Lessons from Hiring on Freelance Marketplaces

Mission-based freelancers can accomplish all types of labor, from personalized Shopify themes and private apps to information entry and advertising. However how does an organization discover good freelancers?

For a lot of companies, hiring a freelancer begins on a labor marketplace comparable to Upwork, Guru, Toptal, and comparable. I’ve completed this myself. I’ve used marketplaces over the previous a number of years to rent dozens of freelance employees for varied initiatives. I’m at present interviewing a number of candidates on Upwork.

Hiring experiences differ. I’ve employed freelancers that — for my part — have been dishonest or did shoddy work. However I’ve additionally employed freelancers repeatedly on a number of initiatives, together with a database developer primarily based in India who has completed a number of hundred hours of labor. Regardless of the undertaking, freelancers usually outnumber job posters by three to a number of.

Listed here are a number of strategies, primarily based on my expertise, for hiring freelancers from certainly one of these platforms.

It’s attainable to rent good, hard-working freelancers from labor marketplaces. The secret’s understanding how one can choose the most effective candidates.

5 Suggestions for Hiring Freelancers

1. Have a well-defined undertaking. An organization would possibly know that it wants a brand new ecommerce theme, an app or extension, or, maybe, assist in establishing a Google Advertisements account. Nevertheless it won’t be sufficient to seek out and rent the most effective designer, developer, or marketer for the undertaking.

It is very important assume by means of the behaviors wanted. Right here’s an instance. Say an organization utilizing Shopify’s primary plan wished a selected delivery habits. When a selected product is added to the cart, the delivery worth turns into zero no matter different delivery profiles or calculations. This sounds easy sufficient, however given the constraints of the essential plan, it requires a good quantity of labor.

On this case, it could not be sufficient to easily say, “We want a personal app for buyer delivery.”

2. Talk undertaking particulars. As soon as a enterprise is aware of what it wants, it should clearly talk. Video might be among the finest methods to do this.

The corporate can create a video utilizing a display seize service comparable to Loom or Apple’s QuickTime. The video can show the particular job.

Returning to the personal app for Shopify, the video would possibly present the present habits on the location — when objects with completely different delivery profiles are added to the cart, the delivery prices are totaled — and describe the specified habits. In that instance, one product overrides all different delivery prices.

Complement the video with a very good written description and pictures.

3. Know the way a lot you’ll be able to spend. After defining the undertaking, set a practical price range for the work. Additionally, resolve if the freelancer can be paid a flat price or hourly.

A flat price is less complicated for the corporate to price range. Nonetheless, it presents a few potential issues. If it takes extra work than a freelancer anticipated, the undertaking could possibly be “dumped,” that means that the freelancer merely quits and leaves the undertaking solely partly accomplished. This will occur on labor marketplaces and, in my expertise, is extra possible with new freelancers.

Conversely, hourly-based initiatives won’t possible get dumped, however they will develop costlier if the undertaking proves extra advanced than anticipated.

Neither methodology — flat price nor hourly — is ideal.

4. Interview a number of candidates. Many freelance labor marketplaces use a bidding or proposal system. An organization posts a job. Freelancers reply with charges, resumes, and proposals. A written conversation follows.

After getting narrowed the sector to 2 or three candidates, arrange video calls. Many candidates will reside in time zones removed from your personal — be ready for the scheduling challenges. Nonetheless, you will note the candidate.

These video interviews are a chance to debate the undertaking additional. You may ask freelancers how they’d deal with the undertaking and ensure they perceive the expectations. And you may assess working with an individual.

And, as a pro-tip, document these interviews.

5. Run a check undertaking. Think about a check undertaking to vet candidates for bigger duties, comparable to creating an app or making a advertising marketing campaign.

The check undertaking needs to be compensated. It isn’t acceptable to ask freelancers to do a check free of charge. It must also be immediately associated to the bigger undertaking.

For instance, if that undertaking is for Shopify app growth, retain the candidate to develop a small personal app, maybe one which creates a product feed or an index of weblog articles.

Use the check undertaking to gauge the freelancer’s ability and velocity.

Rent the Freelancer

If a enterprise has completed its finest to outline the undertaking, it’s time to pick out a freelancer and get began. Not each rent will work out. However most will.