Hire employees or work with freelancers?

In 2010, Jasmine Gervais, Émile Arragon and Jean-Philippe Desjardins, three CYBF young entrepreneurs, founded Orangerine, an agency operating in the digital world of web integrated production and new distribution platforms. Orangerine designs and produces multiplatform advertising campaigns that involve video production, web development, interactive media and digital display. The Montreal-based business has worked with well-known clients such as the National Bank of Canada, Astral Radio, Québécor and Sobey’s.

To meet the growing demand for its services, Orangerine’s partners must now make the difficult decision about whether to hire new employees or work with freelancers. Here is what they had to say about it:

“While we are facing solid growth, significant resources are needed to be able to hire on a new full-time employee. The alternative is to work with independent freelancers. Hiring an employee allows us to guarantee the same quality of work over time and boost efficiency and creativity within our team. Working with freelancers is costly and relationships are temporary, but it encourages us to provide increasingly innovative solutions to customers. In the long run, we seriously consider hiring permanent staff over freelancers.”