Proceedings of 8th European Assembly on telework (Telework2001)

161Figure 1:Lead operators and freelancer poolsThe company feels it has to be attractive for potential candidates to be competitive with otherrecruiters. Rauser explicitly aims to be ‘the best <strong>of</strong> clients’ by ensuring that payment is on time (thecompany also uses advance payments as a mark <strong>of</strong> confidence) and <strong>of</strong>fering generous services tolong-time co-operation partners. This can be seen as an attempt to increase the loyalty <strong>of</strong> highlyvalued freelance staff to the company, without undermining the flexibility <strong>of</strong> the operation.Rauser’s permanent staff constantly screen the Internet for potential candidates for vacancies.Word <strong>of</strong> mouth is still important, but is supplemented by the possibility <strong>of</strong> checking candidates’skills (e.g. through their websites on which work samples are available, or on their previouscustomers’ websites). Specialist forums and newsgroups, in which freelancers present their talentsand chat about industry developments are, <strong>of</strong> special importance. Freelancer exchanges are usedfor placing project <strong>of</strong>fers. However, this tended to be successful only for locating candidates forless specialised, more routine, tasks such as standard graphics programming.Rauser Advertainment represents what may be called the frontier <strong>of</strong> developments towardseLancing. Nevertheless the case shows that even companies as innovation-friendly as Rauser haveto cope with problems <strong>of</strong> control, trust, and how to build bonds with valued workers.The main results <strong>of</strong> our total case study research 1 can be summarised as follows:(a) The Internet is indeed used extensively by workers as tools to get in touch with potentialemployers/clients and retrieve background information which helps with self-promotion on themarket; the same applies to recruiters who <strong>of</strong>ten use the Internet as the main source <strong>of</strong> informationabout job candidates.1 It consisted <strong>of</strong> altogether 16 in-depth interviews with employees and freelancers working in this fi eld, managing directorsresponsible for HR management in multimedia companies, and top decision-makers in Internet-based job and project exchanges.