplace to another in short periods of time, which is why they’ll often begin looking for their next “gig” before their current contract is over. If you’re impressed with a member of your contingent or freelance workforce and would like them to stay on you team for longer, the earlier you can communicate this with them and renew their contract, the better.