Freelancer platforms such as Fiverr have arguably revolutionised the nature of work in the recent decade.
From easing accessibility to changing work, freelancer platforms have fostered positive change. However, these platforms can have their own problems and we want to talk about three of them in this post.
Lack of transparency
Freelancer platforms are primarily designed with one key goal: facilitating access to talent. Now you can access a broad range of skills that undoubtedly improves operational efficiency.
However, accessing such a wide pool of freelancers also reflects the greater need for confirming authenticity and verification. When freelancers can have any profile and you have no way to verify, you will lose the most critical element in getting the work done – “time”.
This can be particularly challenging if you’re seeking a candidate who has expertise in a niche sector or if you demand a specific knowledge base.
You will end up interacting or even assigning your projects to “unskilled”, “not talented” or sometimes even “fake” freelancers.
Looking at a practical example: you post a web development project; within just a few minutes, you will be receiving tens of proposals, from a wide range of freelancers with different backgrounds.
Selecting the appropriate freelancer demands the investment of time in both reviewing bids/proposals, in addition to carrying out a certain level of due diligence.
Direct Interaction
Most freelancing platforms do not allow “direct interaction” which means integrating freelancers to your team will be very difficult. Most freelancing platforms actively remove freelancers from their platform if those freelancers interact directly.
So, you need someone at your business to just interact with the freelancers and bring that work in. This can take a toll on your time and you may never get the product that is built around “team work” between your internal resources and the freelancers.
Freelancer platforms can have high fees
Lastly, once you have ultimately identified the perfect freelancer, there’s the issue of high fees.
This is an issue from both the businesses’ and freelancers’ perspectives.
The majority of freelancer platforms are likely to charge both parties in a transaction, which can be costly.
And that’s a wrap for today…We at 30mins.com hope you enjoyed reading this post and hopefully gained a better idea of the issues that freelancer platforms pose to both businesses and freelancers.
