There are 3 different types:

1. A+ workers – they are workers who are highly skilled, always come in early and leave late, they are very intelligent on many different levels, they constantly try to grow the company they are with by coming up with new ideas, streamlining the company, increasing revenue, etc.They don’t see problems as stumbling blocks, rather opportunities to learn and solve them.They always take responsibility for their mistakes and actions, and they don’t go around blaming others or try to disrupt the company or their peers.

   While they need to make a living, money isn’t their main motivator in life, they care about quality of work and they take pride in their work.

   Their manager or the CEO loves them so much, they are constantly given bonuses and raises to show appreciation for their hard and smart work.

2. B workers – these workers always show up for work, do their job and are amiable, but they don’t actually ever move the company to the next level (even in small steps).They don’t cause any strife.They have no desire to ever grow. They are happy being in the position they are in, or if they do wish to be promoted, it’s only to prove they could do it or for the increase in salary, not because it actually proves that they are a much needed asset to the company.
3. C workers – these workers ONLY care about money and doing as little work as possible to get that money from the company.They would never be willing to prove themselves to the company, they feel the company “owes” them something even if they haven’t proved their worth.They think time is more valuable than clear evidence of how they have helped the company run smoothly and grow. This is why they will never make more money than what they can manage to get out of a company, because the company would rarely ever give them a raise unless they are forced to.

   They constantly complain to their peers or management, and have a very bad attitude. They are generally unhappy with life and try to bring others down even if it isn’t obvious at first that they are this way. The morale around the office is very low around these people.

   Instead of trying to solve problems, they are one who create problems, and they see problems as an easy way to give up quickly.

   They make mistakes all the time because they just don’t care about quality of work, and they will always find a way to blame others (peers or management or the company as a whole) for their mistakes.

   If they apologize, they don’t mean it, and they generally do it just to get the manager off their back.

   They also don’t learn from their mistakes and they are average to below average in intelligence.

   They never stay late or come in early, and they will often use company time to play games, talk to friends, family, etc.

   They are so disruptive to the company on so many levels, the company is always sure to lose money hiring a C level worker. In fact a lot of B level workers would probably leave the company because of C level workers. A+ workers never would because they don’t allow others to control their reality.

So the question is, which type of worker are you hiring?

I learned all of this from the millionaires & billionaires out there plus this man… Brad Smart

And we must preface by saying that we don’t think AT ALL, that one should look for any different traits when hiring an independent contractor vs. hiring an employee. It’s just semantics about what the worker is called.

Here is our point of view on the complete package we look for when hiring an independent contractor.

Most workers think only their skill is what companies look for & maybe that’s the only thing some companies care about, but not the companies that want to build long lasting relationship & not have problems with the worker down the road.

So here is what we look for:

1. Above average skill.Normally we would say average skill, but because we find that so many workers these days are so unskilled & unintelligent, so in order to get any quality work done, we have to ask for above average skill.It is unfortunate that today most workers either don’t know that they aren’t skilled, or just lie to get the job, but I wonder if we took a poll of who thought they were skilled (but weren’t) & who honestly knew they weren’t that skilled & admitted it, which side would be larger.Also, we would love to assume that people who have a lot of experience are more skilled, but sadly we have learned that is not the case.

   A company can hire someone who is young, very sharp, learns fast & gets the job, vs. hiring someone who’s had 30 years in the workforce & still does a mediocre job.

2. Intelligence – aren’t talking post secondary
   We feel that the intelligence level of the average human has gone down in the past 20 years.

   While we can’t be certain since we weren’t around back in the 30′s-50′s, we just get the feeling that it takes twice as long for us to find someone who is intelligent enough to do even the most basic of tasks.

3. Quality – We look for people who care about quality, not people who just want to get the job done fast to get it out of the way. Since these days very few things are of quality, it can be a challenge to find workers who care about quality.
4. Above average online communication skills – even communication skills via the phoneNow perhaps it has something to do with writing because that’s how we communicate with 95% of our staff, but we find it very hard to communicate with people who want to work online.You can see this in almost every area online. People don’t like to read (reading is a dying art), so they ask questions that were already answered, or ignore what’s right in front of their face.Workers skip answering questions in an e-mail, are hard to understand when they write, or they aren’t able to read & understand our communication.

