We are happy to announce our new interview series with Ruul businesses. Our first guest will be Nikolay Kashcheev from Picodi. He will be sharing his view on working with freelancers from a corporate perspective.
Please introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about your company.
My name is Nikolay Kashcheev, and I have a long story at Picodi. I started in 2013 with launching and managing the Russian version of our discount code website Picodi.com. I currently manage the team of researchers that analyze the prices of goods and services as well as consumers’ preferences. At Picodi, we help people save their money while shopping online by delivering coupon codes and deals. Being based in Kraków, Poland, we operate in 44 countries, including the US, Germany, Turkey, and Brazil.
What made you decide to start working with independent professionals, and what are the best parts of working with freelancers? Why do you choose to work with freelancers?
We realized the need for freelancers when we started to expand to more and more markets. Our job is concentrated around the written content, and we needed to have many texts done quickly and with good quality. As clients, we appreciate much that the freelancers can fully concentrate on their tasks and deliver completed tasks rapidly. Meanwhile, our employees can focus on managing our websites.How do you find freelancers?We mostly use freelancer.com and freelance.ru.
As remote working becomes more common among companies, how do you think it will impact the future of work?
We believe work at the office will not go away. Humans are social beings; they need to interact with each other face-to-face. Of course, remote work is a perfect solution during the pandemic, but in a long-term perspective, remote work might be stressful for both managers and employees if the work-life balance is not well defined by both parties.
How do you communicate, collaborate & socially engage with freelancers and your remote employees? Could you name some tools/platforms?
When working with freelancers, we traditionally use emails and online communicators like Skype, Google Hangouts, or WhatsApp.
Do you have any suggestions for companies that are considering working with freelancers? Can you shortly elaborate on what companies should do or avoid when they start outsourcing work to freelancers?
We believe that the key to a successful collaboration with freelancers is clear instructions and guidelines. The client has to know what result he or she expects.
Do you have any suggestions for freelancers who are working with corporate companies and teams?
The freelancer needs to understand what he or she is expected to do. If the instructions are not clear enough, do not hesitate to ask the client to provide the assessment criteria.
