Why should hirers care about freelancers mental health?
Employers benefit from supporting the mental health of freelancers too.
Mental health at work has been a significant topic over the last decade, not least due to research showing a 5:1 ROI on every £1 spent on supporting employees, through improved productivity and reduced time off due to illness.
Whilst there's a legal requirement to look after the physical and mental health and safety of your employees, there's a commercial benefit too - which unfortunately, is often the the only measure that matters.
However, for many businesses, their workforce is not just employees.
Estimates suggest that 30% of UK businesses work with either temporary, contract or freelance individuals (and 80% of global businesses), and 65% of businesses say they are looking to increase their use of contingent workers in the coming year.
So, when your workforce is not just employees - ensuring good mental health of your people needs to include everyone you work with, regardless of contract.
Many employers will say the mental health of freelancers is not their responsibility, some will claim doing things to support their freelancers puts them at risk of looking like an employee or facing IR35 challenges, and some simply don't know where to start.
The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 (HSWA) places a duty of care on employers to ensure, as far as reasonably practicable, the health, safety, and welfare of all workers. This includes employees, contractors, freelancers, agency workers, and other contingent workers. The Act covers both physical and mental health, and this has been reinforced by subsequent regulations and guidance, such as the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999.
But beyond the legal requirements, there are four other reasons why considering the mental health of your freelancers is worthwhile to your business.
1/ PRODUCTIVITY AND PROJECT COSTS
A number of research studies show that poorer mental health has a direct link to not only poorer productivity, but also poorer creativity, increased mistakes being made, and higher likelihood of time off due to physical and mental illness.
All businesses need to be efficient, and many businesses see freelancers already as a cost which can feel excessive, in comparison to full-time employees (although the cost-value-equation is not as simple as that). So if you see freelancers as costly - wasting money by not working effectively with freelancers is even moreso.
If you're not considering the wellbeing of your freelancers - your project costs will be higher due to poorer productivity. We estimate that a lack of tangible support and effective engagement with freelancers leads to a 30% decrease in productivity, or 10% increase in costs.
2/ TALENT ACQUISITION COSTS
95% of freelancers report they would not work again for a business who has treated them poorly. This includes behaviours which negatively impact their mental health - such as ghosting, late payments, bullying and harassment, as well as lacking support, such as poor or no onboarding, poor communication, or unclear requirements and feedback.
The cost of finding good quality freelancers is already high - whether it be spending 10%-30% on recruitment commissions, or the time and energy of your internal team finding, reviewing, meeting, onboarding, organising contracts and compliance, only to lose them after a project because you were challenging to work with.
The average cost of finding and onboarding a freelancer can range from £300 to over £1000 for specialist roles. Having to do this repeatedly can add up to being thousands of pounds over the course of a year.
Working well with your freelancers reduces your talent acquisition costs, as you can keep a trusted bench of freelancers close to your business.
3/ REPUTATIONAL DAMAGE
96% of freelancers say they tell fellow freelancers about poorly behaving clients, who have had a negative impact on their wellbeing and mental health. And we see this happening all of the time.
Things don't get posted publicly, but most freelancers are actively involved in communities with many other freelancers, and they talk. A lot. We ask each other about a new client we're about to start working with, we share feedback on clients and how they were to work with. There are blacklists, red flags and green flags.
With the majority of businesses saying they're actively looking to increase their use of contractors and freelancers in the future, as pressures on perm staff increase, and the need to create fluid and flexible teams with the right talent becomes the dominant model - reputation will matter.
Just as your EVP allows you to attract, hire and retain the right employees, your FVP needs to work just as hard, to ensure you're able to work with the best talent.
And of course, there's a very simple fourth reason - because people's wellbeing and welfare matter - and caring about the people who help power our businesses, regardless of legal obligation or commercial upside, is the right and good thing to do.
Tackling the issues - what can hirers do?
If those are the reasons to care about mental health for freelancers, what are the tangible steps an hirer can take to beter support their freelancers?
Critically, it's important to note that it is not your responsibility to "take care" of their mental health - self-employed individuals need to take responsibility for things within their control - but rather ensure you're not doing anything intentionally or unintentionally which could adversely effect their mental health, as an absolute minimum. Beyond that, to build credibility and trust, you can also make additional considerations, to make working with you more supported and more effective.
So what are the most common challenges freelancers face, and what changes can employers hirers make to better support their freelancers?
Irregularity of income = Resolve Late Payment Issues.
The biggest stressor for freelancers is irregularity of income - being in control of your cashflow is hard. 71% of freelancers had to chase late invoices during 2025 - so one of the most impactful changes you can make as an employer - is to pay on time.
Improve your processes around invoice handling, pay promptly ideally ahead of the due date, and provide clear accountability and chain of communication around payment issues.
If you're unable to manage this at scale, use an intermediary platform which handles making payments on your behalf, so you only have one invoice to pay each month.
Lacking or onerous contracts = Implement clear and fair contracts
Another major issue for freelancers, often linked to late payments, is a lack of clear and fair contract in place, ahead of working together. Too many freelancers are asked to work without a contract, and too many projects are cancelled or scopes changed, leading to further issues.
Ensure you have a clear and simple contract in place for your freelancers before they start work, and clauses in the contract are not overly burdensome on issues of liability, or prevent freelancers from sharing that they've worked with you. Contracts protect both you and your freelancers.
Poor experience, onboarding and ghosting = Implement effective freelancer onboarding
A lack of clarity around ways of working, how to get started, contact details, access to tools and systems and payment processes often faces a freelancer on day one - slowing down their ability to get started working well.
Put in place a specific onboarding process for freelancers, covering your business culture, ways of working, key contacts and escalation points, and signposting to support.
Appoint internal responsibility for designing freelance engagement and experience - to ensure someone is looking at the end to end process, to improve the relationship on both sides. Use automation and tools to reduce communication failures.
Lacking awareness of support available = implement signposting to support
70% of freelancers aren't sure where to turn for support for their mental health - a simple action for any employer to resolve, by providing signposting to good quality resources and support for their freelancers.
Ensure your onboarding has adequate signposting to general resources for freelancers, along with sector specific support, including charities, helplines and industry bodies.
Taking Action
Whilst we don't expect every hirer to implement all of these guidelines, the very least we ask all employers to do is signpost to support - so other organisations are able to better support your freelancers' mental health where you might be unable.
There are a number of supportive organisations who can help with every aspect of working more effectively with freelancers, from recruiting and hiring, onboarding and operational support, direct support for freelancers, compliance and contracts, payments, feedback and community building.
If you're not sure where to start - get in touch, Leapers can help.