With the emergence of online freelance websites and the gig economy, businesses and hiring managers have access to thousands of developers.

In a matter of minutes and a few clicks of a button, you can hire a developer and have them working on your project. This ability for instant hiring, combined with inexperience and poor vetting processes creates a multitude of challenges. In this article, we’ll cover the three biggest challenges and discuss how businesses can overcome them.  

The Freelancing Trend

As more and more developers choose to pursue freelance work rather than corporate positions, the availability of freelancers has exploded. There are many great benefits this offers to both the developer and the client in need of a developer. While our main focus today will be on these challenges, it’s important to note all the benefits that also come hiring a freelance developer.

It can be much more cost-effective to hire a freelance developer because you’ll only be paying them for the project you need completed and not paying for social contributions and no infrastructure costs. There is also a massive talent pool you’ve opened up when all the work can be completed remotely. You are no longer confined to those living in your area when you open your projects to remote work.

1. Lack of vetting and having too many choices

There is a massive talent pool of freelance developers available to you. And we mean massive. You have the opportunity to literally hire anyone anywhere in the world. This is both a blessing and a curse. It’s great that you have all the options, but the options quickly become overwhelming.

Depending on where you’re posting the job or looking for freelancers, the types of responses you will get will vary. Many freelance sites like Upwork and Fiverr have a lot of great talent, but they also have a lot of not-so-great talent. There are going to be nearly limitless options that you’re going to have to comb through.

It can quickly get exhausting.

You can attempt to search for the perfect talent, but it will take hours of looking through the profiles of developers on sites like Upwork. You could also opt to post your job description. In minutes you will have plenty of viable candidates and plenty of not-so-viable candidates. Many developers will have bots automatically apply for gigs that fit some criteria, which means you have to comb even more to find the right talent.

The vetting comes down to you.

How to get around this vetting problem

Not all freelance job board sites are created equal. One of the easiest solutions to this vetting issue is to not put it on your own shoulders. Let someone else do the heavy lifting. That is exactly the sort of thing that happens with Upstack. Upstack vets for you, saving you not only time but a great deal of energy as well.

Where most job boards leave you to peruse the entire catalog of developers with some filters, Upstack works to compile you a custom list of freelancers that meet the requirements of your specific job. Their sophisticated AI can do in minutes what would take you hours to thumb through.

In addition to providing you with the best list of candidates, it ensures that this list is the best because they personally vet everyone entering their talent pool beforehand. You don’t have to worry about hiring someone who isn’t actually talented enough to complete your task.

2. You’re not their main focus resulting in low quality work and stolen ideas

Hiring freelancers offers both you and the freelancer freedom that a normal employer/employee relationship would give. However, this freedom can quickly work against you. You are paying them to complete a job, but you don’t necessarily get exclusive access to their skills. It’s not uncommon for developers to take on multiple projects at once.

It might seem like a great cost-saving measure to hire the guy charging only $15 an hour to complete your project. There are plenty of good developers out there that undersell themselves or developers with talent who live in lower-income places. $15 dollars might be good for them. However, that price might also be a way to lure in more jobs. They might end up biting off more than they can chew.

If a developer is balancing three jobs at once, it is on them of course, but where they might get a bad review from you, you end up with a bad project. They might also rush all their projects to try to capitalize on quantity over quality. This can lead you into needing to hire someone else to fix it all, so now you’re not only losing out on money, you’re losing out on time.

Even developers charging more can fall into the trap of not wanting to pass up a good job. There’s no way for you to know how many open projects that developer has. You could always ask, but there’s no guarantee they offer an honest answer.

There’s also the possibility that they just “ghost” you. You’ve paid a deposit, given them all of your ideas, and then you hear nothing. A month later, someone else is marketing the product you had come up with. You probably won’t be able to do anything about it either as the idea probably wasn’t copyrighted.

How to ensure you’re the focus and will get a good product

Again, it comes down to the job board you’re using. Sites that allow you to peruse developers are often open to less than qualified freelancers. Some of them don’t even require experience or education. Upstack provides you with only the best.

Furthermore, Upstack offers you a 14-day “trial” period with any developer you hire. This is a window meant to help you evaluate if you made the right choice with your hire. You can easily switch to a different developer if it ends up not being the right fit for either of you. This buffer gives you peace of mind that many of these other job boards for freelancers don’t.

Not only are you getting the most qualified candidates, but you also get insurance on their quality.

3. Communication

As mentioned before, one of the best parts of remote freelancers is that you can get candidates outside of your area. That’s wonderful. It can give you access to talent all around the world, but it can also lead to communication problems.

When hiring a remote freelancer, your main form of communication will likely be through email. This means waiting for responses. Unfortunately, sometimes that line of communication can go silent, leaving you “ghosted.” Less reputable freelancers might just cut the line of communication, leaving you in the dark. However, even when they are communicating regularly, there can be a great delay.

It can be a great experience working with someone who lives across the globe, but that also might mean they have a timezone completely different than your own. This can cause a massive delay in response time. An afternoon email from you might arrive in the middle of the night for the developer. They might not see it until the following morning, at which point it is already late for you. This constant delay can really hinder productivity.

Then there is the language barrier. Many freelance sites require proficiency in English, but the issue with the lack of vetting is that you might end up with a developer who has passable English language skills but struggles with complex requests. This can lead to a miscommunication that ends with you not getting the result you were hoping for.

This adds another layer of vetting that you must contend with. It’s not to say that their developing skills aren’t on par just because their English skills are not. They might be supremely talented, but chances are they will need to be in contact with you and your team. If they are not able to hold conversations, it can cause plenty of problems.

Having a communication delay or miscommunication issues will only hurt your project and cost you money.

Ensuring strong communication

Again, it comes down to where you’re looking for developers. Different job boards have different screening and vetting processes. Some will allow nearly anyone to put themselves out there and leave it to you to weed through the strongest candidates. When you’re hiring a freelancer, test out their communication skills early on to ensure they are the right fit for you.

On the other hand, Upstack helps expedite that process with their vetting tools. They will make sure that you’re getting the best developers that will be held accountable. You won’t have to worry about the line of communication going silent. Upstack will keep that line of communication open and ensure that you’re getting regular and effective communication.

Challenges but not deterrents

All of this isn’t to say you shouldn’t hire a freelance developer. As mentioned at the start, there are many great benefits of hiring a freelancer to work on projects for you. Knowing the challenges allows you to prepare and address them.

There are plenty of great job boards out there that can help you find great and affordable freelancers. Upstack offers many solutions to these three main challenges along with many others, which makes it a wonderful solution.

When hiring a freelancer, remember that you want to find the best candidate, not the easiest or cheapest candidate. Doing so will help you save time, money, and energy.

At Upstack we help you grow your business faster. We connect you with the top 1% developers in the world. Contact us NOW!