Understanding freelancers: optimizing HRM for freelancer success

Introduction: The rise in non-traditional employment has reshaped the labor market, with freelancers emerging as a significant and increasingly strategic segment of the workforce. Freelancers are highly skilled professionals who contribute to knowledge-intensive and innovative projects, yet despite their growing importance, they are often overlooked by HR practitioners and excluded from formal HR processes. This study examines how HR practices affect organizational perceptions of freelancers with particular attention to the instrumental mechanisms through which HR practices shape managerial perceptions of freelancers, especially performance and knowledge sharing. Method: Data was collected in two waves from 468 managers and employees working in organizations that employ independent contractors. Results: Results indicate that performance and knowledge sharing provide the clearest pathways linking HR practices to positive managerial perceptions of freelancers, whereas relational mechanisms received limited support. Discussion: The findings support a freelancer-specific HRM model, in which instrumental mechanisms are more central than employee-like relational exchange processes.