6 Questions to Ask a Potential Contingent Worker Hires | No BS Management Advice
By Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter
From the WorkMarket subsidiary of ADP, here are 6 questions you can ask a potential contingent worker beyond skills-based interview questions.
Six questions to ask a potential contingent worker for your team.
I spotted an article that ADP put out for their WorkMarket division that involves
screening questions for when you’re bringing on a contingent worker, or Freelancer or a
contractor. Just a couple of different kinds of questions that will allow you to get a
better flavor for them than the kind of questions you might ask employees– you know, “tell
me about yourself.” “Walk me through your background.”
Here’s question number one. What project are you most proud of? And what that does is it’s
a softball question that gets them to open up. That’s my opinion. So what you’re getting
a sense of from their answer is initiative that they have, conviction that they have,
and does the answer show confidence in their ability to provide a professional end result
and meet project needs.
Question number two.. Important question for a contingent worker.
What is your real availability. Many contingent workers end up biting off more than
they can chew. And that doesn’t mean that they’re they’re right for your specific assignment
but it can affect your deadlines. For example, someone I’m working with now as part of what
was originally supposed to be a three person team. But the third really can’t start at
the same time the project needs to start.. So the result winds up being that there could
be two people starting, the third will join later. It’s going to double up some of the
work for the initial crew. You know, you just want to know so you can make plans.
What is your preferred method of communication is the third question. So listen for things in their preferences, and see if they’re compatible with your team. So if your team has a bunch of phone callers, and this person is a texter, this is going
to be a problem for you. And you can follow up, as the article says, How do you organize
your tasks to ensure that you’re meeting all of your timelines and what tools you’re using?
Again, just gives you a sense of how they’re organized.
How does this assignment fit with your overall goals? Well, it just may be something that
pays the bills. But as, you know, a person quote in the article suggests, you look for
purpose and plan for developing additional skills, some of which may be met by the work
on the project. That’s the ideal set of circumstances.
What would your last client, how would your last client rate you is the fifth question? And thus, you’re listening for hesitation in
my opinion. So, again, sometimes you hear things that will surprise you and surprises when they get to you are really good.
Roadblocks. Perseverance. Adversity. Resilience. Determination
Last question. What technology are you familiar with? So for example, the contingent worker,
maybe . . . I’m going to use an example is. PC oriented. You’re a Mac user. There are
issues with that, or for your industry. The example that they give is marketing automation,
software, Scrum, Slack, etc.
And then the follow up is on a scale of one to five, how are you? How familiar are you
with the tech that we use for to achieve this goal? Simple questions, but it just gives
you a flavor of the person you’re talking to.
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The contingent worker needs to have the agency rep ferret out this type of information. I wouldn’t walk into a client without knowing this and more. That said, the clients typically hide a lot of their issues even going so far as to interview you at a different location than where you’d be working.
I broached this from an employer perspective and, often, contingent workers are not well-paid consultants. They may someone filling in at an office for a few weeks, a back office worker for a financial firms, or someone who is going to help design a website as an hourly person