Freelancers can offer valuable support to your business, filling in gaps in your skillset without requiring you to hire someone full-time. Thanks to advances in the internet and other technologies, it's easier than ever to leverage the power of freelance talent. 

These days, you can hire people from all over the world. While that means you have a broad range of talent to choose from, it also means coordinating diverse individuals across time zones, countries, and even different continents. Discover how to make it work for you with the tips below.

Determine what kind of freelance talent you can use

Not every job is suitable for a freelance position. Make sure you're being realistic about which roles you can fill externally versus which ones need to be filled internally. For example, core business competencies should usually be handled in-house. However, there are many administrative and practical tasks that can go to a freelance team. Fiverr lists a few popular outsourced jobs, including social media management, blogging, email management, customer service, and data entry.

Establish a comprehensive onboarding procedure

Just because your freelancers aren't in the office with you doesn't mean you can skip the onboarding process. Take the time to educate newbies on your preferred processes and tools. A social onboarding to introduce them to other team members can also be valuable. Of course, Xolo advises not to forget the practical steps, like paperwork. You need to handle administrative documents like freelancer contracts and non-disclosure agreements before any freelancers start working for you.

Decide in advance how to pay freelancers

Another admin essential to address before your freelancers start work is how they'll be paid. Payment gets more complex when you're dealing with a global network of freelancers who have bank accounts in different countries and use various currencies. Luckily, there are global payment platforms that can make it simpler, like PayPal, Revolut, Wise, and Payoneer. Make sure that your freelancers have access to your platform of choice in their country, and be prepared to be flexible.

Make sure you aren't infringing on any employment law

Working with international freelancers has plenty of perks, allowing you to harness a global talent pool. However, you have to be careful when it comes to labor laws. Every country has its own employment laws, and you don't want to infringe on anyone's rights. The key is to make sure that anyone you hire on a freelance basis would also be considered an independent contractor in their country. This means they're responsible for their own taxes, insurance, pension, and similar points. Otherwise, you may be held liable.

Use PDFs and other tech you need to maintain streamlined workflows

The right technology can simplify your collaboration with freelancers. For example, a cloud-based project management platform makes it easier to collaborate in real-time. Look for project management software offerings, which allows you to view projects, goals, and team capacity in a single frame. This makes it easier to assign tasks and see who has the capacity for what. Other tools you may want to use include chat apps, customer relationship management tools, and PDFs.

You’ll need to rely on digital documents more than physical documents when you’re working with freelancers in multiple locations, and PDFs are the ideal choice for this. That’s because they’re easier to share via email than Microsoft Word and Excel files (since they’re a format that can be accessed on any device), and they can be sent with security features, like encryption, for added protection. All your team needs is Adobe Acrobat’s tools for editing PDFs to get their work done quickly and easily, whether changes need to be made to text, images, formatting, or other specs.

Check in on your freelance teams regularly

The biggest risk when working with freelancers is that they'll get lost and lack a genuine connection with you and your team. This can leave people feeling unmotivated and cause productivity to plummet. To avoid this issue, make sure you're checking in regularly. Schedule a weekly team meeting, for example, and try to have a one-on-one chat too. You can also try team bonding activities, like virtual book clubs, karaoke, or escape rooms. A virtual water cooler through a tool like Slack is another option.

A global freelance team can be a big boon for business. However, you have to make sure you're giving your workers the support they need to thrive. Embracing best practices, like using PDFs to make collaboration easier and implementing a project management platform, can help.