The Gig Economy in Nashville: How it affects your hiring

In the Nashville area, hearing the word “gig” is nothing new. 

Musicians, who are not in short supply here, have used the term to describe their on-again-off-again employment for years. Some say its origin goes back to the ‘50’s and is a musician’s shortened version of “engagement”. Who knows? What we know for sure is that gigs are now mainstream and can include almost any occupation from management consultants to software designers to creative freelancers. What’s a little harder to pinpoint is knowing if you should take advantage of the gig economy and hire a freelancer or if you should rely on your full-time employees and keep a project in house.

Whether or not you should hire a freelancer or keep a project in house is dependent upon too many variables to cover here, but the following will help you think through some major considerations.

Temporary or long-term?

Maybe you’re really stretched during a certain season. Maybe a key employee is off due to a medical issue, but will return to work in a few months. When your need is temporary or project-driven, hiring a freelancer might fit the bill.

In the budget?

Hiring a freelancer means you don’t have to find a way to budget for an ongoing position, plus you don’t have to figure in benefit costs for health insurance, training and overhead. Nor are you locked in to these recurring costs like you are when you hire a new staff person.

Have to have it now?

You wouldn’t be considering the need for extra help if your current staff had the time to take on more work. So, for example, when you get a last minute project that must be completed by Monday, freelancers have the flexibility to work over the weekend, which keeps you from asking a staff member to work overtime.

Looking for expertise?

When a project requires particular skills, like website creation or language translation, it makes sense to hire a freelancer with expertise to match. Not only do you get to take advantage of a freelancer’s specialized skills, you don’t have to pull a staff member away from other important tasks.

Need a breath of fresh air?

Even the most creative and talented of staff can be too close to a project to see things from a new or different viewpoint. A freelancer can often see a situation through a different lens, giving you ideas on how to take a new approach to solve a problem or reach a goal.

Once you look at your staffing needs from all the angles, you may decide hiring a full or part-time employee is the right way to proceed, but now more than ever, the current gig economy definitely gives you a whole new set of options to consider before making your final hiring decisions.

For ease of discussion this article uses the term “freelancer” to include anyone hired to complete short-term projects. Do note, however, that technically a freelancer is not the same thing as an independent contractor – especially to the IRS. If you decide on hiring a non-employee for a short-term project, you’ll want to get advice from your tax advisor before you make an agreement.