PushKing
Senior Member
- Apr 26, 2021
- 959
- 1,094
I crossed $500k spend on UpWork and I wanted to celebrate it by sharing my experience. I believe that investing in people is the best kind of investment there could be. You cannot be the best at everything and you don’t have time to be the best at everything, and you don’t need to. The times we live in, where you can work with someone across the world and get things done is simply magical, but it can involve a number issues. I wanted to share some of the things I look for and avoid while hiring people.
Don’t dismiss new and low experienced users
Do not hesitate hiring someone with Entry Level. This doesn’t mean worker would be bad. For certain tasks I prefer to find newly registered users who are looking for reviews and they are willing to work with a lower price in return for 5 star review.
Do you really need expert for your task? I learned that you can provide very specific guidelines and how-to videos, and can train a person to perform task perfectly and for cheap. Does it mean you don’t need advanced expert? Not at all, but some tasks can be split in 3 or 5, and those 5 for $5 people would do better than 1 for $100.
Look for the highest score
When hiring aim for those users with 100% score, but don’t hesitate lower score. I usually do not hire anyone with less than 90%, I would rather hire a new person with 0% experience on UpWork, but 90%-100% its totally normal. You cannot please everyone, some of clients may not give 5* but give 4.5* which will affect user score, and that’s fine.
Do not hire users that are too busy
Check how many active tasks user has. Use can be Top 1% and have 100% score, but 193 active tasks. This means that user is probably an agency (which is not always registered as an agency). This is not a bad sign, but I prefer when my tasks are main focus and priority on the worker and this simply not possible when he’s working with hundreds on other tasks.
Insist on using tracker
If that’s a new user that I am working with (I didn’t hire him/her/them, lol, before) I prefer to work with a tracker. If there is no tracker and there are issues - it is hard to prove anything, and I noticed, with tracker, there are 90% less issues.
Do not communicate outside of UpWork
You will probably meet or already met users who applied for your job post and as soon as you message them they send you a Zoom or a Calendly link. I always think - why would send me link to zoom or calendal to book time with you? I am the one that doing hiring, it’s up to you to fit to my requirements, Zoom & Calendly is not part of it. Communication outside is a red flag, even if it doesn’t seem so, it is. I do use Slack to manage team, but most of them are working with me for years. I’ve been in situations where I had problems with people I hired and I couldn’t do much through UpWork support because communication was not on Upwork chat. It makes sense to use it since you use their services.
Never-ever pay outside of Upwork
I met a number of users who want to be paid via PayPal or whatever, usually, these users say the same thing - Upwork is taking % from my earning, but through PayPal I will receive more. Paying outside of UpWork is not secure, if something happens you will not have any kind of support. One of the reasons why I love Upwork is protection and security. I’ve been in situations when I had to do a refund and other unpleasant situations, but support always sided with me, because I did everything right.
Do not hire other profiles of your current worker
If user is asking to hire his other profile, his brother, mom, because he wants to grow or improve his other profile - stop working with him. The same as my point above, this simply removes warranty, you’re breaking rules, and Upwork won’t tolerate it. I was dealing with the user who had 100% score and over 100k in revenue, but his account got blocked on Upwork and he asked to work under his brother account, but also asked me to pay him for the job done on the old account via Payoneer. Two red flags in one message.
Insist on user to be available in your time-zone.
When I write description for my job posts I always write (multiple times) that I am looking person in my specific time zone. I do not care where are you from or if the job can be done at any time of the day. My point is that I need to be able to receive fast reply if I need to ask a question. Upwork is full of people who adjust their day so they can work in PST or EST time zone, even though they have 8 to 12 hour difference.
Explain the scope of work and relationship you are looking for
I always mention that this is a short one-time task or that I am looking for a long-term, ongoing relationship based on the particular task. You and the user you’re going to hire should have specific understanding what is expected. Also, check user profile and see his experience with other projects. Is it mostly one time thing or a long term tasks? In most cases you will see a mix of both, but it will give you an idea of one or the other end. I had an experience where I had an amazing worker who did everything perfectly until she found a day-time job. It was fine with me since the quality was amazing, but I realized that person got to upwork temporarily, and on a long-term basis this won’t be working. With time quality started going down, she was available less time (because of the time difference) and in the end she stopped responded and ended up with very low, honest, review from me.
Increase salaries/hourly rates
Every few months I increase hourly rate to my workers. This not only makes them happy but ensures they keep the same or will do a better quality job, and this will prevent them from looking for another job. I am not going crazy and doubling my current rates even if it very low, but adding couple dollars would make a big difference.
Have a trial period
Like any other relationship, work relationship Test each other for a few days. That is totally normal that two people don’t fit, even if one has a great task and budget and the other has perfect skills for it. Sometimes you may have issues not related to work - if you don’t think they will bother you, they will. I try to have no emotions except humor in business (and in life generally), but it’s normal not to like something. If it bothers you now, there is chance it will bother you later.
Pay attention to security
Do you need to provide this or that access? Is there a staging environment? Is there a backup? Make sure you have everything secure. I had a worker who first went awol and then deleted part of his work for the reasons unknown to me. It would be a disaster if I wouldn’t have daily back set up. Now, as a rule I use staging, super duper long passwords, I provide own emails so I can change access/pass and have only access through my domain. Things happen!
