Outsourcing web design, development, photography or just about anything
else you can imagine is becoming more accessible to budding
entrepreneurs and the internet acts as a great device to connect you to
millions of global workers.
In my self-defined role as a
Website Management Expert, I’m currently maintaining around 10 employer
accounts on various online outsourcing platforms, such as oDesk, Elance and 99designs.
Wow, having 10 accounts must mean outsourcing is super easy, right?
Far from it. I maintain most of the aforementioned accounts for my
clients, who prefer me to effectively manage their outsourcing after
being frustrated at trying it ineffectively themselves. Effective
outsourcing of web design, development, etc requires that either you or a
sub-manager understands the type of job which is being outsourced. ie,
an expert accountant may try to hire programmers to build him some
software for his industry. Though the accountant may know his own
industry inside out, how does he know which programmers are good or bad
or even what language to ask for the program to be written in? He
usually won’t, and this generally leads to delays with the project,
missed deadlines and running over budget. In worse cases, I’ve seen
clients have their websites destroyed by incompetent workers and left
holding the ruins.
Tip #1: Hire someone to manage your outsourcing if you are not knowledgable in the tasks you plan to outsource.
*You can even outsource this HR position to an outsourcer. Sites such as oDesk allow you to hire hiring managers to handle this process for you. Just be sure to hire the right person for that task, too!
Choosing the right freelancers
Regardless of who is managing the hiring of freelancers, I’ve found
some very effective ways to shorten the list of candidates to workers
more likely to be competent. One of these techniques was inspired by my
friend’s hiring methods in a non-internet company. Another method was
recently shared with me by a 5 year veteran of online outsourcing
management. Together, these basic techniques can save the aspiring
outsourcer many headaches and maybe even their business, as time = $ and
we don’t want to waste it interviewing workers likely to fail the task.
Tip #2: Set clear requirements of how applicants send you their application
This is the technique gleamed from my friend’s successful business
which now has over 20 full-time employees in their remote China office.
What I do when posting jobs on freelance sites now is add questions or
tasks for the applicant to perform when applying. This may be something
simple, such as answering a question related to the skills required in
the task.
ie “In a PHP array, what is the correct syntax to remove the last item from the array?”.
Applicants who fail to answer the question in their application I
automatically reject. This may sound quite cold and unforgiving, but
I’ve found that workers who are unable to follow clear instructions in
the job posting, 99% of the time will disappoint later on in the
project. Several times in the past, I’ve felt charitable and given
applicants a second chance when they showed other promising points, but
time and again, this leads to issues later in the project.
Other requirements/tests I may subject applicants to is to not just
simply answer a question, but to go online and research a certain topic,
or give me creative answers to an open question. The type of tests you
put the applicants through should be related to the type of job you are
hiring them for. Again, this is where the person doing the hiring needs
to be technically competent in whatever task is being outsourced (do
not, for example, have a non-Native English speaker hiring English
content writers, or worse yet, allow a programmer with no creativity to
decide your new company’s logo!).
Tip #3: Choose freelancers based on previous work history/feedback and tested technical skills
For sites like oDesk and Elance,
workers are able to take online tests to prove their abilities in
anything from English composition to Objective C programming. My recent
meeting with a veteran outsourcing manager enlightened me to the
effectiveness in selecting freelancers based on their test scores. If
you want candidates to prove themselves in one of the tests available
and they have not yet attempted the online test, you may tell them to go
back and take the test before you will consider them for the project.
Parallel to this, and if applicants have followed any set instructions
in the job posting, I will take a quick look at their recent work
history, which is also available on all the big freelance sites. If the
applicant has a few big projects which are still in the OPEN/WORKING
status, I will generally decline them, as I will want to ensure they
have time to focus on the task I set. Any negative feedback from their
previous employers will also put me off, unless it is heavily
outnumbered by recent positive feedback.
So far, I’ve outline 3
tips which don’t take a lot of time to implement in your freelancer
hiring process, but are likely to save you headaches, time and money.
Looking to outsource your web development?
Leon Stafford is a Website Management Expert,
specializing in serving domainer clients and businesses with a need for
maximum efficiency in their website design, development and marketing.
Email him here: leon.stafford@mac.com or use the contact page.
Already outsourcing a lot of work?
I’d love to hear your own tips and even any horror stories you’ve had
in hiring online freelancers for design, development or other tasks.
Drop me a comment below.