   Even proper paragraph structure can be a challenge, many people who are looking for work online write walls of text, or don’t use proper punctuation, so we can’t even understand what they are saying & have to guess.

   And editing? How many people actually edit what they write before they send it off?

   Bottom line is, we have learned that online communication is a skill not a lot of people have.

   Included in the above average communication skills includes honesty, & people who don’t ignore your e-mails. Since we find that people will ignore your e-mail if they just don’t want to deal with the e-mail. This is of course not just rude & disrespectful, but a sign of passive aggression.

   And they will lie as well.

5. A great work ethic – people who love to work & give every task their all.They are called A+ workers & they are few & far between.Most workers nowadays (unlike back in the 1940′s, 50′s, etc.) have a poor work ethic.You can see it in almost every store you walk into. The staff is all huddled together socializing, while customers are trying to get their attention. How many times have you gone shopping now & while the cashier is checking your items through, she is talking to her c0-workers. Talk about RUDE!

   Don’t think it’s any different online. It’s even worse because they can hide behind their monitor.

   I’ve even seen workers talk behind the customers backs, & are only there to “take” money from the company, NEVER to give anything back to the company.

   We applaud all A+ workers out there. Kudos to you for being such dedicated people.

6. Does the worker get the job done in a fast & efficient manner?That is very important.Do they sit & yap on the phone all the time or string along the task just so it appears that they are working when really they aren’t?Remember, time is money.
7. And last – is that worker there to help the company, or are they there to cause more stress & work for the company.Do they actually care about the success of the company, or just taking a paycheck for showing up to work?

So there are the attributes we look for when hiring independent contractors to work for our company.

We hope this helped you.

Michelle

There are unprofessional independent contractors out there who try to increase their prices without any notice at all to the companies they work for.

Not only is this disrespectful, it’s sneaky as well.

So companies online don’t let them get away with this. If they truly cared about your company, they would do things the professional way & in order to prevent this from happening in the future, you should get all independent contractors to sign a small contract that states that their rate is their rate & they have to have worked with you for at least X months at their given rate. Then they have to give you 2-4 weeks notice if they intend to increase their rates, whether it’s their hourly rate, or even a flat rate for a header design or something like that.

We can give you a contract like that if you wish. The reason this worker below hadn’t signed one, is because we only developed it after he had been hired.

To all independent contractors, here is how you should notify an employee if you wish to increase your hourly or flat rates.

1. First establish if enough time has passed working for the company or employer before even considering raising your rates.

   Unless you openly discussed with them the fact that you were giving them a lower test rate for the first & second task they give you so you are proving yourself, suddenly deciding to raise your rates after 2-3 weeks is totally unacceptable.

   Even if you have been working with them for months, employers can’t read your mind, they have no idea what you are feeling inside about your rates. All they know is that you gave them your price & they expect you to honor it.

2. Write up a “sorry to inform you” e-mail (no one likes to be informed that rates are increasing, so be empathetic towards them, ESPECIALLY in this economy), my rates will be going up as of _________.
3. Give them at least 2 weeks notice, 4 weeks is even better.

Trying to slip in increased rates because you are scared about notifying your employer, or you feel you are being taken advantage of is NOT professional.

You are the one that chose your hourly rate to begin with, no one put a gun to your head & made you do it, so blaming the employer is immature & clearly unprofessional.

I’ve heard it way too mnay times to count, the independent contracotr comes up with a rate, does the work, realizes they underestimated their rate & instead of taking responsibility for their actions, they start to resent the employer because of their mistake.

Then when they try to increase the rate without giving advance notice, they delusionally expect the employer (client) to be all happy about it & then they play shocked at the employer’s reaction.

I even had a worker who had been with us for 11 months try again (he did this once before, but we just thought it was his mistake) to raise the rate by quoting us how many hours it was going to be & changing his hourly rate in the e-mail with the task we had just given him. No notice, nothing, just expected us to take it because he felt this is the way you tell employers you are raising your price.

