Punch the Time Clock to be Successful
Last week, I was approached by Erica Benton at oDesk to see if I could make myself available for an interview about outsourcing. oDesk is cooperating with Steve Bynghall and Ross Dawson regarding a book they’re writing on the topic. Yesterday, I spent some time with Steve discussing the topic and wanted to share an insight I gleaned from the conversation.
Their book concept is to review how outsourcing is evolving and changing the way in which people work. It’s an inner look at crowdsourcing. There was one question that stuck me as I reflected upon it. The ah-ha came as an extension to the answer:
“How do you select your candidates to come and work with you?”
I’m sure that most people are going to examine work history, rates, skill sets, portfolios and feedback – and Steve confirmed this to me. These are no-brainer prerequisites to evaluating a candidate. An outsourced worker has to have the skills to complete your project before you would even consider them. But, the concept of “recency” is a more telling indicator of using those skills consistently without letting you down. “Recency” is literally how recent have the worker been accepting jobs and working on the platform. This is important because it is a specialized ability to have the self-discipline to consistently be using the platform. To me, recency is to consistent performance like a portfolio is to listed skills. It tell me, “I want this job. It’s important to me. I will show up consistently. I will do the work.” On oDesk, I normally create the following as qualifications when trying to identify workers:
- Keyword for required skills for position
- 100+ Hours
- 4.5+ Feedback
- 4+ English Skills
- 0-15 Days Active Period
Steve was truly interested in the “recency” response as he hadn’t quite heard it phrased that way. As he told me, most companies are interested in “availability.” To me, availability should have been addressed in the job profile (we need you for x hours) and is a cursory question before actually interviewing. Recency, on the other hand, is a prequalifying question that, in my experience, is the best indicator of outsourcing success. Here’s why:
- Skill Identification is easy
- Portfolio displays proof of competencies
- Hours worked displays experience in performance of those skills on the platform
- Feedback further narrows the field and shows they’ve successfully performed time and again
- English skills creates comfort for ease of communication and understanding of responsibilities
In all of these cases, you are going to find any number of qualified, capable individuals. But, what separates the capable from the superstars contributors is recency. Recency demonstrates consistency in hungriness, motivation and the ability to manage oneself devoid of true personal interactions. It is the best indicator to outsourcing success.
Thanks again to Steve and Ross for the interview and to Erica for putting us together. I wish you well in the book and look forward to the insights from others.
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