1. HIRING AND ENGAGEMENT WITH REGULAR AND NEW ARTISTS

 

1.1 Organisations should be clear about who they are looking for when they are hiring, and why they are looking for that specific person.  

 

1.2 Organisations should carefully consider where they are advertising their roles.

 

1.3 It is good practice for organisations to reflect on how their role advertisements or call outs could exclude people from wanting to apply.

 

1.4 Organisations should build in time to properly administrate their chosen recruitment process. 

 

1.5 Organisations should be clear and upfront about hiring processes, freelancers will allow for flexibility, if this is communicated clearly. 

 

1.6 Freelancers should take responsibility to get in touch if they haven’t heard back from an organisation.

 

1.7 Avoid ‘open calls’ unless they are in good faith - genuine opportunities that are paid, well communicated and properly administrated.

 

1.8 Organisations should commit to and follow through on their hiring processes and decisions should be made by more than one person.

 

1.9 Communicate and agree on appropriate lengths for availability checks. 

 

1.10 Organisations should commit to hiring new artists, recording and reviewing their freelance hires. 

 

1.11 Organisations could develop transparent policies about how to become an associated artist.

 

1.12 It is good practice for organisations to keep up to date with emerging and under-utilised talent.

 

1.13 Do simple things to share publicity and reward applicants.

 

1.14 Communicate with regular freelancers about your plans, whether you are re-hiring them or not. 

 

2. CONTRACTS

 

2.1 Provide new or update old contracts for subsequent jobs.

 

2.2 Provide draft contracts and accept that freelancers can negotiate the terms of their contracts or letters of agreement.

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2.3 Consider the entirety of a freelancer’s working time for a job or project at the contracting stage.

 

2.4 Consider extra payment schedules. 

 

2.5 Include cancellation clauses.

 

2.6 Be clear about the capacity you are employing someone in and what rights and benefits this implies on both sides.

 

2.7 Keep contracts open to change, be human and write in plain language. 

 

2.8 Remember that minimum rates are minimum. 

 

2.9 Be clear about payment, hours, expenses, overtime and preparation time.

 

2.10 Freelancers should ask for a contract, negotiate, ask questions and clarify anything that doesn’t work for them.

 

2.11 Crediting, intellectual property and non disclosure agreements should always be discussed, outlined and explained clearly. Crediting process and intellectual property rights should be outlined in the contract.

 

3. DIVERSITY, INCLUSION, ACCESSIBILITY

 

3.1 Organisations should ensure that their power structures reflect the people who work for them and the audiences and public that they serve.

 

3.2 Inclusivity, equality and diversity conversations should be built into organisational governance structures and should be an ongoing issue. 

 

3.3 Don’t assume.

 

3.4 Organisations should ensure that there is space and time in a budget to be inclusive. 

 

3.5 Organisations should be clear about their current diversity and inclusion policy. 

 

3.6 Make the routes to raising issues about diversity and inclusion clear as part of a structured grievance policy. 

 

3.7 Organisations should use plain and accessible communication, adapting when they can.  

 

3.8 Organisations should consider the voices they are using to communicate with and whether they are employing the right people to speak to their various communities. 

 

3.9 Support candidates from various class and educational backgrounds; make the available support clear from the outset so they know the opportunity is ‘for them.’ 

 

3.10 Don’t use diversity solely as a marketing tool, funding or tick box exercise. 

 

3.11 Understand that freelancers bring more to the table than their ‘identity’.

 

3.12 Consider unconscious bias training. 

 

3.13 Pay well and consider flexible options for pay.

 

3.14 Organisations should reach out to freelancers proactively to ask if there are any adjustments needed for them to do their work. Freelancers should remember that they are not obliged to give details. 

 

3.15 Make application, hiring and interview processes accessible.

 

3.16 Organisations should try to be specific in their plans, in their outreach, in their responses.

 

3.17 Organisations should normalise asking people for their pronouns.

 

3.18 Organisations should keep freelancers appropriately informed about the needs of those working with them.

 

3.19 Organisations should equip freelancers with the means to support the participants they are working with.

 

3.20 Seek out funding to provide support for freelancers with access needs.

 

3.21 Large organisations should consider providing access to their resources for the wider arts community. 

 

3.22 Ask to be told.

 

4. INVOICING AND PAYMENT

 

4.1 An organisation should make clear the process by which a freelancer will be paid. 

 

4.2 Organisations should be clear about all the information they need from a freelancer in order to process payment. 

 

4.3 Organisations should outline rates of pay and discuss total expected pay at the start of the job. 

 

4.4 There should be explicit communication about whether money for payment is immediately available.

 

4.5 Freelancers should provide invoice(s) including all the information needed by an organisation in a timely manner. Freelancers should also be proactive in finding out all the information they need to submit their invoice on time. 

