Employees - I really need help and opinions
 

I have tried many (20+) people over the last 18 or so months, all from overseas and who work from home, and not one has shaped up. Only probably 2 were close, but for certian reasons more related to them not having the skills I had to let them go.

What the hell am I doing wrong ?

I am a very very accomodating person to work for/with .. hell ask Krusty (work with here in the office) how much crap I put up with from people, and always pay on time... even in advance on occasion. Sometimes if they cant do something I just say "leave it out and I will do it myself", but then end up almost doing the whole damn job because they are too lazy to do any text, or couldn't be bothered learning how to batch some pics etc.

Many have been short of money, and have *needed* the work badly, but then once they get the job, I feel like i have inherited someone working on an Amstrad with a Tape Drive.

I am always clear on what I need done, give examples, give warning on what skills are needed before they take on the job, and let them know that there is more work for more pay for them if they are able to meet my requirements (which are very fair). But time and time again i am dissapointed, and don't even get krusty (here in the office) started on how many days she has spent fixing up incomplete work, or stuff that was so riddled with mistakes she had to start again.

Now many of you have been employed, or employ multiple people, and am I approaching things incorrectly? Should i be less accomodating, and a little more demanding ... creating a perception in the employee's mind that they are lucky to have the job, not that I am lucky to have the honor of getting incomplete work from them? I really try to work with people and hate to approach things with any form of negativity, as it creates a bad work environment :(

Some suggestions from either the point of the employee or any of you who hire people who work from home would be greatly appreciated.

This inability to expand my manpower is holding back my business.

Did they lie about not having the skills that you required, or were you going to give them a chance to learn while they go and they couldn’t do it? Then they were fired?

I have never had an employee. I have never really had an employer either. So chances are I most likely won’t help much.

I do not know what type of work you are having them do but when you post in a help wanted forum you should have a lot of replies in no time at all should be lots to choose from...

Maybe you should get more references from them, or some proof of qualifications?

I've found that age is a good indicator of potential good work from an employee.
The younger the employee the less likely that a good work ethic is instilled.

Of course that's a terrible generalisation, but in a number of years of employing all ages, the older ones were waaaaaay more likely to succeed and perform to a good standard.

:)

I've got several employees all the time at my brick and mortar company (a metal fabrication shop). I give a new employee a chance to get settled and learn what I expect from them, but I do NOT cut slack until they prove themselves and prove that they can do a good job at a good pace unsupervised. Perhaps it's your pay structure you should look at. No cash until the job is done, or X amount of work per week for X amount of money. Don't really know what your pay structure is so it's hard to say.

My advice is show them that you mean business and expect results. If they tell you it will take longer than you want to do something (because NOBODY is ever as fast as the boss, no matter what biz it is) the demand that it be done as promised. I'm assuming here that you're talking about full timers or part timers and not freelancers, but you get the idea.

th3g4me : References cuts the available pool of potential employees down to only a few, but i think thats a good idea, very good idea.

The type of work is pretty simple, fairly basic stuff that any webmaster should be more than capable of, and I really try to ask the right questions so that I know they claim to have the required knowledge so that little or no learning is required. As I said its pretty basic webmaster stuff :)


MadMax : Good advice aswell. I certianly don't expect them to work as fast as we do here ... of course not :)

Having worked in personnel for a while, I'll tell you I saw more disappointments than gems, that's for sure.
I think people, for the most part, have good intentions, but from what I see they tend to overstate their qualifications (on purpose or not) Then they get the job and either can't do it or can't do it well enough to satisfy the position. On the other hand, I've also hired people who seem perfect, right skills etc. then they turn out to be lazy-asses, trying to get away with as little actual work as possible.

It really is hard to find good help :( - and I don't think it's necessarily age but work ethic is a HUGE problem. Most people don't have one. Sad but true.

sorry you're having such bad luck.

Ponygirl

edit - the whole point of this, by the way, is that it's probably not you as an employer who needs to change, you just need to find the right person/people. It's not easy but very rewarding when you do :)

Donald Trump found away to interview people and get paid for it. Have you heard of "The Apprentice”? He has a staff go through millions of resumes, they take the cream of the crop and most of those people are obviously shit employees. After weeks of testing and interviewing they find 1 that gets a job. That’s how tough it is to find 1 good employee.

I have a few part time employees that work for me consistently. Some for years now and age has nothing to do with it as some of the best workers can’t even drink legally and others went to school before there was an Internet.

Everyone over states their capabilities because they naturally believe they can do more then they have done already. That’s human nature.

If you’re poking around in Eastern Europe where I have some topnotch people working for me you need to be careful. The old communist mindset was always take what you can now because hard work doesn’t pay more then less work. Also keep in mind that almost every other country has better education then US workers.

1. Interview carefully. Very carefully and read between the lines with every statement.
2. No references, no job.
3. Get samples of work. Not previous work but the work you want them to do. Give them a test assignment.
4. Set expectations very clearly and reward them for good work. Communicate often in the beginning.

If it were easy to find great employees then none of us would be working as we'd just have our employees doing everything.

Simple rule of adult business: The perfect employee is very likely working for himself and making more than you can afford to pay them.

If you are trying to hire too good of an employee (one with real webmastering talent) you will likely be disappointed because the good ones won't work for what you will pay. Outsourcing your work should be all the repeating and crap work that you don't want to do, and jobs that can be easily defined, tracked, and monitored - especially because you are dealing with remote employees. If you are looking for someone to be creative, to come up with new ideas, etc... you will have a hard time finding them.

