It’s a Studio Managers worst nightmare. You’ve worked hard all week, constant late nights and early starts, all in the effort to get work completed before a looming deadline. Then you come in one morning and half of your team has called in sick. Worn out and succumbing to that head cold or increasingly sore throat, they just can’t do it today. You’re not feeling so crash hot yourself and you wish that there was just an easy solution to getting the job done. The truth of the matter is that there is.

When we talk with companies about what reservations they’ve had in using an agency for temporary assistance, we’re often faced with a handful of reasons. Most commonly, it is a hesitancy because they’re unaware of the level of quality that are on the agencies ‘books’ and concerned that it could prove to be a costly exercise. However, for many people who do take that leap of faith and decide to place their trust into the hands of a consultant, the experience proves that it was a wise decision and becomes a resource that they can regularly turn to.

For those of you who are tinkering on the edge of using an agency, we can help you with a checklist of points that you would want to know prior to giving your new consultant a call and placing that first order. With this checklist, you’ll be able to ensure that you get the best person for the work you have at hand and get things done on time.

Know exactly what you want

You may find this hard to believe but we can’t begin to tell you how often we’ve had conversations with people where they’ve just asked ‘for somebody’ and had little idea as to what they actually want.

As an agency, we deal with literally thousands of people on a yearly basis and the range of skill sets which we can offer is extensive. When you call in, you’ll want to be able to tell the consultant exactly what the project is and what kind of person you’ll need, what kind of software they’ll be working with, where the project is currently at, what the outcome is that you require and when you need it completed by.

Imagine the difference. One call has a set list of points they require; they want an experienced and fast finished artist. They have a 60 page annual report that has already been started and they need it finished by the close of business the following day. The work is to be done in InDesign – they would prefer someone who has done annual reports before as it will require financials and graphs experience. The report needs to be taken to a print ready stage. As you would imagine, with a brief like this, finding someone with the range of people we have would be easy. On the other hand, another call asks for ‘someone to come in but we don’t really know what they’ll be doing yet’ - it’s asking for problems from the start.

Maintain communication with the freelancer

Your freelancer has arrived on site and now you want to ensure that, even with the chaos happening around you, that you set them up so that they can get into it. Many freelancers are more than experienced at coming on site at the 11th hour and just getting into it however this doesn’t mean that they’re also going to become mind readers.

Ideally, you would want to have a thorough written brief for them to work with. If not, ensure that they jot down notes as you give them a verbal brief and that they have someone who they can ask questions of if required. Mutually agree with each other as to how long you believe the project is going to take in order to get to the outcome that you want. This may seem all very obvious however you would be surprised at how often freelancers are shown a seat, given a file and just told to go with little instruction around it.

Most importantly, during the length of the assignment, occasionally stick your head in to ensure that your freelancer is on track and following the brief. You will have your consultant call during the assignment to ensure all is going well however you would be surprised to know how often clients haven’t even bothered to look. Certainly, a freelancer doesn’t need to have their hand held however you do want to ensure, as you would with any employee, that they’re on track.

All too easy

At the end of the day, the biggest compliment that we often receive is that we make supplying for that need all too easy and they’ve wondered why they spent so much time stressing about filing that temporary need when one phone call solved the problem. As we fast approach the busy season, you can invest time in talking with your consultant about suitable people for upcoming projects. Having an idea in advance of potential freelancers and they area of experience will make getting those deadlines knocked over all too easy.