 

4.6 An organisation should provide a freelancer with the direct contact details of the person responsible for processing their payment. 

 

4.7 Communication about payment should be openly encouraged. 

 

4.8 Where discussions about payment and invoicing have been conducted on the phone or in person any agreements made should be followed up in writing. 

 

4.9 Payment should be made promptly within the agreed timeframe. Clear communication about this should be maintained, particularly if there are delays to payments for any reason. 

 

4.10 Organisations should commit to being flexible.

 

4.11 Best practice would be to commit on both sides to any changes discussed. 

 

5. INDUCTIONS AND ‘OUT- DUCTIONS’

 

5.1 An organisation should ensure that a freelancer knows all the basic information about where they are working and who they are working for, particularly if those basics have changed. 

 

5.2 Consider accessibility at the induction stage.

 

5.3 Communicate ethos and brand at the start of work - freelancers can then take responsibility for representing an organisation while working for them.

 

5.4 Where an organisation has various staff who might deal with freelancers under their own departments, they should be fully briefed.

 

5.5 An organisation should provide a handbook that is of appropriate length for the size of job. 

 

5.6 It is best practice to involve another staff member in the inductions process in order to provide an alternative contact for a freelancer. 

 

5.7 Information for publicity purposes should be shared on both sides with clarity and support. 

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5.8 Keep the documentation and information of freelancers appropriately confidential and safe.

 

5.9 Organisations should consider how to help advocate for their freelancers during and after work - this works both ways. 

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5.10 It is good practice to involve regular freelancers in general staff meetings and updates where possible.

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5.11 After the work has finished organisations should provide an opportunity for the freelancer to provide optional feedback. 

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5.12 Build in a way to officially finalise the work. 

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5.13 Try to credit or tag work and photographs indefinitely, so that after work has finished the freelancer still receives credit for their part in a project. 

 

6. GRIEVANCE PROCESSES AND SOME GENERAL WORKING PRACTICE POINTS

 

6.1 Make your grievance process and route to feedback, support or issues clear in your contract or in writing. 

 

6.2 Organisations and freelancers should be aware that HR departments are ultimately there to represent the interests of the company; this can sometimes overtake the interests of the freelancer.

 

6.3 Be aware of potential conflicts of interest.

 

6.4 Avoid leaning on the freelancer for solutions. 

 

6.5 Don’t fear the formality

 

6.6 Be aware that raising a grievance can be a psychological battle. 

 

6.7 Test systems and train all staff

 

6.8 Commit to taking grievances seriously, record properly and proactively encourage communication.

 

6.9 Organisations should keep on top of the management of projects.

 

6.10 Organisations should acknowledge the use of freelancers’ time.

 

6.11 Freelancers need breaks and holidays.

 

6.12 Pay for preparation.

 

6.13 Organisations should consider being publicly transparent about their staffing structures.

 

6.14 Keep personal opinions out of the professional arena; be wary of unfair reputational damage caused in casual ‘post-work’ settings, or at work.

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6.15 Put whistleblowing policies in place

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8. Of course, It’s ok to not re-hire a freelancer, but they can often be left without feedback from a job - assuming that the reason they have not been re-hired is that they were disliked, or that their work wasn’t good. In reality, this is often because an organisation wants to reach out to new artists and audiences, has changed focus or is working on a different kind of project.

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9. MFTA cannot be prescriptive about what constitutes prompt payment as this may vary depending on size of project/organisation or length of project. To pay within 30 days is commonly acceptable; after this time the payment owed becomes legally defined as a ‘debt’ and is subject to statutory interest. A reasonable timeframe should be set out before work commences so that if said timeframe is unacceptable for a freelancer but cannot be changed, the freelancer can make an informed decision about accepting work. Further guidance about reasonable prompt payment standards may be found here.

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10.  E.g. toilet location, fire procedures, points of contact, Safeguarding policies etc. Please see template.

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