If you aim too high, you will miss the available work pool by a mile.

Alex

Just a suggestion, Pay when the job is complete. No exceptions. If you are clear on what skills are required and a person accepts that, they should also be willing to accept that they do not get paid until the job is complete and correct.
I hate being a hard ass myself about things like that but sometimes it is necessary.

Excellent point. I had an employer do that to me once. After I got hired and worked in that place a few weeks I realized the entire staff was top notch.

I too have had several disappointments this millennium. I don't have a magic pill answer all I can suggest is to keep trying. That's what I'm doing.

I have three businesses...two that I run on my own, but my main brick & mortar business I have two people working for me. The thing to do is to set limits, set timelines, etc, and be very rigid about what the person should do and when they should have it done.

In porn, I would say it's harder to find competent people...especially difficult if you post a job offer on a forum...especially if you post on a forum that has a lot of hobbyist webmasters who forum whore more than working.

If I were you, I would just ask on a board like this, "I need (specify job) done by (specify date) can anyone recommend someone?" I have a very short list of people I would recommend, but they would get the job done.

Have you tried www.rentacoder.com or www.elance.com
I know of a couple people that have used rentacoder and ended up cutting a side deal for permanent employment once they found someone that fit the ticket

You may be clear on what you want done...but you are also clear on the fact that they don't have to do it. Especially if they are new, no matter how badly you need what they are working on, if they submit something that is sub-standard then you have to reject it back to THEM and make them clean up their own mess. It's the only way they will learn what your requirements truely are.

After a couple times of this they will either learn to do the job as you require or it's time to send them packing. After they have completed a couple projects without problems, then you can ease up a bit.

The way it is now, some of them may not even know that they are not doing what you really need done.

I hear that http://www.icando4u.com is pretty good but I have no direct experience with them to share with you. I'm not really sure it's what you're looking for but maybe it could be of some help.

Regards,
SF

You know i think you may have touched on something that never occured to me!

The only guy I had who I was really sad to lose was a programmer based out of one of the old soviet states. He was a hard worker and was fantastic! He graduated from uni and I lost him :(

My record with getting a decent guy from US, UK, Canada is terrible.

Oh, 1 more pointer that I forgot earlier.

Always ask yourself if you could do the work yourself and earn a decent wage doing so. If the answer is no then they're asking too little and they won't do the work or at least not a decent job. I recently forgot that rule and 10 days later I was hiring someone else to complete a task.

I only use people on a "per job" basis, and most of my talent comes from two pools... the tech college/uni students and new immigrants... there is a shitload of reasonably priced talent in those groups if you go in with the expectation that none of them are going to stick around very long... for me it works out well, as I get a large pool of talent to call on, and for them they make some extra money... for our web design side of the business (isnt it a shocker I dont exclusively do adult stuff for a living? :)) I always give them a time limit on when a job needs to be completed, and a third of the way through that if they dont have a decently acceptable amout of work completed, they lose the job.. that gives me some cushion in case the client needs any rework done... or I need to pass on the work to someone else... that way they all know I have other people who can pick up the slack so if they want to get paid or if they want more work they have to get their shit together...

i find it even very hard to find out someone good through outsourcing. I have currently one Philipino from one big outsourcing company and he is sometimes with his tasks really slow. What he is doing three days, i can have in one day done by myself. And yes, they are controlled by supervisior, if they arent playing games, surfing internet etc. and if they work.

Way back when I was working for someone else the employer who got the best out of his staff was a company who had a minimum and maximum salary. EG. whatever happens you get $10 an hour, but if you do outstanding work you get $15 an hour. Anything between "average" and "brilliant" gets between $10 and $15, depending on how close to "brilliant" you are.

Another boss I had achieved similar results with bonuses. This does not have to be cash, he doubled sales by giving a bar of chocolate to the ten shop assistants who took the most money (out of about 20-30 depending on the day). The chocolate bars cost about the equivalent of about 50c each, so for about $5 a day, the shop took several thousand dollars a day more than the previous manager did, he soon got promoted to area manager.

The newer outsourcing firm owned by Rick Latona might be able to help you. They're a little pricier than the competition, but they handle the screening process, supervise your employees, and take responsiblity to make sure that they're doing what you're paying for.

I would love to open up a real office somewhere and hire a few people

this way i could have numeros projects going at once
I could just point and it gets done

but the reality is that takes good well trained people
which are hard to find

it would really suck to have keep firing people

what are the reputable outsourcing companies?
I know Dee from Deecash has iwebmasters with a full time employee starting at around $800 - is that the one Rick Latona is associated with? I've heard its decent...

there is also webmasterlabor.com but that is mainstream only

any other ones... Ive been coming up with a business plan and might be interested in hiring someone who can do submissions and simple site building

what you have to do is if they dont do what you ask you pay 0 dollars and let them know you dont fuck around. tell them to get the job done or you get zip. also you will have to sort many more folks since you are not actually there to supervise their work, it will take some time but you will end up finding a few that will actually do the work and are glad they can do biz with you. just keep sorting them untill you find the good ones

Good luck on finding someone willing to work without any upfront money. Think about it. Would you do an entire project for someone that you didn't know before getting some cash upfront?