FAQ by Clients

• We find the perfect candidate for your individual requirements with previous experience from your industry.
• Thanks to a deep understanding of the IT landscape, we don’t just scratch the surface, but understand in detail which skills a perfect candidate needs to have.
• We guarantee to present a pre-qualified expert profile 48 hours after your inquiry.
• Simplifying complicated processes are our top priority: We provide digitized and legally compliant contracts as well as straightforward billing.
• Throughout the entire process, we provide personal assistance with any questions that might come up.

ElevateX specializes in the placement of IT professionals across a variety of industries.

We fill positions such as:

• Mobile App Developer
• Web Developer
• Software developers
• Project Manager
• Data Scientist
• Product Owner
• Scrum Master
• UI/UX Designer

This is non-exhaustive exemplary list – our IT freelance community includes all those experts who are necessary for the successful implementation of first-class IT projects. On our landing page, you can find more roles about our freelancers. We also provide personal consulting for individual needs.

We treat each customer inquiry individually and find the best specialist for your requirements. By conducting a personal interview, performing a coding and skill challenge, and checking references from our internal IT experts, we ensure the pre-qualification of all candidates before we present them to you.

With the help of ElevateX, you can find the right expert in four steps:

1. A free inquiry through our website is all you need to get in touch with us.
2. In a subsequent phone call, we personally clarify all the important details regarding your requirements and wishes.
3. Within 48 hours you’ll receive pre-qualified profiles of IT experts and the opportunity to speak to them directly.

ElevateX assists your entire project – onboarding, implementation, and offboarding – on both the client and freelancer sides. Above all, this contributes to a goal-oriented and smooth collaboration. It also gives you the opportunity to keep as much of the expert know-how in-house as possible.

You can find more information on the whole process in our buyer’s guide.

We support you in IT projects. Our network includes freelancers from a wide variety of fields, such as app and web development, cybersecurity, or experts in blockchain solutions. To show what we ourselves and our freelancers are capable of, we prepare case studies on individual projects together with our customers.  

• Success Story DKB Code Factory GmbH 
• Success story TENADO 
• Success story lead on    

We would be happy to discuss your project with you. Find a custom-fit solution for your project together with us. Send us a message or make an appointment without obligation. Let us tackle your next innovative project together! 

You can also use our inquiry form, which guides you through the whole inquiry process.

The key advantages of an intermediary are manifold:

• Saving time and effort during the hiring process.
• Assuring qualifications of hired specialists.
• Assistance during on- and offboarding, as well as during the entire project.

All the variants mentioned in the previous answer regarding an independent freelancer search have one thing in common: They require a lot of work by you.

You not only have to invest a lot of time in the active search, but also in the sometimes-multi-stage selection interviews with the candidates, in their professional evaluation, in the matching of availabilities, in contract negotiation and drafting, and subsequently in billing and accounting tasks.

Alternatively, you can work with a freelancer intermediary such as ElevateX, who can relieve you of this time-consuming work and offer you  highly qualified candidates based on experience,a strong network, and high quality standards. This way, you get the freelance support you need in a legally secure, efficient, and timely manner and can continue to focus on your core business.

You can recognize a good freelance provider by several factors:

• First and foremost, good communication, speed, and accuracy of fit.
• Secondly, good service providers respond promptly to your request and then present pre-qualified profiles of available candidates.
• Lastly, you can recognize a good service provider by whether a fair contract is being offered.

At ElevateX, we place a special emphasis on a straightforward mediation, a smooth transition, and finding a suitable expert for your project within the shortest possible time.

Ideally, the suitable freelancer starts the new project within one week! The process duration – the so-called time-to-hire – is a decisive advantage of using freelancers.

In the following we have outlined our process – from the inquiry to the assignment:

1. Your customer inquiry
2. Preliminary meeting to detail your requirements (within 4h)
3. We present 1-3 pre-qualified specialist profiles (within 48h)
4. Getting-to-know conversation (video or telephone) between you and the candidates of your choice
5. Decision for candidates and assignment (within 48h)

Keep in mind that due to the accessibility, plannability, and decisiveness of all parties involved certain variance may occur.

Your inquiry at ElevateX is always free of charge.
The same applies to the initial meeting to clarify your requirements.

Costs are only incurred when a freelancer starts working and performs services for you. The work is billed on a time basis.
The hourly rate is “all-inclusive”.

The hourly rate of a freelance expert varies greatly depending on various factors:

• Expertise and experience
• On-site or remote assignment?
• Exact technical task and requirement
• Timeliness and technology of the project

Our approach is to determine a realistic price range for you prior to the search. Within this range we will find the most suitable candidate(s) for you! In our pricing guide, we provide a breakdown of the price.

All contractual and financial aspects are handled by ElevateX.
ElevateX takes care of all billing and contractual issues with the freelancer for you.