…and last, but not least:
Be Nice
Say thank you, please, or even call them dear - nobody wants to deal with an asshole. You can be 100% right, but if you’re an asshole, someone with authority can make an example of you. This goes beyond upwork, this is a rule for life.
Probably there are hundred more points that you can add, but those are what came to my mind while writing this post.
Don’t dismiss new and low experienced users
Do not hesitate hiring someone with Entry Level. This doesn’t mean worker would be bad. For certain tasks I prefer to find newly registered users who are looking for reviews and they are willing to work with a lower price in return for 5 star review.
Do you really need expert for your task? I learned that you can provide very specific guidelines and how-to videos, and can train a person to perform task perfectly and for cheap. Does it mean you don’t need advanced expert? Not at all, but some tasks can be split in 3 or 5, and those 5 for $5 people would do better than 1 for $100.
Look for the highest score
When hiring aim for those users with 100% score, but don’t hesitate lower score. I usually do not hire anyone with less than 90%, I would rather hire a new person with 0% experience on UpWork, but 90%-100% its totally normal. You cannot please everyone, some of clients may not give 5* but give 4.5* which will affect user score, and that’s fine.
Do not hire users that are too busy
Check how many active tasks user has. Use can be Top 1% and have 100% score, but 193 active tasks. This means that user is probably an agency (which is not always registered as an agency). This is not a bad sign, but I prefer when my tasks are main focus and priority on the worker and this simply not possible when he’s working with hundreds on other tasks.
Insist on using tracker
If that’s a new user that I am working with (I didn’t hire him/her/them, lol, before) I prefer to work with a tracker. If there is no tracker and there are issues - it is hard to prove anything, and I noticed, with tracker, there are 90% less issues.
Do not communicate outside of UpWork
You will probably meet or already met users who applied for your job post and as soon as you message them they send you a Zoom or a Calendly link. I always think - why would send me link to zoom or calendal to book time with you? I am the one that doing hiring, it’s up to you to fit to my requirements, Zoom & Calendly is not part of it. Communication outside is a red flag, even if it doesn’t seem so, it is. I do use Slack to manage team, but most of them are working with me for years. I’ve been in situations where I had problems with people I hired and I couldn’t do much through UpWork support because communication was not on Upwork chat. It makes sense to use it since you use their services.
Never-ever pay outside of Upwork
I met a number of users who want to be paid via PayPal or whatever, usually, these users say the same thing - Upwork is taking % from my earning, but through PayPal I will receive more. Paying outside of UpWork is not secure, if something happens you will not have any kind of support. One of the reasons why I love Upwork is protection and security. I’ve been in situations when I had to do a refund and other unpleasant situations, but support always sided with me, because I did everything right.
Do not hire other profiles of your current worker
If user is asking to hire his other profile, his brother, mom, because he wants to grow or improve his other profile - stop working with him. The same as my point above, this simply removes warranty, you’re breaking rules, and Upwork won’t tolerate it. I was dealing with the user who had 100% score and over 100k in revenue, but his account got blocked on Upwork and he asked to work under his brother account, but also asked me to pay him for the job done on the old account via Payoneer. Two red flags in one message.
Insist on user to be available in your time-zone.
When I write description for my job posts I always write (multiple times) that I am looking person in my specific time zone. I do not care where are you from or if the job can be done at any time of the day. My point is that I need to be able to receive fast reply if I need to ask a question. Upwork is full of people who adjust their day so they can work in PST or EST time zone, even though they have 8 to 12 hour difference.
Explain the scope of work and relationship you are looking for
I always mention that this is a short one-time task or that I am looking for a long-term, ongoing relationship based on the particular task. You and the user you’re going to hire should have specific understanding what is expected. Also, check user profile and see his experience with other projects. Is it mostly one time thing or a long term tasks? In most cases you will see a mix of both, but it will give you an idea of one or the other end. I had an experience where I had an amazing worker who did everything perfectly until she found a day-time job. It was fine with me since the quality was amazing, but I realized that person got to upwork temporarily, and on a long-term basis this won’t be working. With time quality started going down, she was available less time (because of the time difference) and in the end she stopped responded and ended up with very low, honest, review from me.
Increase salaries/hourly rates
Every few months I increase hourly rate to my workers. This not only makes them happy but ensures they keep the same or will do a better quality job, and this will prevent them from looking for another job. I am not going crazy and doubling my current rates even if it very low, but adding couple dollars would make a big difference.
Have a trial period
Like any other relationship, work relationship Test each other for a few days. That is totally normal that two people don’t fit, even if one has a great task and budget and the other has perfect skills for it. Sometimes you may have issues not related to work - if you don’t think they will bother you, they will. I try to have no emotions except humor in business (and in life generally), but it’s normal not to like something. If it bothers you now, there is chance it will bother you later.
Pay attention to security
Do you need to provide this or that access? Is there a staging environment? Is there a backup? Make sure you have everything secure. I had a worker who first went awol and then deleted part of his work for the reasons unknown to me. It would be a disaster if I wouldn’t have daily back set up. Now, as a rule I use staging, super duper long passwords, I provide own emails so I can change access/pass and have only access through my domain. Things happen!
…and last, but not least:
Be Nice
Say thank you, please, or even call them dear - nobody wants to deal with an asshole. You can be 100% right, but if you’re an asshole, someone with authority can make an example of you. This goes beyond upwork, this is a rule for life.
Probably there are hundred more points that you can add, but those are what came to my mind while writing this post.
