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How to Select and Manage Remote Freelancers

Topics relating to managing people and relationships

Matt_2190

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Hello everyone, I hope you are well! Fortunately my business is growing and I am slowly delegating some areas of the business to other people.

What I did was select some freelancers on Fiverr. I have created documents specifying in detail how to do certain tasks, in order to free myself from this commitment and leave me free time to do other more important things.

I thought it was enough to do this, but I'm having some serious difficulties finding well trained and hard working freelancers.

Of 4 people find so far:

- One is very good, prepared and precise.
-Another is horrible: he has provided me with jobs that to say badly done is positive. I'm trying to get him to better understand how to do them, but I'm afraid she just isn't capable.
- Two others did decent jobs, but clearly didn't commit. Moreover, while the first time they were good, in the other times they did not follow the instructions (the jobs were full of errors and must be checked in detail).

I am looking for some useful tips to improve in this area, because it seems that it is not enough to make detailed instructions for the tasks. Sometimes, in fact, I felt more like a chicken to be plucked than an entrepreneur with whom to establish long-term partnerships (with benefits on both sides).

For now what I'm doing is:

- Create documents with high detailed instructions
- Specify that if the job is done well we can continue to work together for the long term (and they will earn more money, of course!)
- I have never made any particular budget problems, specifying that I prefer to pay something more for work done well
- Never used deadlines, to avoid work done in a hurry

In my head this was enough, but maybe it isn't. Does anyone have any other useful advice or can recommend valuable books on the subject to find highly skilled freelancers and keep the quality of the work high? Thanks!
 
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Edgar King

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Hello everyone, I hope you are well! Fortunately my business is growing and I am slowly delegating some areas of the business to other people.

What I did was select some freelancers on Fiverr. I have created documents specifying in detail how to do certain tasks, in order to free myself from this commitment and leave me free time to do other more important things.

I thought it was enough to do this, but I'm having some serious difficulties finding well trained and hard working freelancers.

Of 4 people find so far:

- One is very good, prepared and precise.
-Another is horrible: he has provided me with jobs that to say badly done is positive. I'm trying to get him to better understand how to do them, but I'm afraid she just isn't capable.
- Two others did decent jobs, but clearly didn't commit. Moreover, while the first time they were good, in the other times they did not follow the instructions (the jobs were full of errors and must be checked in detail).

I am looking for some useful tips to improve in this area, because it seems that it is not enough to make detailed instructions for the tasks. Sometimes, in fact, I felt more like a chicken to be plucked than an entrepreneur with whom to establish long-term partnerships (with benefits on both sides).

For now what I'm doing is:

- Create documents with high detailed instructions
- Specify that if the job is done well we can continue to work together for the long term (and they will earn more money, of course!)
- I have never made any particular budget problems, specifying that I prefer to pay something more for work done well
- Never used deadlines, to avoid work done in a hurry

In my head this was enough, but maybe it isn't. Does anyone have any other useful advice or can recommend valuable books on the subject to find highly skilled freelancers and keep the quality of the work high? Thanks!
Hey man! I'd like to throw in my two cents.

If the documents are well detailed that even a chimpanzee can follow them.

And you're paying them well to follow them (Like you in their shoes you would be happy with it, also ask them if they're happy with the rate).

I believe the problem lies with finding competent freelancers.

I'm not on Fiverr, but on Upwork.

When you post a job there, you can see who is competent (Able to really solve your problem) by the proposals they send you, their profile, and the reviews they may have.

That should help you pinpoint competent freelancers best for the job. You can even invite top freelancers in the field as well.
 

Lex DeVille

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Hello everyone, I hope you are well! Fortunately my business is growing and I am slowly delegating some areas of the business to other people.

What I did was select some freelancers on Fiverr. I have created documents specifying in detail how to do certain tasks, in order to free myself from this commitment and leave me free time to do other more important things.

I thought it was enough to do this, but I'm having some serious difficulties finding well trained and hard working freelancers.

