
When you think about health and medicine, you’re probably imagining doctors, hospitals, and life-saving interventions. But what about the critical communication that helps patients understand their conditions, or guides healthcare professionals in using new treatments? Behind these efforts is often a team of expert freelancers: writers, editors, illustrators, designers, managers and strategists.
Hiring expert freelance talent in healthcare isn’t just a nice-to-have—it’s often the difference between clear, actionable communication and costly missteps. Yet finding, onboarding, and managing the right talent is harder than it should be.
At HireSpace, we’ve spent months digging into these challenges alongside leaders in creative, marketing, and people operations roles within health and medical communications. Through countless Google Meet calls (we might as well be gold medalists by now!), we’ve learned just how much pressure teams face to deliver precise, impactful work in high-stakes environments.
The need for agility and expertise is greater than ever, but the traditional hiring process often falls short. That's where freelance talent comes in—not as a backup plan, but as a strategic advantage. Freelancers bring unparalleled flexibility and niche expertise to health and medical projects, but tapping into that potential requires the right approach. From streamlining the hiring process to fostering seamless collaboration, the right solutions can save time, reduce stress, and supercharge results.
For organizations ranging from nonprofits to marketing agencies, tapping into this talent pool can be transformative. However, the current freelance market poses unique challenges. Let me walk you through why expert freelance talent is invaluable and how a streamlined platform like HireSpace can address common pain points.
Challenges in the Current Freelance Market
While the value of freelance talent is clear, hiring them comes with its own set of challenges. Here are the most common ones I’ve observed through conversations with industry leaders:
Navigating a Fragmented Marketplace
The freelance market is scattered across platforms like LinkedIn, Upwork, and personal networks. As one global health system marketing director pointed out, “Platforms like Upwork often lack quality control, and time zone differences add complexity.” Add to that the countless hours spent vetting candidates, and it’s no wonder hiring managers and project managers alike feel overwhelmed.
Trust Issues
In healthcare, trust is not optional. Health organizations and agencies frequently rely on freelancers they’ve worked with before, as hiring unvetted talent can jeopardize sensitive projects. “Hospitals often prefer to hire freelancers they have a history with,” one of our sources explained. Our sources revealed that virtually all of them rely on old school Excel spreadsheets, saving talent that they liked working with to a handy hotlist. This reliance on existing relationships, while safe, limits access in terms of availability and access to new and potentially better talent.
Onboarding Complexities
Freelancers often face onboarding processes that are either too generic or overly complicated. Several creative directors pointed out that their companies lack structured processes, leading to misaligned expectations.
One of our subjects recalled projects where a lack of onboarding led to a medical writer delivering content “far too technical for its intended audience.” The solution? Bringing on a second freelancer to revise the work, doubling costs. “It taught us that investing in onboarding upfront pays dividends,” they reflected.
In healthcare, onboarding isn’t just about familiarizing someone with brand guidelines; it’s about ensuring they’re compliant with regulations like HIPAA. Several of our sources revealed that onboarding freelancers can sometimes take up to two months. That’s a delay that most organizations can’t afford.
Budget Constraints
Hiring freezes and budget cuts have made it challenging to onboard full-time staff, especially in sectors reliant on government funding. However, as one brand director noted, “Freelance positions are often easier to approve than full-time roles during financial constraints.” Still, organizations face pressure to maximize ROI while ensuring quality.
The Case for Top-Tier Freelancers
In an age where precision matters as much in communication as it does in surgery, having the right talent on your team can make or break a project. As one content director shared with us: “Good design can leave a stronger impression than even the messaging itself.” He emphasized the impact of high-quality visuals and storytelling on audience engagement. It’s a sentiment echoed across industries, but it’s critical in healthcare. Mistakes in communication can lead to misinformation, patient anxiety, or potentially non-compliance with medical treatments.
From my personal experience, I’ve seen how freelancers bring specialized expertise to the table. In one example, a marketing director described a scenario where a designer’s lack of health communications experience significantly delayed a hospital’s ad campaign. “We had to bring in someone who knew the regulations,” they said, lamenting the fact that this setback could have been easily avoided. In another case, a talent procurement expert told me, “We wouldn’t hire anyone without relevant medical experience.” His background in rebuilding HR departments at large health marketing agencies highlighted a recurring theme: the unique needs of health marketing projects demand a deep level of expertise that generalist talent often lacks.
A Streamlined Solution: The HireSpace Advantage
Enter HireSpace, a one-stop-shop platform designed to simplify freelance hiring for the health and medical communications sector. Here’s our vision on how to address the above challenges:
A Centralized Talent Pool, Saving You Time
With HireSpace, clients will unlock an exclusive network of the top 5% of freelance creative and marketing talent specialized in health and medical communications. Think LinkedIn, but with an added layer of vetting. Every freelancer’s profile is enriched with detailed information, portfolio, and client testimonials. You get the full picture of the human behind the work, which creates confidence in your search.
Trust Through Vetting, Reducing Risk
The platform’s rigorous screening process ensures that only professionals with extensive and proven expertise in US health and medical communications projects make the cut. This eliminates guesswork and builds trust from the outset. “Trust in hiring decisions is everything.” Our vision for the platform emphasizes talent that knows your business before you know them, generating agility and efficiency in the hiring process.
Streamlined Onboarding, Ensuring Efficiency
HireSpace aims to offer tools to simplify onboarding. From style guides and sample projects to compliance checklists, freelancers will be set up for success from day one.
In our discussions, marketing and people operations leaders consistently emphasize the need for freelancers who truly know the business. When working on a project for a company like Pfizer, for example, they want a medical writer who "speaks Pfizer" and understands the organization's unique language and culture.
We’ve discussed potentially adding a virtual onboarding room within our software in which a freelancer can access all necessary materials within minutes of signing the NDA. We envision that features like this will eliminate significant delays in getting freelancers up to speed.
Looking Forward
The post-COVID era has amplified the importance of clear, effective communication in healthcare. From telemedicine to public health campaigns, the demand for skilled freelancers is only growing. But as the market evolves, so must the tools we use to engage this talent.
I believe HireSpace represents a new age that prioritizes quality, efficiency, and trust in freelance hiring. For hospitals, marketing agencies, and startups alike, it’s not just about finding freelancers—it’s about building long-lasting, innovative, and fruitful partnerships that elevate health and medical communications.
The industry must reimagine how to find, hire, and work with freelance talent, and I’m inviting you to join the conversation. The future of our healthcare depends on it.
Bryce Cashman is an accomplished Account Executive for Client Partnerships at HireSpace, where he leverages his expertise in business development, communication, and marketing to foster meaningful client relationships. A graduate of American University's law school, Bryce brings several years of tech industry experience, having worked with leading companies like Yelp and Houzz. His passion for innovative solutions and strategic growth drives his success in connecting businesses with impactful opportunities.
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