Ten Tips for Hiring a Stellar eLearning Freelancer

Organizations looking for help withdeveloping eLearning content would do well to tap into the fast-growingfreelance market. It provides a wealth of skills and expertise that iscost-effective, flexible, and agile.

But with so much choice available, how doyou ensure you hire the best eLearning freelancer?

I have pulled together this list of 10 tipson how to hire an eLearning freelancer, based on the experience of providingfreelancers to fulfill eLearning projects all around the world.

1. Be ready to hire

This may sound like a statement of theobvious, but the freelance market is fast-paced, and freelancers with goodskills are in high demand. That means you need to offer work that is ready tostart in the next few days, not projects that are at the planning stage with astart date that could be six or seven weeks away.

2. Clearly define the task

Be crystal clear about the project and whatthe role is. This should provide some context about the organization, the scopeof the project, and what you expect the freelancer to produce. This part of theprocess is critically important, as you might find you don’t need a freelancerat all—or that you need more than one. By defining the task, you define theresource capacity required.

3. Know your budget

The budget is an important filter that willhelp narrow down potential freelancers. Providing a range for the fee—whetherit is a day rate or fixed-fee job—is a good approach, as it will mean you getinterest from freelancers who will have differing skills sets and levels ofexpertise.

4. Set the expected timecommitment

From the outset, freelancers like to knowwhat the time commitment is likely to be for your job. It may be a few hours aweek to a few days a week, and it may last a week or three months. Make sureyou are clear about the immediate time commitment and whether it might flexover time. This information helps them to pick the right job, and it helps youfind freelancers who can fully commit to the work.

5. Ask yourself: Do you need afreelancer on site?

Looking for people who need to be on siteor at your office will dramatically reduce your choice of freelancers. So, beclear as to whether you really need freelancers to be on site, and if you do,then think about how much time you need them there. Requiring someone to be inthe office one day every two weeks, versus every day of the week, will expand yourchoices.

6. Check out their portfolio

Gone are the days when freelancers couldreasonably say that their work was hidden behind a corporate firewall or burieddeep in a learning management system. Ask and expect to see one or moreportfolios from a freelancer. They might have more than one portfolioshowcasing their range of skills—instructional design and eLearningdevelopment, for example. Good freelancers will provide portfolios tailored tothe work and skills you are looking for.

7. Set a test

You wouldn’t hire a permanent employeewithout assessing their skills—and the same rule applies to freelancers. Makesure to set an appropriate test or task based on the skills you are lookingfor. For example, a task for eLearning content development might be to make achange to the skin on a document and rewrite copy to be more scenario-led.

8. Get testimonials

Ensure you have success stories from thefreelancer’s work for other clients. Freelancers need to provide evidence ofthe project or challenge, what they did, and the outcome. Expect to see examplesof work from a range of clients—you want to see that the freelancer has workedfor different organizations and across different industry sectors. Expect tosee feedback from the person who hired them.

9. Communicate effectively

Set out how you would like to communicatewith your freelancers for the duration of the project. This is especiallyimportant if they are based off site. Make sure you schedule regular projectupdates and ask your freelancers to provide a time sheet.

10. Define the tools you use

As well as setting out what tools you usefor eLearning development work—such as Articulate or Captivate—make sure thatyou outline all the other internal communication tools that will be used on theproject: Slack or Yammer, for example. This will help identify freelancers whoare able to use your tools.

These 10 tips describe how to find the besteLearning freelancers for your next learning project. But remember, this isjust the start of the process. Think about onboarding freelancers in the wayyou would onboard any full-time employee.

That means clear communication around when thejob starts, what they need in advance of that happening, and what you need themto know. The more effort you put in at this stage of the process, the quickeryour newly hired freelancer can get on with the job you hired them to do.