There are many freelance jobs available, from designing custom Shopify themes to creating personal applications and marketing campaigns. What is the company’s process for finding good freelancers?
In many cases, companies hire freelancers through sites like Upwork, FieldEngineer, Guru, Toptal, and the like. This was the case for me as well. The marketplace has helped me hire dozens of freelance workers for various projects over the past few years. We are interviewing several candidates for FieldEngineer at the moment.
Employees hired as freelancers are not considered full-time employees. Freelancer contracts can last for years, contrary to popular belief.
The freelancers I hired were dishonest or did poor-quality work. On multiple projects, I have also hired freelancers, including a database developer based in India who has put in several hundred hours. There are usually more freelancers than job posters for any given project.
Based on my experience with these platforms, here are a few tips for hiring freelancers through them.
How to hire freelancers: 5 tips
Defining your project is the first and crucial step.
Maybe a business needs help setting up a Google Ads account, or maybe it needs a new e-commerce theme, app, or extension. However, finding and hiring the best designer, programmer, or marketer may not be enough.
Considering the necessary behaviors is crucial. The following example illustrates this. Assume that a company that uses Shopify’s basic plan wants a specific shipping behavior. As soon as the product is added to the shopping cart, the shipping cost is zero regardless of other shipping profiles or calculations. Although this sounds easy enough, it requires a great deal of work because of the limitations of the basic plan.
There is no point in saying things like, “We need a private shipping app for our customers.
Details of the project should be communicated clearly.
Businesses should communicate clearly once they know what they need. Videos are a good way to do this.
With screen capture services like Loom or Apple’s QuickTime, the company can create a video. In the video, the task can be demonstrated.
In the Shopify private app, the video may show the current behavior of the site – when items with different shipping profiles are added to a basket, the shipping costs are added – and describe the desired behavior. A single product is overriding all other shipping costs in this example.
You should accompany the video with a good written description and pictures.
Be aware of your budget.
Once you have determined the project, determine what the budget should be. Choose whether to pay the freelancer an hourly or a fixed rate.
The company can more easily budget with a fixed rate. Nevertheless, it does pose some potential problems. Freelancers may “dump” projects if they are unable to complete them as expected, which means stopping and leaving the project only partially completed. My experience indicates that new freelancers are more likely to experience this in the job market.
On the other hand, hourly projects are unlikely to be dumped, but they may become more expensive if they prove to be more complex than expected.
A tight budget can make it challenging to find an engineer. Here is your solution.
Both methods – fixed rate and hourly – have their limitations.
Bidding systems are commonly used in freelancing markets. Companies advertise jobs. Contractors respond with awards, resumes, and suggestions. An interview is then conducted.
Establish video calls with the two to three candidates you have narrowed down. The time zones of many graduates will be different from your own – you will have challenges planning. The candidate, however, will be yours.
The video interviews provide an opportunity to discuss the project in more detail. Ensure that freelancers understand your expectations by asking how they will approach the project. You can also assess their work.
You should also record these interviews.
Create a test project.
You might consider a test project to research candidates for major assignments like developing an app or creating a marketing campaign.
Compensation should be provided for the test project. The practice of asking freelancers to perform a test for free is not acceptable. Furthermore, the test should directly relate to the larger project.
Consider allowing the candidate to develop a small private app, such as one that creates a product feed or an index of blog articles, if the project involves Shopify app development.
The test project can be used to gauge the freelancer’s skills and speed.
What is the best way to hire a freelancer?
It is time to select a freelancer once a company has defined the project well. Hiring all freelancers will not be successful. Some will succeed through verified freelance marketplace, however.
