Remote Work: 5 expert tips on building a lean organization

With remote work and freelancing dominating news headlines in 2021, we spoke to a few experts and influencers, including Kolabtree’s own freelance scientists, to understand how companies can go about assembling a hybrid, flexible workforce remotely, in order to minimize costs and maximize output. 

The gig economy used to refer to a talent pool of skilled contractors providing value to a host of different companies. A key component of that in the past, however, is the fact that companies used to access these gig workers through middle men agencies. 

With the advent of remote work , specialists and subject matter experts are foraying into the gig economy, which is now burgeoning to include the ‘expert economy’, an ecosystem that includes scholars, academics, engineers and medical writers. Working across myriad domains such as biotech, pharma and med-tech, these experts are gravitating towards offering their expertise on-demand, taking on a multitude of projects on a freelance basis.

Whilst smaller companies have always tapped into the gig economy to keep costs low and get work done effectively, larger companies have operated more traditionally. This involves hiring in-house experts such as data analysts, medical writers and statisticians. With the whole remote work ecosystem seeing the best of these experts preferring to operate on a freelance basis, it presents a massive opportunity for these companies to function in a more efficient manner, cutting costs and maintaining a lean structure.

We spoke to a few experts and influencers, including Kolabtree’s own freelance scientists, to understand how companies can go about assembling a hybrid, flexible workforce in order to minimize costs and maximize output. 

Jacob Glanville, CEO of Centivax.

Centivax, a SARS-COV2 therapeutic program. follows a lean business model to minimise redundancy and maximise efficiency, resulting in sustained profits without external investment.

“There are remote work groups (Contract Research Organizations or CRO’s) you can reach out to, and big pharma companies have realised this and started downsizing. They keep themselves strategically lean. They have a key set of experts that are difficult to outsource because that’s central to their core mission, but, otherwise, they reach out to either consultants or to contract groups when they can. 

Of course you want to establish good relationships with CROs or consultants. However, you may want them, for a period of, say, four months, and then you don’t need them again. But if you like them, you call them up again six months from now, and it’s that periodic access and the use of an existing expert outside without having to build everything internal that allows companies like mine to remain relatively lean. “

Read more here. You can also watch the full interview here.

Ahmed Elewa, Kolabtree’s scientific freelancer, and Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Officer at Colorna.

As the Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Officer at Colorna, Ahmed was responsible for the development of rapid over-the-counter testing for SARS-CoV-2. He also takes up a diverse range of projects as a freelance scientist on Kolabtree, executing scientific analyses, writing and editing.

“Here’s the thing, it’s difficult for most faculty to find qualified postdocs and when they do, they’re damn expensive. As a new assistant professor, you’ll pay at least $100,000 a year to hire a postdoc and cover their salary and benefits. New and small labs can get their projects moving without having to commit to hiring a full-time postdoc right away. Most grants would allow a Principal Investigator to hire a scientific freelancer, either through petty cash or by signing a contract with them as a ‘contractor’, depending on the scale of the project.

There’s a lot of intellectual remote work capital that Kolabtree and others can tap into. Imagine if you can hire a scientific freelancer to do something with the same ease that you can order test tubes! In the Data Analysis world, agencies will train you to become a data analyst and then make sure you get your first job. 

There should be similar training for Self Employed scientists and researchers. Except that the agency that trains you adds you to their freelancing network. In that case, maybe the agency would take a fixed subscription from the freelancer instead of a percentage of their revenue.”

Read more here.

Hugo Lisboa, freelance scientific expert.

Dr. Hugo Lisboa holds a PhD in Material science and engineering. As a freelancer on Kolabtree, he has taken on a wide variety of projects such as increasing the shelf life of food ingredients and helping identify a way to perfect a recipe for vegan eggs.

“Academia, Business and Freelancing are three massive different worlds. Having worked in all three, I have started noticing subtle differences and patterns. Business and project owners, for instance, are not too fixated on writing articles around their ideas or going too deep into why a particular thing works better than the other. They are mainly concerned with the final product, which I totally agree with, having worked in a similar environment early on in my career.

Here’s where I think freelance scientific experts might be able to play an integral part. The ‘academic’ in me tries to dig deep to also optimize it and come up with the best solution within every aspect of the product, focussing on a holistic approach rather than just the final product. I think these two worlds can combine really well through academic freelancers and consultants, optimizing the entire product as well as accelerating the development of the final version.

Smaller businesses, especially, must optimize the remote work opportunity. They cannot afford a top of the line Research and Development department. They have really good ideas, but who’s going to develop them? A platform like Kolabtree can easily provide expert freelancers to work on their ideas in a cost-effective way and solve a huge problem here.”

Read more here.

Arianna Ferrini, freelance medical writer

A freelance medical writer on Kolabtree, Arianna has a PhD in Regenerative Medicine and Tissue Engineering from Imperial College London, and has expertise in biology, bioengineering, stem cell research and gene therapy amongst other domains. 

“At the moment, I feel there are enough opportunities in remote work and freelancing. The pandemic has taught us that scientists and science communication is important, and I can see in the fact that I have clients from all over the world.

 I can see that in particular in the fields I work in, such as stem cell research, where companies are more willing to go online and try to find an expert who offers on-demand services. My perception is that it’s becoming apparent that freelancers have niche skills that are more cost-effective to outsource rather than build in-house, such as medical writing. 

I think the presence of companies like Kolabtree provides that financial incentive to both clients and freelancers, helping businesses find cost-effective solutions whilst enabling freelancers to make a secondary income. Confidentiality is probably the biggest concern, which freelance platforms generally put in a great deal of effort to smoothen out through NDAs and custom agreements. “

Read more here.

Catarina Carrao, freelance scientific writer

A freelance scientific writer, Catarina Carrão holds a PHD in Biochemistry and offers expert freelance writing services across several niche domains such as Cardiology, Neurology and Molecular Biology. She has several publications in prominent journals, performed in and won science slams and been awarded prestigious research grants.

“In my opinion, the word freelancer carries a bias, because it is usually seen as cheap labour (or connected to a bohemian life); and, that usually comes hand-in-hand with “Unqualified” and “Can I trust this?” from the client/company point of view.

Contrary to that view,  freelancers who do remote work are highly skilled independent professionals with entrepreneurial minds, offering specialized intellectual or knowledge-based services; and paying taxes/social security in the form of a self-employment business in the country where they live. Lawyers and medical doctors, for example, do exactly the same thing, but are not seen in derogatory terms. 

I believe it comes down to each one of us to change this narrative and promote our services with the expertise that we offer, choosing terms that support a more trustworthy image. We should be able to choose the words that better define us.

I do think companies will be more flexible towards days-in/days-out for those workers that find home-working the best. But hierarchy runs deep in many companies, and daily interactions are appreciated by many workers that can’t really focus in a home environment. I think there will be a place for all, as long as the work output is productive.”

Read more here.

Check out Kolabtree’s extensive network of freelance experts here.