Employer’s Decision Making in Hiring Freelancers Online

The graduation thesis shows the study of the factors influencing the employer’s decision-making in hiring freelancers online. For this purpose the website «FL.ru» was chosen for the investigation focused on the process of hiring the contractors in different professional fields. The theoretical part concentrates on freelance origin as a new form of employment and tells how this phenomenon is spread in the United States and Russia. Besides, the first chapter defines the specifics of online labor market and employer’s decision-making in terms of influencing factors. The research was based on semi-structured, in-depth interviews with 14 employers to indentify the influencing factors, difficulties and risks/losses arising during the search and selection. The methodological approach used is a thematic coding method consisted of three phases: unitizing, categorizing, and classifying. In the research, the author analyzed the stages of employers’ search process that is relevant for the website «FL.ru». Revealed factors were divided into two groups: primary and secondary. Rate, portfolio and reviews are important at the prescreening stage. A manner of communication, competence, literacy and interest are the most significant factors at the stage of secondary selection. There were also identified the difficulties that employers are facing during the process of search and selection. These difficulties create certain risks/losses from which employers can potentially suffer. As a result of the research, a set of measures has been developed which assist employers in the effective selection process and help them to overcome difficulties thanks to the improvement of the search and recruitment engine on the website «FL.ru».