Huge Outsourcing Tip - Saves Me Hours

by 26 replies
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I outsource a lot, and working with contractors is extremely time consuming. But you know what takes more time...

Hiring them.

No idea why I didn't think of this earlier, but for my last round of hiring I actually hired someone to do the hiring.

In this particular case I was looking for a VA who could do customer service, and other basic admin tasks. Typically I'd spend literally up to 10-20 hours sifting through 100 applicants, interviewing them, and having them ultimately waste my time.

This time was different. I gave my recruiter the requirements, and she found me an awesome VA.

The best part... She's hiring 11 people for me for $75.

Just thought I'd pass it along cause it's honestly been a complete oversight until just this past week.
#main internet marketing discussion forum #hours #huge #outsourcing #saves #tip
  • This is cool. This will help me a lot, thanks so much for sharing
  • Wow - this sounds incredibly helpful.

    I just posted an ad in the wanted to hire forum... and I have hired many times in odesk and elance, and it is SO TIME CONSUMING, etc. and I often end up with less than desirable results...

    Can you give me any more advice on HOW to do exactly what you just described ?


    Robert
    • [1] reply

    • Sure. I use Odesk mostly. I posted a job for a Recruiter / Staffing manager using a job description that basically states the requirements that I'm looking for. I detailed the kind of jobs they'd be hiring for, and asked them to provide me an overview of the process they would use.

      I did a lot of work hiring this person, I read every related feedback, and focused on people that had a lot of experience hiring.

      Then I set them up with the ability to hire people to my odesk account and let them do the job I hired them to do.

      The person I hired sorted all the candidates that met our agreed upon skills and developed a ranking system based on hours, feedback, relevant experience, etc.

      She then interviewed the top 5, and gave me very detailed feedback on each candidate.

      She made her recommendation, I approved, and now the VA is working for me. She's starting the process on the next 10 positions now.

      Honestly, this will literally save me 20-30 hours/month.
      • [ 1 ] Thanks
  • THANK YOU so much for that reply
    That is EXTREMELY helpful to me and I plan on implementing this immediately - since this is one of my biggest problems and time wasters that I struggle with

    Thank you again

    Robert
  • Banned
    [DELETED]
    • [1] reply
    • I don't see why it wouldn't. I don't know if Elance will let you give access to other people to actually do the hiring though. I use mainly Odesk.
      • [1] reply
  • Thats pretty cool After reading this makes a lot of sense to use this approach to save my time when looking for awesome workers
  • You sure must trust who you hired to do the hiring for you....i believe you should do the hiring yourself not matter how long it takes
    • [1] reply

    • If you are ever going to scale anything you are going to have to learn to trust people. I'm not sure how much hiring you've done, but to do it well it takes a ton of time.

      In the next couple of weeks I'll be adding about 11 people to my team. It would have taken me a minimum of 100 hours, probably more to hire all of them.

      Why wouldn't I hire an expert in hiring to do that for me? I can put 10-20 hours into hiring them, and have an extremely valuable asset on my team for a long time to come.

      Now every time I need to hire someone I just send her the specifics, and she takes care of the rest. It's not like I just picked the first person that applied for that job. I did a ton of work with that 1 hire, and she will probably take care of of my next 100 hires...
  • Yea - you know what would be VERY VALUABLE to me -
    Lists of Questions to send to the "hoards" of applicants that always flood in when posting a job on an outsourcing site - that would methodically refine the search... follow up questions, etc.
    I always find that the more questions and follow up I do with each applicant, the more I end up filtering out.
    So, aside from this great tip - of hiring someone to do it all for you...
    I would find it helpful and useful to have a refined list of questions and follow up questions, etc. to refine the search...

    Robert
  • [QUOTE=packerfan;4555679]...The best part... She's hiring 11 people for me for $75.../QUOTE]

    Hi packerfan,

    Congrats!. Just to make it clear, that $75 is her salary, or those 11 people work for you for that money?

    Best,

    Sandor
    • [1] reply
    • [quote=Sandor Verebi;4556445]I'm paying her $75 to hire the 11 people
  • This tip is definatly outsourcing to the maxium lol.
    Outsourcing your outsourcing.
    Will give this a go next time I need to hire someone.
    I am pregnant now and looking to hire someone to cover my business for the last few weeks of pregnancy and first few weeks after birth so may very well give this tip a go.

    Thanks
  • One thing common about freelancers is that they take any job that comes along even when they know they are not qualified. Thats why the sorting out is required or else you'll get junk.

    I hope she finds really qualified hands.
    • [1] reply

    • I have very specific requirements for their past experience. I require 1,000 odesk hours, and at least 10 jobs related to mine with 5 star feedback.

      She's 1 for 1 so far, and I think finding a good reliable VA is almost impossible, so I'm pleased...
      • [1] reply
  • I'd have to agree, hiring is one of the biggest time wasters in a business but hiring the wrong person is even worse.

    As long as you give your recruiter specifics on the role you shouldn't have a problem, but you need to be clear on the job role before you get some to do your hiring otherwise you'll just end up hiring someone you have to fire and will have wasted time training them and getting them to do tasks.

    Mark
    • [1] reply
    • This is a great point. I've hired probably 50 contractors myself, and my real job I've hired over 100. It's absolutely critical to be very clear, and make sure you put enough effort into finding your recruiter.
  • Thats a great point! VA or Project Managers are a must to take your business to the next level!

    One of my favorite quotes is "You gotta work on your business, NOT in your business"
    • [1] reply
  • Hiring a good VA is definitely a pain. The last one I hired shafted me, saying she made a list of phone calls and when I followed up later, she never even called them in the first place (just took my money with a grin). However, I'm not letting a bad apple spoil the whole batch, and I have had positive experiences in the past. You've just got to keep a close eye on them and not let them run free on their own too soon
  • I talk with alot of big contractors that outsource.

    And yes these guys outsource their outsourcing LOL, sounds weird but it really means you whole business is on outsource, and you do not to much at all.

    When I am outsourcing, it is important to be picky. Pick the guys with the highest rating, even if their price is a bit more, you will get what you pay for, higher quality work, i can 99.9% guarentee that.

    I have many websites outsourced, and have made HUGE mistakes, but I am glad they happend, because I have learnt alot about outsourcing. Once you harness the true raw power of it you can succeed beyond your wildest dreams.
  • Thanks I'v been thinking of hiring VA's good to know.
  • That's a pretty cool idea. Especially for lower level work.
  • Outsourcing is a great time saver... but a lot of the times is only one more thing on the to do list!... those services that do the interviews for you a think they are awesome!

    But... the VA can be great but it will all come down to set up the right process within your business so anybody practically a 12 years old can jump into your business and start working seamlessly.

    Sharing documents, project management tools and constant communication are key.

    I've had great and bad experiences including expensive ones... but they have been all learning... all part of the fun
    • [1] reply
    • There is also another option that allows you to save time and money. You don't have to pay for the recruiter, you just have to hire the VA through the company or agency. Let me know if you need some help.
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