welcome to another edition of expert talks by kalkine tv i'm sage and today's guest is lilia
stoyanov ceo and investor at transformer phi transformer 5 for some background hires managers
and plays remote teams employees and freelancers it's basically an end-to-end workforce management
system sounds like they take all the hard work out of operating a fintech i'm looking forward
to hearing from today's digital expert to share more of their insights with us being a professor
at ziggurat business school and an expert evaluator horizon 2000 at the european commission
we're bound to gain from zelia's valuable insights so excited to bring you live today uh sorry miss
lilia stoyanov ceo and investor at transformer phi welcome to the show
lilia many thanks for having me and greetings from europe where in europe are you ringing in from
i'm currently in sophia because as you know transformify has an amazing program helping
refugees and migrants and sophie is very close to ukraine as well
right well so good of you to join us today let's start our discussion with talking in detail
about the enterprise freelance management system please and how it works in the present scenario
well in the recent years we have seen the rise of the economy and the prognosis is that
soon probably 70 percent of the population will be working as self-employed or freelancers
inevitably you need way to manage all these people imagine your business best in australia
and you buy services from freelancers across the globe let's say 500 freelancers that's the
average team how do you manage them all how do you navigate the billing and sell billing processes
how do you pay them all do you believe that this can be done manually well the reality is it's
impossible to be done manually unless of course you have a team that's doing this all the time and
it's super inefficient that's why the freelancer management systems are also on the rise recently
you see companies like creammod.com papaya global and like all of them they provide payroll on
demand they provide a way to manage independent contractors and so that's transformified
it's very simple there is demand and more and more companies are currently joining the market
to address that demand it's amazing to hear that you're able to continue your work and
help other companies amid the ukraine crisis as well so transformify is running a program called
rebuilding lives couldn't be more appropriate than now would you please talk about how this
program leverages remote work arrangements for the people affected by war in ukraine
absolutely the program was actually developed back in 2016 because there was another refugee
crisis back then it was the refugee crisis with all those people leaving syria and after that
it was the crisis in afghanistan now we see the situation in ukraine what happens with all those
people is that they need to leave their homes they need to leave everything behind and for
a period of time they have no source of income imagine if you need to leave your home tomorrow
just with your belongings nothing else you have very limited cash and you need to
move to another country you have nothing waiting for you that for a period of time of course
these people receive certain welfare payments they receive help from the government of the country
that is offering them a refuge and sound but it's temporary and the best for them
is to have their own sources of income and that's what rebuild lives is therefore
it is connecting them with businesses across the globe willing to provide jobs for them and
it's not just remote jobs it's also a connection with local employers that are ready to provide
temporary jobs for those people in our case these are businesses in the politics that are willing
to have them as careers real estate agents and of course as developers marketers call center agents
it depends really on their skills but the unique part of it is that they are first registered to
self-employed back in ukraine so they have the legal right to provide their services
in a new country and after that they receive secure payments through transformify making it
a business-to-business relationship it is a peace of mind for everyone involved and definitely it
helps both the refugees and the businesses willing to provide opportunities for them
thank you so much for sharing this amazing work that you're doing i think at present there's 1.8
million refugees who have left ukraine and your mission is to help these people to assimilate into
the countries surrounding ukraine to help them find work and to be paid fairly is that correct
described and it is also valid for those who are still in ukraine but they are currently unemployed
many businesses and i'm speaking of international businesses have decided to discontinue their
projects or operations in ukraine get to the world due to the uncertainty but all these people they
they're still there they need to pay their rent they need to buy food they need to have a future
and it's another opportunity if it is a business that's looking to utilize the town market there
and also to help rebuild ukraine after the war it's another opportunity we need to face that
it's not just what's happening now and the people that are leaving the country it's also those who
are still there and those who go back the moment the war is over that's right this is going to be
a big job rebuilding but i'm sure it's going to be possible if everyone works together hopefully
and with your help you are finding a way or an alternative to fiat currency
transformify allows employers to pay freelancers in over 20 cryptocurrencies so can you talk a bit
about the evolving market of exchanging crypto for goods and services in your perspective
i would say that nowadays given the volatility of the financial markets and the volatility of
local currencies lots of people consider crypto as an alternative they consider crypto not just
as a payment method they consider crypto as an investment and we see that i'm getting more and
more educated about how cryptocurrencies work how could they get biting crypt or how to stop crypto
how to exchange crypto back into fat money it's a trend that will continue i don't believe that
it's only due to the volatility of course that's the trigger but it will continue first of all
to provide an alternative to people and secondly because people need a new way to invest their
money thank you and the covert 19 pandemic has established that work from home can be an option
so do you think the hybrid work culture is a successful idea and will continue in the long run
absolutely we already see that even traditional businesses
not only consider hybrid work they see the benefits of it they see the benefits of renting
small offices they see the benefits of allowing their teams to work remotely and to commute less
in our case transformify was founded as a no remote company long before the pandemic
we never had physical offices we work from working spaces we work from cafes we work
from any country many of us work in travel we are digital nomads and if in the past this was
a lifestyle now it's a necessity people demand it people expect to have that flexibility
and businesses are adjusting they have no other option but to adjust to that new reality
thank you so much lastly managing remote employees can be challenging for some people and especially
in regards to boosting their morale and keeping them focused on their work how
could hr managers and employers or sorry employees keep their remote employees enthusiastic at work
managing remote team might be a challenge if you have never managed people who all the time
need to be connected with each other this is a challenge even in traditional setup you see
all these people with their headsets home you see people in cubicles they don't communicate
with each other and definitely it has a negative impact on that productivity it has a negative
impact on that creativity and that's something at first you face if you're managing remote team
your biggest challenge is to establish those communication channels
and making sure that people know how to express their opinion how to step in how to
articulate their reviews in order for those ideas to be addressed but once you have ice comes
even easier than managing a traditional team because it's more productive you have people
who feel valued you have people who constantly communicate with each other they have
clear policies how to store documentation they have clear policies how to find information
they know who is the right person to ask for help if they need help
and again i would say it's a challenge just at the beginning once you get used to that it becomes
your management style it becomes your reality thank you so much i mean i'm finding this a
difficult topic to even talk about just connecting with this massive issue at the moment thank you
so much for articulating yourself so clearly and sharing the important work that you do really do
appreciate it lilia it was all my pleasure best of luck with your mission going forward many things
if you've just joined us we had a very interesting and important discussion with miss lilia stoyanov
ceo and investor at transformify she's helping the ukrainian refugees to gain employment to still be
paid and continue their careers in the surrounding areas of europe and ukraine and please watch the
full interview at kalkine media's youtube channel and keep watching for more of these live expert
talks and market insights until the next episode stay apprised and invest wise with kalkine media
you