Why should agencies partner with companies rather than hire freelancers?

Digital agencies sometimes get in a position when they have more work their internal team can handle. For many, outsourcing is not an option, as they still wish to keep the project in the house, but are open to working with external developers.

Agencies can hire freelancers or work with teams like Agiledrop. In this post, I will highlight some of the advantages of working with a team that agencies often overlook when making a decision.

No more job posts and screening interviews

Hiring a freelancer is practically the same as hiring a full-time employee. First you have to write a job ad and post it to places like Upwork or the Drupal.org job board, then you have to screen candidates to find the ones you can work with, and, lastly, you need to negotiate rates and customize contracts for every single freelancer.

By working with a company, you have a one-stop solution. After the initial audit and screening, you know what to expect from all the staff. For example, at Agiledrop we only let proven developers work directly with clients in the staff augmentation model. Hiring a developer from Agiledrop is also incredibly simple: all the client has to do is send an email with requirements, and we find the right person for the job.

Separation of roles and better use of time

When you work with a freelancer, you work with a company of one. This person still needs to do all of the administrative work like any other company. Freelancers usually juggle multiple clients at a time, receive support emails and phone calls from recruiters. This could all happen while on the clock with you.

When working with developers from our team, you can be assured they work exclusively on your project. All of the paperwork is handled by other roles in the company. At Agiledrop we have people in sales who handle contracts and resource managers who send weekly reports. When you want to talk about plans, you can jump on a call with me, while developers stay productive.

Team provides redundancy

When a freelancer gets sick, there is nothing she can do; she either works ill and tries to suck it up (but the work cannot be done with the same quality) or leaves the job and waits till she gets better. 

If a developer from a company like Agiledrop gets sick, we send her on sick leave and offer you another developer, with the same skillset, to replace her during that time. 

Team delivers more value

At the end it all comes down to this: can one person deliver the same amount of value as a whole team can? We don’t believe so. 

While you start working with a freelancer, you already risk by hiring, although even if you take that risk it might end up just fine - but what if they come across a problem? Who do they turn to, do you take charge of that? When hiring people from the A-team, there is no doubt. If a developer comes across a problem, the whole A-team helps out, so you don't have to worry about a thing. 

Please get in touch if you would like to learn more about how our team can help you scale your Drupal development capacities.