Of 4 people find so far:

- One is very good, prepared and precise.
-Another is horrible: he has provided me with jobs that to say badly done is positive. I'm trying to get him to better understand how to do them, but I'm afraid she just isn't capable.
- Two others did decent jobs, but clearly didn't commit. Moreover, while the first time they were good, in the other times they did not follow the instructions (the jobs were full of errors and must be checked in detail).

I am looking for some useful tips to improve in this area, because it seems that it is not enough to make detailed instructions for the tasks. Sometimes, in fact, I felt more like a chicken to be plucked than an entrepreneur with whom to establish long-term partnerships (with benefits on both sides).

For now what I'm doing is:

- Create documents with high detailed instructions
- Specify that if the job is done well we can continue to work together for the long term (and they will earn more money, of course!)
- I have never made any particular budget problems, specifying that I prefer to pay something more for work done well
- Never used deadlines, to avoid work done in a hurry

In my head this was enough, but maybe it isn't. Does anyone have any other useful advice or can recommend valuable books on the subject to find highly skilled freelancers and keep the quality of the work high? Thanks!

How many of these people did you get on a live video call before hiring them?

If none, go to Upwork, not Fiverr.

When you get some candidates, interview them on a video call so you can get a feel for who they are and so you can ask questions and find out if they're full of crap or not.

You can tell a lot about how good a freelancer will perform just by how they show up on a call.

  • Are they late?
  • Do they have distractions?
  • Do they give detailed answers to your questions or do they beat around the bush to avoid revealing how little they know?
  • Are they peppy and motivated? Hungry for work?
  • Or do they have an attitude and don't really care?
  • Are they there because they care about helping you?
  • Or do they only care about helping themself?
From your end, you need to do two others things:

1. Think about how you can make working with you really valuable for them to attract better quality freelancers.

2. Pay for quality.
 

Lex DeVille

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How many of these people did you get on a live video call before hiring them?

If none, go to Upwork, not Fiverr.

When you get some candidates, interview them on a video call so you can get a feel for who they are and so you can ask questions and find out if they're full of crap or not.

You can tell a lot about how good a freelancer will perform just by how they show up on a call.

  • Are they late?
  • Do they have distractions?
  • Do they give detailed answers to your questions or do they beat around the bush to avoid revealing how little they know?
  • Are they peppy and motivated? Hungry for work?
  • Or do they have an attitude and don't really care?
  • Are they there because they care about helping you?
  • Or do they only care about helping themself?
From your end, you need to do two others things:

1. Think about how you can make working with you really valuable for them to attract better quality freelancers.

2. Pay for quality.

Also, a lot of clients say they'll give "more work if the freelancer does well." That's almost a cliche of newbie clients at this point. Freelancers see those words and the high-performers run away because they know better than to take those gigs.
 
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Matt_2190

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Dec 19, 2017
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Also, a lot of clients say they'll give "more work if the freelancer does well." That's almost a cliche of newbie clients at this point. Freelancers see those words and the high-performers run away because they know better than to take those gigs.
It was true.

Since the same work to do for some products I have to do it for many others.

I also demonstrated it to one of the freelancers. After a good job I brought him a lot more job, but at this point he started to work poorly.

Obviously this is a speech I do only for ongoing jobs, where I actually want to establish a long-term relationship for tasks that I need often (but not enough to hire a VA).

How many of these people did you get on a live video call before hiring them?

If none, go to Upwork, not Fiverr.

When you get some candidates, interview them on a video call so you can get a feel for who they are and so you can ask questions and find out if they're full of crap or not.

You can tell a lot about how good a freelancer will perform just by how they show up on a call.

  • Are they late?
  • Do they have distractions?
  • Do they give detailed answers to your questions or do they beat around the bush to avoid revealing how little they know?
  • Are they peppy and motivated? Hungry for work?
  • Or do they have an attitude and don't really care?
  • Are they there because they care about helping you?
  • Or do they only care about helping themself?
From your end, you need to do two others things:

1. Think about how you can make working with you really valuable for them to attract better quality freelancers.

2. Pay for quality.
I didn't make video calls. Maybe I should have done them.

I looked at the reviews and looked at work done in the past. Unfortunately, these are jobs that require a few days of work (for example making a graphic): I don't know if a freelancer is willing to waste time with a video call for similar jobs.

