Restricted Interpersonal Interactions

In most cases, clients and freelancers are geographically miles apart, so there’s no way both parties can come together to discuss a pressing concern face to face. Today, even though there are applications like Skype, it’s not like having a physical discussion to take issues head on.

The relation between the client and a freelancer is completely professional — it’s good in a way but lacks the thrust that can only come from personal engagement.

Absence of Commitment

In stressful cases like a site going down, we often get to see your dedicated team working whole night and leaving the office next day morning. Employees are obligated to give their best to make sure deliverables are delivered on time. Unfortunately, such levels of commitment can’t be expected from a freelancer.

Loss of Productivity

Generally, freelancers are either hired on a per-task or hourly basis. That takes out the ’extra bit’, from the overall productivity. Though freelancers save money on both platforms, operational and infrastructural, their level of dedication is nowhere near an employee on the payroll.

No Long-Term Relationship

There are agencies and partners who have served a single organization for decades. However, when freelancers are hired, it’s mainly on an assignment or a project, so the involvement, commitment, and the personal bonding is largely left out. An employee’s attachment with an organization is crucial in a market where it’s getting increasingly difficult to retain them. The connection makes managers and team leaders stay on-board for years, or may be, even decades.

However, this is not the case for freelancers. They will just walk out of the door and work for anyone who pays more. No strings attached.

Disappearing Acts

Freelancers feel they have a right to disappear, and clients can do nothing about it. There are several instances of freelancers disappearing while working regularly for a client, or just like that in the middle of a project.

This is not the case with agency partners, who have a reputation to keep in order to run their business. Most of them will operate as your dedicated team and will happily sign a contract or agreement. This ensures a peace of mind, while you can expect them to work as a team to deliver more projects at faster turnarounds as opposed to a single freelancer.

Lack of Team Spirit

Freelancers never make a good team. And, even if you manage to get multiple freelancers together to work as a ‘team’, you’ll end up having to manage the whole setup or else things will quickly fall apart. An agency on the other hand, comes ready with an equipped team so they can efficiently take the burden off your shoulder.

Hiring freelancers may seem like a cost-effective way to outsource work, but given the risks we’ve mentioned above, entrepreneurs should think twice before hiring one.