Below is the sequence of emails I sent to hire someone
These are just examples….too many employers have copied this email exactly and onlinejobs.ph is flooded with these emails….jobseekers won’t reply to you b/c they’ll think you are a spammer/scammer!
Email #1: This email went out to about 15 people.
I found your resume on OnlineJobs.ph.
I currently have a job opening in my company.
I need someone who is great in english, and who can do SEO for some of
my websites. Other skills are a bonus, but not necessary.
I am looking for someone to work full-time (40 hours/week) from home.
I will expect you to not have another job except for working for me.
If you’re interested, please write one paragraph of why I should hire
you. I want you to write this so I can see your english skills.
Don’t send me a list of your past experience. Describe it to me. I
want to see how well you write.
Also, please tell me your desired salary (I know you listed it in
OnlineJobs….just tell me again) and when you would be available to
start work.
This email is going to 13 people, that’s why I didn’t personalize it
to you…sorry.
John
Email #2: This went to each person who sent me back a good response to Email #1
How are the power outages there?
Will you be able to work full time?
Do you have your own computer?
Did you write that last response to me yourself? Did someone help you with it?
When could you start?
Email #3: This went to the person I really wanted to hire. They had already proven their english skills and also claimed to have other skills.
What SEO experience do you have?
If I gave you a new website to do SEO for, what would you do?
Can you send me some references to graphics work you’ve done?
How about wordpress sites you’ve built?
Email #4 – after 2 days of not hearing back from them, I sent this email
I didn’t hear from you about this. I think I’m ready to hire you, I’d just like to hear from you about these things.
Also, one of the things I know is a problem with Filipinos is you get embarrassed when you don’t know something. Then you disappear and don’t email me back. I’ve been through this quite a few times.
If this is going to work for us, the first thing you need to know is that you MUST email me when you have a problem. I NEED to know.
Let me know if you’re still interested.
John
She responded with a good response.
Email #5
Great. You’re hired.
The part about Filipinos is my experience. I’ve seen it over and over again. You don’t know much about my business yet (other than I own onlinejobs.ph) but I would bet you’ll get to know it pretty well over the next few months.
I would like you to start today.
I am inviting you to use our project management system. You will get a separate email from me inviting you to get in.
You will find a lot of information in there.
(here I gave some specific pages inside MyProjectPlans.com for them to read)
I want you to specifically tell me if you have any questions or comments about the Employment policies and the Using TrackLabor.com pages.
I want to make sure our working relationship starts off right.
I will pay you using xoom.com around the 1st of the month. It should be pretty easy. We will start at $200 per month. Depending on your work it will go up from there.
I expect this to be a long-term working relationship. I expect to have you working for me for years to come. Over time, I hope you will make a very good wage from me.
I am hiring you right now to do SEO work for a couple of websites we just started…and to help someone with whatever he needs help with.
Name, meet (my employee)
(he’s cc’d on this email).
He has worked for me for almost 5 years. He knows EVERYTHING.
You will be helping him with whatever he needs help with, and will be in charge of doing SEO for a couple of websites.
I will send you your “first” task in another email. He will probably also give you things to do.
(the first task was setting up wordpress on my hosting account, change the theme, write a post and a page).
Please let me know what you need from me and what I can do for you.
I’m excited to have you on our team.
John
I posted the specific emails here not for you to copy exactly. Some of the information I asked for might not be relevant to you.
I post it as an example and a guideline of what I look for when I’m hiring someone. You may (probably will) be different.
I do appreciate. This would help those who are really speeding up the process of outsourcing.
thank you for the drafts and sharing mentality.
Great indeed
Nicely done, thanks!
I love it. I have a similar process and it has been working out really well for my writers. I'm 4 for 4 right now on hiring 🙂 go me! I think the multiple emails is the way to go because it shows who's really serious.
In my initial interview email i asked them to write a short article. Those that passed I asked them to write one more. Well, one lady sent in a great article but come the 2nd article she emailed me saying thanks for the opportunity but i feel like my first article should be enough. Thanks for being honest and good luck! If they're like this in the beginning imagine how they'll be when you hire them. Skills you can teach, personality you cannot 🙂
Amen to that!
Hi Lisa,
Can you pass on the name / contact details of this person who sent the great article. She's the type of person I'd like to employ. Got it right first time! (I'm guessing that she's probably testing you as an employer just as much as you're testing her as an employee in terms of attitude, and she's probably thinking "Skills you can teach, personality you cannot 🙂 "
I agree with that.
Question: Could we have ask to perform an other task before hire-ring or not ?
Great stuff, John. I reiterate one of the comments above about Skype, with a bit more to add. A conversation on Skype not only gives you an ad hoc conversation that is good for final evaluation, but it also verifies whether they can set and keep and appointment, and how well they/you can connect.
I did not know John owns onlinejobs.ph and tracklabor.com
John this should definitely go under your best posts!! The follow up sequence you have will save me so much time when I'm ready to hire another person. I had to go though about 100 people and try out 2 different people before I found a great one.
John,
I currently have 8 Filipinos on my team and I learned everything I know about hiring them from you. I appreciate so much the information that you provide. I do have one question–as I've not seen it answered.
Question:
At the end of the year–do you send them an official "form" that satisfies IRS requirements–showing the amount of money you sent them?
Holly
I don't send them anything (other than the 13th month pay).
I don't think there's any IRS requirements for this.
I don't think there's any Filipino form which will satisfy IRS requirements.
Hi John,
I'm a bit confused. I need someone that can do content writing, SEO and webmastergraphic designing.
You are saying to hire someone full time. i have never hired a VA and so do not know if I could keep one person busy fulltime. Is is better to hire 2 persons for 2 different jobs?
Pattie
definitely agree with you Lisa. Something I've learned through 3 hirings (and dozens of interviews) is that if you don't get a feel for the person first, they sure can surprise you later (and not always in a good way)
I usually ask them for an article they've written in the past. If they don't have one, I give them a simple article to write – one that I won't use (and I tell them that).
If they write it and I don't end up hiring them, all is not lost for them. In fact, they can use that article to apply to other jobs!
@Lisa 200 word articles are interesting. Do you think that is enough text to really get a feel for their writing style? Or do you teach your writers style?
It would be interesting to know what other people do when you have more than 1 person who seems ideal for the job. How would you chose and what would you say to the others who you don't take on to trial?
For example if you had more than 2-3 people all with perfect English, suitable skills and seem a perfect fit.
Any thoughts?
My advice would be to choose which one has the best personality. All the other things can be taught, but they must have a healthy happy attitude.Go for the one you feel you are most comfortable talking to.
I reckon something genuinely special in this internet site.
solid post my dad does this kind of work BUT last post for tonight if someone can help me with some really good seo work or knows someone please send me an email
It would be striking a gold if you get a good VA who can work for you at $200 a month. Although that would be really low, since there would be internet connection and electricity bills from that $200, and they are at a fixed rate for everyone out here. I've tried working for this amount but inasmuch as I'd like my employer, getting paid $50 a week for 40 hours just wasn't gonna be rewarding for me to continue.
At some point, you may have experienced them working for only a couple weeks, and then they leave. It's because while they are working for you at $200 a month, they're also out there looking for a better salary, and when they do, they go. So if you really like you're VA , reward as soon as you can, so they stay.
As long as you find someone who you can trust and gets the job done right, you're okay. Just be very picky and give them a week to prove themselves.
Thank you for sharing this. Great Cheat Sheet!