For Qframe, a fair compensation in relation to the added value delivered by someone is very important in order to be able to build a sustainable cooperation, whether employees or freelancers. The analysis of what a fair daily rate is for our freelancers was an eye opener for us. hukaroi has given us useful insights that we can start working with immediately.

~ Katleen Ooms, Chief Happiness Officer

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About Qframe

Qframe aims to deliver as much added value as possible to their customers by automating their business processes with punishing custom software and doing so with respect for customers, employees and the environment.

Qframe realizes this by working with fixed, well-oiled teams. Their teams are composed of different specialists such as developers, technical architect, tester, scrum master, functional analyst .... who are perfectly attuned to each other.

This is how you get a Team as a Service (#TaaS). Qframe's experience shows that this is the most efficient form of developing software.

Discover more: www.qframe.be

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Challenge

Like many IT companies, Qframe also relies on freelancers (self-employed workers) for certain projects. Qframe's projects are long-term projects, so freelancers are also called upon for longer periods of time.

Although Qframe makes a clear distinction in how to work with employees and freelancers, in light of automatic wage indexing, freelancers raised the question of whether and to what extent their contractor fees could be increased.

Qframe therefore wanted to explore what constitutes a fair daily fee and to what extent Qframe should respond to an increase in daily fees to be fair and remain competitive to attract and retain IT talent.

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Solution

Although companies could consider conducting a benchmarking exercise for contractor fees, this solution is not feasible in practice.

Why not?

Well, two reasons:

• There is simply too little data available to conduct a benchmarking exercise.
• Even if there were enough data, the data is not reliable enough. The reason is that freelance services is a fairly new market that has yet to set, and contractor fees are the result of "positonal bargaining.

Suppose you rely on current market forces, you bring contractor fees into the business that are not based on objective criteria.

Freelancers rent out their time to clients. In this sense, they are similar to employees.

One has a good idea of what an employee may/can cost. There is plenty of reliable benchmark data available for employees. And wage setting is much more based on objective criteria, leaving much less room for positional bargaining.

So the solution is a model based on which an employee's salary can be compared to a freelancer's per diem.

Traditional players limit this to the (gross) labor cost. At best, they still include direct and indirect employment costs. But that's where it stops.

Instead, we assume what an employee / freelancer takes home in net income, both in the short and long term.

For example, we have calculated what a self-employed person must realize in terms of turnover to build up an equal pension, in terms of both statutory and supplementary pensions.

The result?

A solid framework based on objective parameters on the basis of which Qframe can enter into a transparent dialogue with their freelancers regarding daily compensation.

The framework we custom developed for Qframe allows Qframe itself, as well as the freelancer, to negotiate based on principles rather than positions.

In this way, we hukaroi help Qframe and the freelancers come to a solution and insights where everyone feels like they are realizing a win rather than a compromise where everyone loses a little.