Even when he was told that isn’t the proper way to raise a rate & we explained to him how he should have done it, plus we stated his rate increase could start with the next task now that we had notice, his immature behavior refused to acknowledge his mistake. He instead tried to use guilt & ultimatums.

Then he started to come up with all of “his” reasons why he was right & we were wrong like:

a) he’s done so much free work for us. Umm, just because you do a company a favor doesn’t mean you have the right to be unprofessional & disrespectful. Often times a company has no clue what you have done for free, so again, expecting them to read your mind is not a very smart tactic.

b) then he tried to accuse us of not paying him for one project which of course wasn’t true unless something slipped by us, but this was the FIRST we were hearing of this, & why would he have continued working for us if we had “not” paid him. I certainly wouldn’t work for someone who hadn’t paid us.

So if you want to build a professional reputation as a fair worker & NOT upset companies who will later on tell other companies of your behaviour, please please, use common sense & follow the simple rules & strategy above.

Michelle

Not that there aren’t other ethnic people out there that are difficult too, but I have given East Indians chance after chance after chance to prove themselves to me as hard, intelligent workers and they have failed every time, especially when it comes to communication skills.

Not to mention that from a personal point of view, I cringe every time I call a company as a customer (consumer) and have to deal with East Indians in a call center in India. I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that by the time I hang up that phone, I will have spent more time speaking to them than I would have speaking to English speaking workers, or they will make mistake after mistake after mistake.

But that’s besides the point, I’m only writing this post based on my experience as the boss, someone who hires people to work for my company online.

There are times when I have taken a break and have said never again will I even consider screening East Indians if they respond to my hiring ad, but then I feel like I’m being racist, so after a few months or a year has passed, I give it another try and EVERY single time I am left kicking myself for giving them another chance.

This is now for SURE the last time I will EVER take an application from an East Indian and here is why.

I recently had an East Indian respond to our hiring ad looking for a website coder. I had his code screened, and I was told it was good, so that was fine. Now onto the screening of the person, as you should NEVER hire someone to work for your company just because they have good skills, you want to be able to work with this person long term, and skills alone just don’t cut it. So I started to screen him further and also screen him for our programmer (web developer’s) position we also have open because that is a very important position we want to fill and he had the supposed Cake PHP experience.

He was asked to send me a sample script, something he was surprised he was being asked for since he claimed no other company had ever asked him to give them a sample script. This shocked me, that this guy had managed to get positions with companies that didn’t even bother to screen his code. How can an owner of a company be professional if they don’t even care about the quality of the code. Geeze.

After two people told me his PHP code wasn’t that good, I decided to only hire him for the website coder’s position for xhtml/CSS.

He was given his first task, but since I’m almost an expert now on dealing with independent contractors online, I suddenly remember that I should ask him how long it would take him to take the graphical template we had, splice it, and code it onto our site in our CMS. Understand this is work on only ONE page.

I asked my assistant how long it would take him to do the work, and he’s not a day-to-day website coder, so I knew what ever answer he gave me, this experienced website coder should be able to do it in 25-50% less of the time.

My assistant Andy told me it would take him 2 hours.

I then went and asked this xhtml/CSS website coder I had hired, how long it would take him and do you know what his answer was???

12 HOURS LOL

That’s when I remembered something I had read online a year or two ago, plus I vaguely remember experiencing this in the past myself.

East Indians usually charge less than North Americans, but what they do to rip off the companies, is they take much longer to do the work so in the end you are paying double, triple or sometimes even quadruple the amount you would have paid had you hired someone who does his work fast and for a higher price.

I was furious that I had wasted sooo much time giving this guy so many chances because I had. He had made a few very simple mistakes and then had begged me to give him additional chances.

I probably wasted around 5 hours of my precious time (my assistant wasted hours on him too) giving this guy a chance, and in the end he thought I was stupid enough, and that I was going to let him rip me off.

So owners of companies out there, or HR people of companies out there, be very much aware that this is a common rip off scheme that East Indians use to take advantage of unsuspecting companies who don’t know how long it would take to code a simple template.

