In the modern world, companies look for new tactics and want to hire smarter people to tackle their business problems. As digitalization is spreading, so are the number of jobs and modes of work. Skills, talent, and energy are companies’ key considerations. In the presence of these, they will hire freelancers even if they are living in another country or continent.
The number of freelancer website designers has quadrupled in the last couple of years. Freelancers often work for a short period on your project, but even so, you need to know if they’re right before hiring. You need to do a background check. This article will help you assess the freelance designer that’s best for your needs.
Work Experience
Not all freelance website designers are great at working remotely, so it’s essential to run a background check before assessing any freelance worker. Before hiring one, check how active he has been in the past couple of years. Research the companies he has worked with and how aligned his pattern of work is with yours. Check if he is up to date with all the latest designing tools and whether he has access to the premium features.
However, it’s probably best to pick a freelance designer based on a previous client’s recommendations. Recommendations are important, as they help you understand if the freelancer is skilled and is good with time management. Moreover, many freelancing sites and pages provide the option to review and rate freelancers. You can also get details about his work experience and judge his performance from his ratings.
Technical & Communication Skills
Technical and communication skills are the two most important qualities every freelancer must have. You need a way to assess these skills during interviews. Use your best judgment. You can ask an assistant to check his ability to solve tasks and run a free background check to have his technical credentials verified. You can present him with a task and ask him to solve it as efficiently as possible way, then evaluate his efficiency and competence.
You can also personally interview him to check whether he communicates well. There may be a risk of even a highly skilled freelancer slipping up due to poor interpersonal skills. It is important to find out if he can stay on the same page as you, cooperate with your team and, most importantly, finish your design projects. Not only that, communication helps to build trust during collaborative work.
Assess His Designing Abilities
While punctuality is the main predictor of compliance with deadlines, the quality of work depends on many other factors. Before hiring a freelance designer, check his designs and styles. Assess whether his quality is as good as he assures and whether his work is professional.
Pay attention to the little details as well as the overall style of his portfolio. See if his designs are traditional or out of the box. Most freelancers usually have their best work on their websites. You can check out his previous designs to determine his abilities. Always remember freelancers are different from your full-time employees. Once you hire them, you cannot keep track of their work, at least not all the time.
Check His Ability to Adapt to Your Work Environment
Not all freelancers are flexible enough to adapt to all kinds of work environments. Even though this is the era of a digitally skilled workforce, some are still better at handling situations than others. Did you know about 50% of the current workforce in the US is actively freelancing? With such a vast population of freelancers, you need to evaluate whether the freelancer is agile, productive, and, most importantly, adaptive. Does he require you to check in from time to time? Does he need constant reminders?
Degrees and Credentials
Credentials are an important parameter everyone must check before hiring a freelance website designer. For instance, you are presented with a list of 50 capable freelance developers. How would you evaluate who’s best for your job? See if he has a college degree and where he graduated from. The degree should help you learn a lot about his work quality.
Next are his grades and GPA, his extracurriculars, and his overall performance at school. Even though a lot of people claim college credentials are less important than actual skills, you wouldn’t choose a freelancer who dropped out of school – or at least not over someone who graduated from a reputable university.
Wrap up
Now that you have read this article, you should know why it is important and how to evaluate a freelance website designer before hiring him. Your website influences your business journey a great deal. It should have a professional appearance with all the key elements needed to be able to reach out to clients.
Don’t underestimate the importance of a professional pre-hire background check, even for a freelancer. You face liability, including legal costs, if you hire someone with a criminal record who causes some kind of damage at the workplace. You might be accused of negligent hiring, where another employee sues you for hiring someone who could have been expected to present a risk to the company and the other staff based on their past.
