Why Hiring Is So Hard (And How To Fix It!)

Almost everyone that has hired someone for the first time gets an unpleasant surprise when you realize that hiring is NOT as easy as it should be.

Believe me, I learned it the hard way for SURE.

So why is hiring so hard? Why does it feel like you are looking for a needle in a haystack? And even if you find someone, why don’t they just do what you want them to?

In this article, I’m going to break down 5 reasons why hiring is so hard – and how to fix it!

If you use these tips, it will completely transform how you think about hiring and make it WORK 1000X better.

Let’s get into it:

1. Hiring & Managing Is A Skill That Needs To Be Learned

Hiring itself is not the hard part.

In fact, hiring someone is actually very easy.

There are millions of people out there that want to work, so hiring is not hard at all. If you post up a job in the right place, you can get hundreds, or even thousands of responses overnight.

Hiring someone isn’t hard – but HIRING successfully is VERY hard.

And it’s not natural.

If you’re an entrepreneur, you’re very used to how your brain works. You are naturally wired to solve all kinds of problems. You’re naturally creative, and you have a vision of how things should work and the standards you have for whatever you’re working on.

So it’s natural to assume that everyone that you hire will be like you – but in reality, there are VERY FEW people like you.

That means, the people you hire, especially if you’re hiring them at an entry-level price range, are going to need a lot of help.

To successfully hire and manage someone, you’re going to have to learn that skill.

But don’t worry – that’s just like every single other thing that you’ve done. You’re an entrepreneur and this is exactly what you do. You learn things like a champion, so you just have to learn it just like any other skill.

Did you know that if you read the top 5 books on any subject you’ll know more than 90% of people that actually work in that field?

You can learn it from books, or you can check out The Outsourcing Blueprint, which is our new course that will give you all the skills you need.

2. You Need To Hire At The Right Level & Price

A big mistake that a lot of people make is trying to hire outside of the correct price range.

For instance, a first step that a lot of people make is to get a virtual assistant.

It’s so attractive to think about how you can hire someone for $5 an hour.

But once you do, you realize that problems start creeping in, and it actually costs way more.

For example, at $5 an hour here are some things that have happened to me:

1. They don’t take the job that seriously because every other person in the world is also looking to offer them $5 to do work. If you fire them, who cares? There are a thousand other people looking to hire cheap too.
2. They will outsource their work to someone else like their cousin
3. They often don’t have the skills so it takes them 3X as long to do what should take just 10 min
4. Then they are 10X more costly because you have to actually take your time to train them

So you have to make sure you hire at the right level. We divide up freelancers into 3 levels from entry-level, mid, and expert level.

Entry-Level

Entry-level you can usually get pretty inexpensive, but these are workers that you need to train on everything and shouldn’t require any previous experience. This is typically $5-$12 / hour outside of the US.

This is great for data entry or anything that doesn’t require much skill. But as I talk to clients they generally have better luck hiring at the higher end of that.

Mid-Level

Mid-level is where you need someone with previous experience. So think $12-$25 an hour depending on if they are US or you want to go global.

This is good for positions like basic graphic designers, web designers, video editors etc. They have previous experience/talent, but you’ll still need to set the direction and give a lot of feedback generally.

Expert-Level

The last level is expert, which can range from $25 – $75 – $100+. Now, this level has multiple years of experience in the field.

These are consultants, coaches, high-level project managers. They are great for when YOU don’t know what to do- they can actually tell you what should be done.

Not only can they do the project, but they can be responsible for the success of the project.

3. Not All Freelancers Are Amazing

I wish everyone was ready to be a killer freelancer, but the reality is that finding great people is HARD.

We run multiple businesses and use HR software, so I can see how many people apply, get a 1st round, 2nd round, etc and what percent makes it through.

If you do the process right, only about 1% of most applicants should be making it though. I know that sounds crazy but that’s the truth.

You definitely don’t want to be spending your time weeding out applicants. As an entrepreneur, you need to focus on moving your business forward.

So that’s why we do what we do at FreeUp. We do the pre-vetting for you and weed out the 99% of applicants so that you can get connected even faster.

4. You Need Buy-In

When you are interviewing someone, you want them to impress you. You want them to show you how good they are going to be long term; How they not only can do the job but they are good communicators and have a good attitude because let’s face it, no one wants to go to work people they don’t like.

But from the freelancer side, they want to make sure they are getting good clients too. They want clients that are awesome to work for, that will help them achieve their goals.

And when you inspire your freelancers, they work better for you, they work harder for you, they go the extra mile and they will take care of you.

So it’s 1000% worth it to put in some extra time to getting buy-in.

This starts with the interview. I like to paint a picture of how nice it will be to work with us when I’m on the first call.

And then when they are hired, doing a real onboarding is imperative. We spend about half of a day welcoming them to the team, talking about the culture, introducing them to key people, talking about the history of the company, and the mission and all that.

When you put this effort in, you get rapport and they care. This will also help prevent flakes, which is a VERY annoying problem. Hiring someone who just dips out or doesn’t show up – that happens when you don’t get buy-in.

Getting buy-in is huge and will pay dividends for your entire relationship.

Last up, the number 5 reason it’s difficult to hire is that:

5. Everyone Needs Coaching

When I started, I got my freelancer up and going and then I just let them go. I assumed they were doing well.

Well here’s the thing – If you hire freelancers and you let them do their thing, here’s whats going to happen.

You’re going to let them go a month and think, “Maybe I should follow up and see how they are doing,” but then you realize you have no time, so you put it off.

So maybe another month goes by and you finally get a few minutes to check in on what’s been going on.

Here’s what is going to happen – 100% of the time, I mean 100% of the time:

When you check on their work, it will be garbage.

Well, at least in your mind.

And here’s the hard part – it’s not their fault.

You see everyone NEEDs coaching. Even 6 figure earners that we’ve hired need coaching.

Not because they don’t have the skills or they are bad, they are actually great. But they aren’t mind readers and they need you to consistently provide feedback, and give direction.

The easiest way to do this is to set up weekly 1 on 1s. This is a time that you’ll meet every week for 30 min or so.

You’ll ask them what they did the last week and give feedback, then ask them what they are planning to work on the next week or work on scoping that out with them. They can ask any questions and you need to help remove any roadblocks they are having.

As you grow out of being a soloprenuer, your job grows in scope – now you’re a manager and the job of a manager is to get the most out of your direct reports.

If you do not have a weekly time set up with each of your reports right now, get it done!

This will save YOU loads of headaches and will improve the life and work of your reports.

Conclusion

If you follow these 5 tips, hiring will become WAY easier for you and you’ll get the success you’re looking for.

To recap, just remember:

1. Hiring & Managing is NOT natural – It’s A SKLIL that needs to be learned.
2. You need to hire at the right LEVEL at the right price
3. Find the best freelancers by vetting aggressively
4. You need buy-in
5. Everyone needs coaching

If you can remember these, you’ll be well on your way to success.