If we find the right candidate for you, you sign a contract with ElevateX for the services to be provided. At the end of the month, you will receive an invoice from us – based on the actual hours worked by the expert. These are recorded via performance records, which are submitted to you for approval.

Every situation calls for its own solution, but, generally, we can distinguish between four most important options:

1. Freelancer
   Freelancers are experienced and highly qualified specialists who use their expertise to advance projects in companies. They work independently and can be deployed quickly and flexibly due to their short time-to-hire.
2. Outsourcing
   In outsourcing, companies use resources from the outside. Either certain responsibilities or even entire departments can be handed over to external service providers. Outsourcing allows the company to focus on its core business.
3. Staff leasing
   Companies hire a staffing company that leases a permanent employee for up to 18 months to the client. This form of work is especially suitable for short-term support because temporary workers can be hired through a rapid selection process.
4. Permanent employees
   Permanent employees have a regulated relationship with their employer. They are the cornerstone of any successful company. In this context, permanent employees usually perform permanent activities over a longer period of time.

You can find more in-depth information on the topic of IT support in our blog post!

Despite various options available, our experience has shown that the benefits of hiring IT freelancers are often underestimated. Consequently, we have evaluated a study by Trinity College, which confirms that freelancers significantly contribute to the sales and employment growth of the hiring company.

The hiring of IT freelancers is a very good choice in many situations – for example, in the event of order peaks, to build up and balance in-house expertise, or to scale and support the internal IT team.

Freelancers are very flexible and can be deployed on short notice – for example, if there is a need for more staff for short- to medium-term projects or if replacements are needed for temporarily absent employees.

In addition, freelancers are also used specifically to support companies with their technical expertise and experience, which is not available internally in the required depth. The freelancers’ expertise helps to avoid mistakes and to advance projects.

With increasing digitization, the hiring of IT freelancers has become indispensable for any company.

Staff augmentation is the temporary deployment of external personnel. In contrast to classic project outsourcing, control and responsibility remain within the company itself. Factors such as project duration, skill level, and data protection play a role in the use of external personnel. You can read more on the topic in one of our stories.

Freelancers promote (a) revenue and employee growth. Freelancers help (b) companies in their dynamic and innovative development. A combination of these two statements would have made us look askance in the 20th century. Why has the view of freelancers changed? 

The study by Andrew Burke and Marc Cowling attests freelancers have a strong positive influence on company development and thus takes a new perspective.  

We explain how strong and where exactly freelancers can influence companies based on the study by Burke and Cowling. You can find our explanation, supported by suitable examples from IT, here in our blog. 

In addition to working with a specialized IT freelance intermediary or agency (see follow-up question), there are various options to find your ideal freelance candidate independently. Among other things, you can

• use your personal network
• actively search yourself via social media
• create job advertisements via job portals
• join social media groups and
• post project offers
• get your purchasing/HR department on board and pass-on your request to them
• actively search for freelancers and post projects via online platforms

You can find more information about the whole process or the addition with freelancers in our buyer’s guide or our fact sheet on hybrid teams.

Bogus or false self-employment is a very hot topic between companies and freelancers. Therefore, we pay special attention to this issue at ElevateX.

False self-employment is when someone registers as self-employed or freelancer but de facto works like a permanent employee for a company. This can have legal and financial consequences for a company.

At ElevateX we focus our attention on supporting companies in avoiding bogus self-employment. To do this, we review this issue with our internal processes and rely on industry-experienced lawyers to draft our contracts to ensure the successful implementation of freelance-client relationships. Read more about this in our blog post.

A lot more (free) content on the topic of freelancing you can find in our resource section.

ElevateX assists you with the entire on- and offboarding on both the client and freelancer sides. This guarantees a smooth collaboration and allows you to keep as much know-how in-house as possible.

Proper onboarding and offboarding is the be-all and end-all of a good working relationship with any freelancer.

Onboarding plays a crucial role in how goal-oriented and quickly a freelancer can add value and should therefore not be neglected. Invest some time to give a good insight into the project and the current challenges. Define goals and milestones together with the expert from the beginning.

Offboarding a freelancer involves the professional, organized exit from the project. The transfer of knowledge is particularly important here, as this is a crucial way the company can benefit from the collaboration. In addition, both sides should regularly obtain feedback to be able to react more quickly to new challenges in the future. Optimally, the initial project will develop into a long-term collaboration between the two parties.

In our detailed blog post, you can find more useful tips for a successful on/offboarding.

We’ve put together 5 tips for hiring freelancers remotely:

Set the parameters
Set expectations
Interview correctly
Fair payment
Find experts

For our full post on this topic, check out our blog post.

A frequently asked question, especially since the topic of freelancing is fraught with many prejudices. In our free infoguide, we give you all the information you need to work successfully with freelancers.