10 Guides in Finding the Perfect Talent for Your Next Freelance “Data Entry” Job

Hiring the best freelancer seems challenging and stressful. Especially for a job related Data Entry where there may be significant amount of candidates with different levels of experience and budget levels. However, with the right understanding of parameters involved it can be an outstanding experience.

Our research team has done extensive work to understand important factors that contribute towards excellent evaluation of a data entry talent pool. Scroll down for more information on what we have found out:

10 Guiding factors for evaluating Freelance Data Entry talent

1.  Write a complete job Description (And focus on right data entry talent)

The freelancers are independent professionals whose goal is to perform well.  So, they prefer to have a look at different job or project posts. It would help if you have clarity about the deliverables and expectations of your data entry task.

The best data entry freelancers will give you a qualified response. The more project descriptions you will write, the better proposals you will get.

The project details should include the following things:

• Expected start date of the project
• Deadline for completion of the project
• Project milestone structure
• Payment terms and conditions
• The way the work you prefer to be performed
• Data privacy protection guidelines

2.  Plan your Project Budget (And be realistic)

You need to define a realistic budget before hiring a data entry freelancer. For example, the hourly rate could be higher compared to a regular salaried person. When you estimate the cost of the project, take account of delivery and expectations as well.

Next, you need to set a fair price considering industry standards for similar data entry projects. If you are not confident, you can take advice from your network. You can refer similar job posts of other clients for better understanding.

3.  Post your Work Requirement on Social Media

The majority of businesses are making use of social media to post jobs or projects. For example, for data entry work, you can post projects on the linkedin or dedicated facebook pages or groups.

You will find professional freelancers with experience and skills. It is an effective way to hire an ideal data entry freelancer.

But social media channels do not offer security similar to freelancing platforms like Upwork, Freelancer or Projects2bid. Therefore you need to be extra careful during the hiring process that your money will not go wasted and the deliverables are up to your expectations.

4.  Shortlist the Freelancers (And eliminate the obvious)

After you post the data entry projects on freelancing sites and social media, you will receive proposals. You can have a minimum requirement levels so that you can easily filter out the proposals that do not meet them.

Next, shortlist the freelancers and compare their prices & experience. Once you decide your final list of candidates you can conduct interviews with them before hiring the best freelancers that suit your data entry requirement.

5.  Conduct an Interview (This is your final chance to filter the right candidate)

If video is not available, it is acceptable to interview on the phone. Most of the data entry freelancers are from remote locations. Therefore, the video interview is the only way to see them personally.

It is important that you have a set of specific questions related to your data entry project ready and ask each of the candidates with the same set of questions. That helps you to easily compare their individual responses.

Moreover, you will get a better understanding of data entry field as a whole and different skills and capabilities of data entry freelancing professionals.

Finally you should evaluate their attitudes during the interview. Below are some questions you can ask to evaluate their attitudes:

• Do you think you can complete this task on time?
• How were your similar experiences?
• Do you see any challenges in this data entry project?
• What is your course of action if you are running out of time?
• How do you balance between quality and speed of delivery?

6.  Sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA)

You don’t prefer your data in the competitor’s hands. Hence, it would help if you have ways to stay protected. For example, a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) is advised in the freelancing business. You will find several templates on the internet.

Moreover, you have the option to rehire data entry freelancers. Therefore it is important to have some agreement with them so that are safe to rehire them for your future data entry work.

7.  Get references from your Freelancer network (Explore the referral power)

You will have highly regarded freelancers in different fields you have worked with before. You can ask them about their data entry associates who have worked in the past. They are likely to recommend data entry workers having good reputation for excellent data entry work.

It does not limit over here; you can ask your college friends or past colleagues. In addition, you will be having a network of professionals on LinkedIn. So, you can personally chat with them. 

8.  Writing Speed for Data Entry

Your aim should be to find freelancers with fast typing speeds, and it is a must. In addition, it helps to complete the project on time or before the timeline.

As per the data entry standards, an average freelancer should complete 45 words in one minute. Moreover, a high-speed data entry freelancer should complete 60 to 90 words in a minute.

Once you have a shortlist of data entry candidates you can ask them to complete a recognized data entry speed testing tool and compare their scores. Certain candidates in data entry may already have their data entry speed test results posted as part of their Profile but it is always good to carry out the test using your preferred testing tool with all the shortlisted freelancers.

9.  Accuracy of the Work (And reduce repeat work)

Accuracy is as important as speed when you plan to seek new talent for a data entry freelancer. This refers to entering correct information without any errors.

If your hired freelancer has good speed but poor accuracy, it will waste time. Information is vital because many people’s lives depend on it. For instance, data related to hospital information. In that case, 100% accuracy is a must. Therefore it is vital that you strike a perfect balance between data accuracy and speed of entering when selecting a candidate.

10.  Do not rush to hire the Perfect Freelancer (Quality takes time)

It takes less time to hire an average data entry freelancer in the short run. However, if you aim to hire the finest data entry talent, in the long run, it will take time. It also depends on your past data entry projects.

You can use multiple freelancing platforms like Upwork, Freelancer, Projects2bid, Fiverr and more. Additionally,

Best approach is to break down your data entry task into smaller tasks and try to hire a freelancer for one of the tasks so you are able to gather experience regarding the process. Once you are confident on the hiring process then you can hire data entry freelancers for your bigger tasks.

Final Words

It is obvious that to get the best data entry talent, you need a lot of planning and research. I know it’s not easy but if you do not have much time or budget, then hiring several average freelancers at lower rates temporarily could be helpful. But make sure you only handover smaller parts of your bigger tasks to them.

Then later when you are confident of the process and worked with few data entry freelancers you can select the best among them, take them through an NDA so they won’t share or sell any information about your company with others in their line-up and hand over the bigger project to them.