However, you have given me good input to do remote interviews.

I am also reading the other topics in this sub forum and am finding a lot of valuable information.
 

Matt_2190

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Dec 19, 2017
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Hey man! I'd like to throw in my two cents.

If the documents are well detailed that even a chimpanzee can follow them.

And you're paying them well to follow them (Like you in their shoes you would be happy with it, also ask them if they're happy with the rate).

I believe the problem lies with finding competent freelancers.

I'm not on Fiverr, but on Upwork.

When you post a job there, you can see who is competent (Able to really solve your problem) by the proposals they send you, their profile, and the reviews they may have.

That should help you pinpoint competent freelancers best for the job. You can even invite top freelancers in the field as well.
I appreciate your 2 cents.

Never used Upwork, but it will definitely give it a chance.

I've looked at reviews and work done in the past, but maybe that's not enough.

I also used the technique of asking that the document sent to me had to have a certain methodology (for example a certain type of numbering) to verify if they read the instructions.

While this was respected, I couldn't say all freelancers have followed all instructions. Frustrating, really. But I definitely need to improve too in this field.
 

Lex DeVille

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but at this point he started to work poorly.

Obviously this is a speech I do only for ongoing jobs, where I actually want to establish a long-term relationship for tasks that I need often (but not enough to hire a VA).

If the freelancer performed well at first, and then his performance dropped, it means he either didn't like working with you and was afraid of negative feedback so he didn't tell you, or he picked up a higher paying client and his focus was on the other project.

Even though you really had more work, offering more work in exchange for good performance attracts low-quality freelancers. High-performers already know there will be more work if they do well, and they know that clients who are great clients don't have to say there will be more work because it's almost always a given.

I don't know if a freelancer is willing to waste time with a video call for similar jobs.

If they need money bad enough, and if they want to win the job over others, then they definitely will. Any freelancer who is worth their weight will get on a live call, even if it is only audio. Any client who is worth working with will also get on a live call.
 
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Matt_2190

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If the freelancer performed well at first, and then his performance dropped, it means he either didn't like working with you and was afraid of negative feedback so he didn't tell you, or he picked up a higher paying client and his focus was on the other project.

Even though you really had more work, offering more work in exchange for good performance attracts low-quality freelancers. High-performers already know there will be more work if they do well, and they know that clients who are great clients don't have to say there will be more work because it's almost always a given.



If they need money bad enough, and if they want to win the job over others, then they definitely will. Any freelancer who is worth their weight will get on a live call, even if it is only audio. Any client who is worth working with will also get on a live call.
I don't know, maybe I have to choose the words better at the beginning.

But for this task, I don't know. I used the same words in the first task and in the second too.

What I did, at the beginning of every employment relationship, was to specify that we deal with XXX (where XXX stands for the business field) and in the future we would need the same tasks for other identical tasks but that derive from ours expansion.

An example: if I need the graphics for a site page, it follows that I then need the same graphics for other pages of the site. And then for other sites. And if the job was done right, I would call the freelancer himself to do it.

All this specifying that there were no deadlines and I never questioned the budget (which I paid immediately).

I have worked a long time as a freelancer and when I found similar clients I always felt good.

It seemed to me that in the first job the freelaner got involved. Then when I called him for other jobs, he thought the fun was over and he did the job poorly.

Obviously this was only one. Another is working really well and in fact I am continuing to always provide him with jobs on an ongoing basis. Always without giving deadlines and not questioning his budget.

As for the reviews, after the second job I left a good review, but specifying that the job required continuous supervision.

I was sorry to do it, but it was the truth.

How could I have done better in your opinion?
 

AppMan

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I do interview from them , that tell a lot how they are .
 

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