A translation and interpretation firm sells language skill and reliability, with a few in-house staff and many freelancers. A small in-house team and a wide freelance pool mean reliability is built through panel management and fair load, not through supervision alone.
Not sure what you need? Tell us about your business in six short steps and we will come to the first meeting prepared.
Share your requirementsA translation and interpretation firm delivers written translation, localisation, subtitling and live interpretation across many languages. Its small core team includes project managers who receive orders and assign them, in-house translators and reviewers for the main languages, and coordinators who schedule interpreters. Most of the language work is done by freelancers spread across cities and countries, some of whom also work for competitors. Deadlines are tight and often set by the client's event or filing date, and quality complaints reach the project manager first. Documents may be confidential, legal or medical, and interpreters may attend sensitive meetings or hearings. See also HR for professional services.
These are the places the people side of this kind of business tends to give way. The rest of this page works through them.
HR here has to work for each of these groups, not only the office. The set-up below is written with all of them in mind.
They juggle dozens of jobs, chase freelancers, handle client complaints and are blamed for anything that goes wrong.
A linguist accepts a job and then goes silent, so the project manager scrambles at the deadline.
Some reviewers are thorough and others skim, and clients notice errors that no one on the team owns.
Last-minute changes, travel and double bookings fall on one coordinator, whose personal phone becomes the system.
Employed translators and editors do careful work for modest pay, while freelancers with the same skill earn more by choosing jobs.
Documents move by email and chat to freelancers outside the firm, and rules about handling them are informal.
Start with the topics that matter most here: HR Strategy and Workforce Planning; Performance Management; Employee Administration. Then work through the rest. Each topic is written for professional services, not in general.
How many people, in which roles, by when — and what they will cost.
Goals, reviews and ratings that hold up in a conversation.
Records, attendance, leave and the day-to-day HR that must simply work.
Structure, reporting lines and who is allowed to decide what.
Requisition to joining, the same way every time.
A first day that is the same for the fifth joiner as the first.
Salary structure, payroll inputs and a month that closes on time.
Training planned from need rather than from the calendar.
Named backups for the roles that cannot be vacant.
Communication, recognition and the conditions people actually work in.
Two routes — one for complaints, one for conduct — kept separate.
Policies a manager can apply, and obligations with owners and dates.
Induction, records, incident reporting and follow-through.
Who leaves, when, why — and which of them mattered.
Resignation to relieving letter, in a defined order.
Records that survive people, and approvals that do not queue.
A short monthly pack management actually reads.
An HR function that runs the same way every month.
The pieces a translation and interpretation firms business puts in place, in an order that makes each easier. Open any card for the detail.
A list of freelancers by language, subject and turnaround, with a simple record of delivery and quality, so project managers assign from evidence.
What this coversHideA list of freelancers by language, subject and turnaround, with a simple record of delivery and quality, so project managers assign from evidence.
A cap on live jobs per project manager, with a second person to cover absence.
What this coversHideA cap on live jobs per project manager, with a second person to cover absence. The workforce planning work helps set it.
A defined second-pair-of-eyes check on every job, with scoring that feeds back to the linguist and to the firm's training.
What this coversHideA defined second-pair-of-eyes check on every job, with scoring that feeds back to the linguist and to the firm's training.
One calendar with bookings, travel and backups, visible to more than one coordinator.
What this coversHideOne calendar with bookings, travel and backups, visible to more than one coordinator. Attendance and leave tools can illustrate a shared scheduling approach.
A short signed undertaking, rules on how files are shared and stored and what happens when an engagement ends.
What this coversHideA short signed undertaking, rules on how files are shared and stored and what happens when an engagement ends. The HR documentation process covers the paperwork.
Before changing anything, find out what is true today. These checks take an afternoon and tell you which of the topics above to start with.
Share your requirementsConfirm with a qualified professional. What applies to you depends on your business, your state and your arrangements, and it changes. This page describes practice. It does not state a legal position.
The services below fit this kind of business best. Each starts by recording where you stand, and every later report compares against that. We do not promise outcomes.
A view of the right mix of in-house and freelance linguists and project managers for the volume you expect.
Standard agreements and undertakings for in-house staff and freelancers, including confidentiality.
A check on how in-house linguist pay compares with the market and your freelancer rates.
Quality and delivery measures for project managers, reviewers and linguists.
Start with a free conversation, or see the paid HR Diagnostic.
Understand the business, its workforce, current processes and HR challenges.
Find the missing, weak, inconsistent or person-dependent processes.
Create the structure, processes, policies, SOPs, dashboards and systems needed.
Help HR and department managers actually adopt the new system.
Digitise repetitive and approval-based workflows where it is worth doing.
Track hiring, attendance, employee cost, performance, training and attrition.
Strengthen the people-management system continuously, not once.
From the GullyHR blog: one on HR in professional services, and one on each of the topics this page points to.
Why associates and managers leave consulting, accounting, legal and advisory firms, and how to ask about progression, workload and partners at exit.
6 min readRead article
Hiring decisions made one request at a time, in the month the pain is worst. What a workforce plan contains and why a twelve-month view changes what you hire.
7 min readRead article
A review can only judge what was agreed beforehand. How to set expectations that are specific, written and revisited, so the review stops being a surprise.
5 min readRead article
Payroll says one joining date, the personal file says another and the manager remembers a third. How to establish a single trustworthy employee record and keep it that way.
7 min readRead articleMore on the GullyHR blog.
Keep a rated panel, pay on time, give clear briefs and favour those who deliver. Reliability follows respect and good terms.
It depends on job size and language mix, so use your own records of when quality and deadlines slip to set a limit.
Signed undertakings, limited sharing, secure storage and a clear end-of-engagement process. Confirm any legal requirements with a qualified professional.
Often because freelancers earn more and in-house roles offer little growth. A reviewer or lead path and fair pay help.
Use a shared calendar, record every booking and name a backup coordinator. A single person's phone should not be the system.
We would look at how many live jobs each project manager holds on an ordinary day, which freelancers have missed or delayed work lately, and who reviews each job type. A rated linguist panel or a standard review step could be the first piece of work. After the conversation, scope and fees are written down for your approval.
All 15 business types in professional services · Find another business type
See all HR topics for professional services, or another industry.
Identify payroll leaks, record gaps and hiring bottlenecks in a free first conversation, and leave knowing what to fix first.
Know what you need? Share your requirements in four short steps.
Want the full picture? See the paid HR Diagnostic.
Prefer a quick message? Chat on WhatsApp
