3 Secrets to Hiring the Right People for Your eCommerce Business

This is a special guest contributor post by Julia Valdez, a blog manager at Freeeup.

Hiring the right people for any job can be a painful process. You can spend a lot of time looking around for viable candidates and end up with someone who still doesn’t quite fit. You have your own stuff to take care of, and there you are, stuck on this one thing. Hiring the right people for your business can be even more difficult. You want only the best skills, a good amount of experience, and the right attitude for your culture.

You are desperately trying to keep up with everything that needs to be done, and you need help. You want to place key people in key positions so that you can pass off tasks to free up your time. You want to build up your company so that it doesn’t need your undivided attention 24/7.

Have you gone through the hiring process and found that it just seems to add more tasks to your list? Today, we are sharing three secrets that you can use to ease that burden. With these secrets, you can make sure that you are hiring the right people every time.

1. Know who you are looking for.

You know that you need help, but what exactly do you need? The first secret is to identify the area within your business that needs an infusion of fresh time and talent.

What areas overwhelm you? Are you really good at sales but are not at your best when it comes to customer service? Do you enjoy building relationships with suppliers but are not willing to spend several hours every week placing orders and making sure that they deliver on time? Make a list of the areas that you want to keep under you and that you want to pass off. You may find that some of them fall under both categories.

Now, what are the specific tasks under those areas that you need help with? List down all the tasks that need to be done in each “Help” area. Using a chart or spreadsheet to keep this all organized is a great idea. Under each task, think of the roles that you want your hire to cover. Ask yourself questions like these to bring you closer to hiring the right people:

• What specifically are they going to be doing?
• What traits do they need to have to be successful in that role? How much time is needed for these tasks?
• How much can the business afford to pay out to get this done?
• Is their location and schedule important?

You should end up with a list of skills and talents for each area, as well as an ideal personality profile of the person you want to hire for each role. As you move along in the hiring process, stick to this ideal – don’t settle for less than what you know your business deserves.

2. Find a hiring platform that works for you.

It would be so simple if only there were just one freelancer marketplace to go to. But commerce means competition, and there are so many out there to choose from. The second secret is to find that one platform that best suits you and your needs.

A big part of hiring the right people is dealing with a marketplace that you are comfortable with. They should have the types of freelancers that you need, of course. They should, however, also have a number of other features such as:

• Pre-Screening – a system of vetting freelancers for skills, experience and attitude before they are offered on the marketplace
• Fast Hiring – the ability to find, hire, and start work within the same day
• Work Tracking – a recording system that takes worker management off your plate
• Support – a system and staff that will help keep you safe as you transact with global freelancers
• Smooth billing – a reasonable billing period and payment options that you prefer

Upwork is the go-to marketplace for many businesses because it is composed of two of the oldest platforms and is now the largest in the world. There is a wide variety of talent on Upwork, and the company has done a good job of providing escrow protection and tracking apps for fixed-price and hourly jobs. Anyone can join Upwork, but they have a freelancer rating system and profiles that you can browse to gather information. They are quite hands-off, however, and do not give specific suggestions or provide active support for dispute resolution.

TopTal provides access to mainly freelance designers, developers, and financial experts. Toptal – top talent – screens anyone wanting to join the network, and advertises only the top 3% for hire on the platform. Hiring there can therefore be on the pricey side, but TopTal also offers a two-week trial period that is only billed if you like your worker. A unique feature of TopTal is that they provide relocation services for clients. Within a month, you can hire your freelancer and have them in your desired location.

FreeeUp is a freelancer marketplace that specializes in eCommerce business needs, but is also home to freelancers with a variety of other skillsets. FreeeUp is one platform that has all of the above features. They test all applicants on a variety of criteria – skills, experience, communication, attitude, time management, professionalism – and allow only the top 1% through. The FreeeUp hiring system is also unique – there are no job posts to create, and no need to wade through elaborate profiles. FreeeUp takes the details of your preference and presents a match to you. If it doesn’t work out, FreeeUp covers all replacement costs. The marketplace FreeeUp has a proprietary ticketing, time tracking and billing system that currently integrates with PayPal and ACH to process payments smoothly with lower fees. FreeeUp also provides round-the-clock support to assist with any and all client concerns, which is not available on any other free platform. Plus, if you can’t find anyone to fit your needs, FreeeUp will recruit for your specific skill set, still for free.

3. Set clear expectations for your hire.

Saying “You’re hired!” is not the end of the process. You need to make sure that your worker is properly integrated if you want them to work out. The third secret is to be very clear with your new hire about what you expect from them in their role. Your spreadsheet will again come in handy here.

A great thing to do when you are hiring for basic positions is to create an onboarding document. Outline all the roles and responsibilities connected to each role and the specific tasks involved. Include all the details of how you expect them to perform, such as:

• What time are they expected to be online, working?
• What are their priorities?
• What tools, systems, processes, should they use?
• What communication channels should they use?
• How often should they report back to you?

Once you have all that down, make it a point to have an onboarding meeting with your new hire to go over all the finer points. Make your worker feel comfortable asking any questions that they might have. It is important at this stage to build a strong professional relationship, and this includes developing rapport. The job requirements are vital to your worker’s performance, but so is how they feel about the job and the company they are working for.

Start Hiring the Right People

It’s time now to get busy preparing to make your key hires so that you can finally get stuff off your plate. With these 3 secrets to hiring the right people, you are already a few steps ahead of everyone else. Welcome to a new world of hiring – organized, focused, and free.