Extreme Outsourcing - Hiring Pain

Welcome to the 50 new Extreme Outsourcers who've joined the gang since our last issue!

The Pain

If you've ever tried hiring off a platform like Upwork.com, then you are familiar with the following:

1. Post an ad, asking for an assistant, data entry, whatever

2. Get 84,234 responses in 4 hours

3. Shit!

4. Have no way to screen without getting on the phone or Zoom

5. Spend a lot of time (even 15 minutes each, adds up at this volume) with people who are massively unqualified

6. Give up

I recently got 400 applications for one position for a consulting client of mine!

How are hell are you supposed to manage that?

A few pieces of advice, gleaned from doing this a thousand times.

• You can't recruit overseas talent like you do a C- Suite executive! It's a fundamentally different process that needs to be managed waaaay differently.

• The initial application questions should be HARD, DIFFICULT, DETAILED, and TIME INTENSIVE.

• These questions should be in the first application questions you ask! Just getting a resume is worthless. In the initial application, make them do a ton of stuff.

Why?

It allows you to eliminate candidates, without ever having to get on the phone or zoom.

You need to be ruthless at this stage.

Collect LOTS of information - and then energetically eliminate candidates.

I'm not proud of this - but at this stage - I've eliminated candidates because of a difficult to pronounce name!

When you have 100 applicants, the only way to survive is with these types of shortcuts.

Practical Tip To Screen Inside the Application

One of my favorite examples of screening inside the application is to have the candidate read a CUSTOM script or question (that I write, and put in the original post), and upload the recorded link via (https://vocaroo.com/).

Free, and hosted in the cloud - the recording let's me figure out the candidate's English level, without having to get on a Zoom.

It needs to be custom - so that they can't just use the recording they've practiced a thousand times to "sound right" over the internet.

The question can be something like

"Please use (https://vocaroo.com/) and read tell me about the biggest mistake you made in the last year, and what you learned from it".

The answer to this question is nice to know - bc of cultural factors, which I'll get into in a separate email - but there are some really simple observations you can make!

Here are some other things I look for with this question:

• Bad audio quality (No - what will they be like talking to customers?)

• Upload in a form other than Vocaroo (No - Can't follow instructions)

• Bad English (No - If needed for role)

• 5 second answer - (No - Doesn't really care or isn't invested)

• Sends A Recording of Something Other Than Script (No - Can't follow instructions)

A simple question like this can help me get from 100 candidates, to maybe 10 - 20!

Without ever even speaking with someone on the phone.

There is lots on just this one topic, so in future issues I'll talk about:

• Other high impact screening questions

• Some of the (counterintuitive) posts I've used to get great candidates

• My simple "Applicant Tracking System" that keeps me sane

• How to use One Overseas Person to Hire Many More...

If you're just joining us...

I'm Jon - love geeking out about outsourcing & systems.

I also buy, run, start, and invest in stuff - the weirder the better.

If you have specific questions you'd like to see me address, drop me an email or DM.

I read them all.

Jon

@matznerjon