Work with freelancers. From the experience of cooperation with domestic remotes, part 1. Problems
Freelancers - one of the most affordable and frequent ways to close the front of work, which in the company are performed irregularly. Or, if their people are hopelessly busy on other projects, and there is no sense or time to hire new ones. I work with freelancers for both reasons. Although lately, deadlines and nerves have convinced us that it is better to find the time and meaning for finding permanent employees. And subcontractors to use only for very very unusual work.
The desire not to work with freelancers finally strengthened on the last project. I just recently wrote about the settlement of one of the situations with remote workers . The story is not over. There were cases when a person was not clinically able to cope with the task and the work was transferred to another outsourcer, who succeeded. But in the end, six people worked on the two tasks - this is a record. And all this despite the fact that the payment, and the timing, and clarity of the problem statement are at least adequate.
Although saving money on subcontracting is not worth it, over the past year and a half I have been convinced that money does not affect a particular role. Pay a little, normally or a lot - the result is often the same. At best, just frustrated. Although with all this I still try to get several points in the person to coincide:
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At once I will make a reservation that we usually deal with projects that are not typical for web studios - web applications, web 2.0 services, large resources. Maybe not all freelancers are willing to do something other than the simplest of jobs? Large projects and in general in the market are smaller in relation to routine ones. And an even smaller percentage of them use outsourcing. So there are few experienced professionals in free circulation. And even fewer among them are those who do not need to line up for a couple of months.
For a while I myself was engaged in freelancing. Therefore, in part, I can understand the reasons for this situation - not always the excuses about the “suddenly disconnected Internet” - are just excuses. It came to ridiculous situations in which I myself would not have believed on the site of the employer. For example, accidentally kicked the system unit with a foot and the computer tightly shut down. Digging inside did not help, and the results of the work were stored on the SATA-hard drive, which at that time was not particularly connected. And all this the night before the delivery of works. In general, I did not even tell the customer about the reasons.
But with all these situations, I tried to really count my strength. If, when discussing the conditions, it is clear that it is impossible to have time for the required deadline, I warned in advance about this and said the real date. Considering all parallel plans (most of them are known in advance). And over time, it became accurate, or even fall in advance on the agreed date. Sometimes it was necessary to strain for the sake of it, to sleep less, but the deadlines were rarely broken - I myself subscribed to them. But many remote workers who had to work with were not ready to make sacrifices: “Are you late for a month? Well then, life is like that. ”And calmly goes to drink beer. Not very similar to professional behavior.
But when working with Western outsourcers there were no such problems. In contrast to the Russian www.free-lance.ru , for a long time, 15 people tried it out and only managed to work more or less successfully with a couple of them, the American www.elance.com did not leave any negatives. I didn’t work with the Hindus, from whom a huge part of the proposals come, (although I don’t claim that this is necessarily bad). But with the Americans everything went smoothly. Perhaps, due to the good formalization of the process, Elance needs to sign a standard contract with the freelancer, make an advance payment on the balance, go through all the steps of the process on the site. Perhaps due to a more responsible Western mentality (although I haven’t seen any research on this subject and cannot argue). But I received results timely and qualitative. By the way, the cost of work was not much higher than domestic counterparts.
As well as the second part of the material with options solutions .
Original: Working with freelancers. From the experience of cooperation with domestic remotes, part 1. Problems
The desire not to work with freelancers finally strengthened on the last project. I just recently wrote about the settlement of one of the situations with remote workers . The story is not over. There were cases when a person was not clinically able to cope with the task and the work was transferred to another outsourcer, who succeeded. But in the end, six people worked on the two tasks - this is a record. And all this despite the fact that the payment, and the timing, and clarity of the problem statement are at least adequate.
Although saving money on subcontracting is not worth it, over the past year and a half I have been convinced that money does not affect a particular role. Pay a little, normally or a lot - the result is often the same. At best, just frustrated. Although with all this I still try to get several points in the person to coincide:
')
- Free time I try not to work with those who have a permanent job. Although at the same time, many (if not most) are so greedy that they take several projects at once and, as a result, everyone is dissatisfied.
- Overall work experience . It is important that a person understands the process of work, knows its details, has at least some responsibility (with it it is usually more difficult than anything else). Otherwise there is a stupor on the most elementary things.
- Experience in solving such problems . I want to be sure that a person adequately perceives the volume and complexity of work. Very often, outsourcers instantly rush into battle, without delving into the task. To understand in a day that there is a month more work there.
- Professional interest in the project . For simple and routine tasks this moment is unimportant. But if the work is quite complex and large-scale, mutual enthusiasm will help a lot. A professional always wants to participate in interesting projects. Yes, and the portfolio they are well add weight.
- Adequate money . It is rather an entrance ticket. Specialists will not work for frivolous amounts. Although a good payment will not give any guarantees. Well, except that if it is orders of magnitude more than adequate money.
At once I will make a reservation that we usually deal with projects that are not typical for web studios - web applications, web 2.0 services, large resources. Maybe not all freelancers are willing to do something other than the simplest of jobs? Large projects and in general in the market are smaller in relation to routine ones. And an even smaller percentage of them use outsourcing. So there are few experienced professionals in free circulation. And even fewer among them are those who do not need to line up for a couple of months.
For a while I myself was engaged in freelancing. Therefore, in part, I can understand the reasons for this situation - not always the excuses about the “suddenly disconnected Internet” - are just excuses. It came to ridiculous situations in which I myself would not have believed on the site of the employer. For example, accidentally kicked the system unit with a foot and the computer tightly shut down. Digging inside did not help, and the results of the work were stored on the SATA-hard drive, which at that time was not particularly connected. And all this the night before the delivery of works. In general, I did not even tell the customer about the reasons.
But with all these situations, I tried to really count my strength. If, when discussing the conditions, it is clear that it is impossible to have time for the required deadline, I warned in advance about this and said the real date. Considering all parallel plans (most of them are known in advance). And over time, it became accurate, or even fall in advance on the agreed date. Sometimes it was necessary to strain for the sake of it, to sleep less, but the deadlines were rarely broken - I myself subscribed to them. But many remote workers who had to work with were not ready to make sacrifices: “Are you late for a month? Well then, life is like that. ”And calmly goes to drink beer. Not very similar to professional behavior.
But when working with Western outsourcers there were no such problems. In contrast to the Russian www.free-lance.ru , for a long time, 15 people tried it out and only managed to work more or less successfully with a couple of them, the American www.elance.com did not leave any negatives. I didn’t work with the Hindus, from whom a huge part of the proposals come, (although I don’t claim that this is necessarily bad). But with the Americans everything went smoothly. Perhaps, due to the good formalization of the process, Elance needs to sign a standard contract with the freelancer, make an advance payment on the balance, go through all the steps of the process on the site. Perhaps due to a more responsible Western mentality (although I haven’t seen any research on this subject and cannot argue). But I received results timely and qualitative. By the way, the cost of work was not much higher than domestic counterparts.
As well as the second part of the material with options solutions .
Original: Working with freelancers. From the experience of cooperation with domestic remotes, part 1. Problems
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/14858/
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