Solve Your ‘Find Good Employee On oDesk’ Issues With These Great Tips
You’ve chosen oDesk as your primary
contractor website, but you’re still not sure how to find employees on
that site. You know that oDesk and similar freelance websites are filled
with scammers. You might be even thinking that typing a phrase like
‘find good employee on odesk’ into your search engine wasn’t such a good
idea?
It is actually great that you are looking
for advice since the many freelance websites do confuse most people (in
fact, we did a post specifically about the differences between oDesk, Elance, and Freelancer).
You’re not only worried about getting scammed, but also about potential
wasted time. I am sure that you have heard about clients hiring
inadequate freelancers. This often ends in disaster with a lot of wasted
time and money.
Another fear that you might have is that you will spend too much money on good contractors. There is a way to find great contractors on oDesk without having to deal with scammers or spending too much money on high-end professionals.
Choosing the right job post title
Most clients write boring titles for job
posts. Let’s say that someone is looking for a web developer. Most
employers will write something boring, like “I need someone who knows
coding.” The right title subject would be “Looking for a reliable and
easy-going programmer for hip mobile apps”.
If you were a freelancer, you would
probably go for the second, more interesting job post. As a job poster,
you want to avoid coming across as bland or stuck up. Be specific but
don’t forget to sound casual and energetic when writing job post titles.
Being clear in the job description
The best way to write a job description is
by first writing a sentence or two which summarizes your job. You don’t
have to be very clear in those first few sentences, but you need to
specify who you’re looking for and what you offer.
You can then write a small paragraph below
in order to fully describe your ideal contractor, but don’t overdo it.
You can even summarize the job description in a few lines if you want.
- Tell them what skills are that you need for the job
- Describe the length of the working relationship: long-term (or possibility of long term), one-time project etc.
- Define the communication channels and how frequently you want to communicate
With that said, don’t try to sound too
strict as that will turn most people off. Just be clear, polite and
friendly. Most contractors will perceive you as an authority anyway.
A trick to help you eliminate generic applicants
As you probably already know, oDesk attracts contractors from all over the world.
Most of these contractors aren’t skilled and they just copy and paste
their job applications everywhere, hoping that they will land a job.
Now you’re thinking “Okay, so how do I get
rid of those generic applicants?”. It’s very simple actually – you only
need one unique word. At the end of your description, tell applicants
that their subject reply should start with a specific word. You can use
any word; “double check” is a good example.
After you post your job on oDesk, you will
see that quite a lot of your replies will not contain your ‘password’.
You can go ahead and immediately delete all job replies that did not
have your password.
You can even go further than that, if
necessary. After you’ve written the job description, write down a few
questions relevant to your job and tell them to answer those questions.
Their answers will tell you a lot about their determination, character,
writing ability, etc.
Interviewing the chosen applicants
Sooner or later, you’re going to be left
with a list of chosen applicants. You will need to interview them in
order to choose your favorite. Invite them on Skype and call them so
that you can conduct a proper interview.
Skype interviews are great because you get
to see the person, evaluate their manners, discipline and dedication.
If your applicant is a graphic designer, you can tell them to show you
their portfolio and give you graphic design suggestions for your
website.
If you’re talking to a programmer, you might test their coding skills.
Don’t know anything about coding? Get an expert to test your applicant,
even if you have to pay the expert for the service. The testing
procedure is very important, so don’t worry about having to pay the
expert.
Interviewing the best of the best
The purpose of the first interview is to
weed out any false positives. These are the candidates who look good on
paper but will fail even the most basic testing procedures. After the
testing, you are supposed to be left with only a few final applicants
for the last interview.
The last interview should be about getting
the best bang for your buck. In the final round you should have a
decent selection of candidates who are good enough to hire.
At this point you need to see who will
bring the best return on investment. First you need to know what each
one charges by the hour. Then, you need to find out how much time it
would take them to complete the job.
Ironically enough, sometimes the
contractor with a higher rate ends up cheaper. This is because the
higher-priced contractor can actually take less hours to do the job.
Sometimes the “lower-priced” contractor takes longer to do the same job,
becoming more expensive as a whole.
There is an easier way to find and hire contractors – without having to research ‘find good employee on odesk’
Finding and hiring contractors on
freelance websites is such a chore and a waste of time. Let’s face it,
even the best tips might not help you find the right contractor. It
takes a lot of patience to endure low-skilled applicants who try to
swarm you with requests.
Thousands of employers have regretted
using freelance websites. It takes up a lot of their time, effort and
sometimes even money. It’s better to save that time, effort and money by
letting real professionals help you.
I am talking about Hubstaff and our remote staffing solution.
Our staffing solution is all about finding the right match for you. You
tell us whether you need graphic design, E-commerce, SEO or similar
services, and we will connect you with the ideal contractors.
You can rest assured that our contractors
are trained and certified. We only accept contractors from reputable
companies after reviewing their portfolios, prior work, LinkedIn
profiles, and more. In other words, you won’t have to worry about any of
that. We connect you with contractors and we complete all the
negotiations for you.
We essentially send the best professionals
to you for the lowest possible price. You just name the job and we
start the search for corresponding contractors immediately. Our
contractors get paid by the hour, with the help of our time tracking
software.
Thanks to Hubstaff’s time tracking
software, you are able to control every step your contractor makes.
Monitor them easily using our software and watch how their productivity
increases. With this software, you only pay for their real working
times.
Get access to awesome contractors that work on an hourly basis.
The fastest, easiest way to start building your next project.
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