In all fairness to East Indians, I’m sure there are other ethnic backgrounds out there and even Caucasians who do the same thing, it just seems to be very very common when it comes to East Indian workers.

I hope this has helped you run your business online.

Michelle

Since this seems to be one of the most common excuses I see amongst independent contractors, employees or businesses that sell their services online to companies, I thought I would write about this cop out.

I say excuses, because 75% of the time whenever an independent contractor gives me poor service or skill or behaves in an unprofessional, childish, immature manner, they try to use this as their excuse for their behavior.

First off, in my opinoin you do NOT get what you pay for.

The only time I’ve seen this to be relevant, is when I’m purchasing a tangible product such as a TV, car, DVD player, camera, etc.

When it comes to hiring staff online (a service), I find this term is ONLY used by the low level unprofessional workers who swarm the Internet selling their services.

I’ve been in business since 1989, & I’ve been running my online business since 2002.

At first when I started my business online I believed this “you get what you pay for” nonsense until I started to encounter independent contractors, employees, workers, etc. who charged a lot of money & were still unprofessional, couldn’t communicate well at all, wouldn’t meet deadlines, disappeared, had attitude, didn’t care about the company, they only cared about themselves, etc.

I’ve hired high priced people & lower priced people & I’ve come to the logical conclusion that it’s NOT the price a person charges that matters, it’s THE PERSON’S INTEGRITY that matters.

If the human being themselves has a good work ethic, they care about quality, they care about communication, they don’t lie about their skillset, their skill level is above average, they care about the company & not just making a buck for quick cash or to get a so called positive review, then THEY themselves are worth the money.

Any person or business anywhere in the world can charge whatever price they choose. Retailers have a harder time because they have to cover fixed costs & compete with other tangible products, but someone who offers a service can choose what they charge. They don’t have to charge a high price if they don’t wish to, or they can overcharge & then “claim” they are great when really they aren’t.

I do realize that a lot of people think that if something is high priced it’s worth more & I too used to think that & still do when it comes to tangible items, but I’ve learned since then that when it comes to a service, it’s utter nonsense that just because someone charges more they are worth more & that you get what you pay for.

So to all businesses out there, be very careful of these independent contractors, employees or staffers who try to convince you that they are really worth every dime they are charging & use the “you get what you pay for” sales pitch. It’s just their ego trying to justify why they are charging so much. If they are really that good, they don’t need to use sales pitches or excuses to convince you. They are confident in themselves.

I have found that even the independent contractors you can’t budget out to pay who may be charging the “going rate” will still use this disrespectful phrase in an effort to try & make you feel guilty because you can’t budget out their rate.

The smart professional independent contractors understand that maybe the company just can’t afford their rate, it’s not an insult to them, nor is the company doing this to be nasty, their revenue is just their revenue. They are always polite & bow out gracefully & they NEVER ever take a lower rate & then compromise the quality of their work. Their name & their reputation is too important to them.

I’ve also come across those types of independent contractors who lower their rate & then when the company complains about the level of work or lack of professionalism, they justify their poor work with “well I’m not charging you my regular rate”, as if that’s a reason to offer a lower rate & then give shoddy service. Very unprofessional & once again, an immature attitude where they justify their dysfunctional actions & blame the company.

I have found it’s only the immature ones that probably get very little work because of their nasty attitude that have to come up with some excuse as to why they aren’t making money, so they blame everyone else for their actions.

In fact, some of the best staffers I’ve ever hired & still have with me are the ones who charged less. They far outshone the ones who charged a lot because A+ workers aren’t in it for the money, they are in it to enjoy their work & build up the company they work for. So long as they can support themselves, they know the company will increase their salary or hourly rate if they prove themselves to the company & that the company will increase their compensation once the company is bringing in more revenue. That’s their job, to help the company grow, not bring the company down.

It’s unfortunate that so many workers are the latter.

And for all of you independent contractors out there who go around lying to companies, we have your number. Integrity doesn’t have a price tag on it, you either have integrity or you don’t.

Michelle