Start-up Entrepreneurs' Blog

Part Time Workers, Headache or Relief? Hire the Best, Avoid the Headaches

March 1, 2011

Your start-up has some tasks that are being left undone because there is no one to do them.

Your start-up is also cash-conscious. So the obvious solution is to add the work to those on staff all ready. You quickly reconsider because they will be overwhelmed and distracted from their higher priority tasks, and everything isn’t going as quickly as wanted anyway.  What do you do?

You don’t want to hire a full time employee. It’s too expensive and you don’t know if you’ll need them for the long term. Consultants seem ideal because you only want them for a short while, but they will likely charge consulting rates which are more per hour than your current staff. The ideal solution would be to offer some part time employment.

Should you put a job ad out on Craigslist? Should you find a freelancer on Elance or use Amazon Mechanical Turk? Should you call some people you know who are employed by other firms and ask if they’ll do some work for you? Should you ask you current staff if they know anyone?

What are some considerations when hiring part-timers? They can end up being the answer to your problems or they could end up becoming a headache. Which will be your part-timer?

The first part-timer I hired was highly recommended to me by one of my staff. He was considered to be very competent technically – and he was. We had some extra programming work that needed to be done. It was a short term project, specifically requested by a customer, not a difficult project at all. We thought we were crystal clear, we would provide all the tools and he needed to commit to 20 hours per week for the duration of the project. Except for getting to understand the project’s requirements and lunch time working meetings, he wanted to work from home. We agreed. We set-up milestones, end dates, and required him to fill out time sheets in order to be paid. What happened? He showed up for the in office meetings, but otherwise the project didn’t progress. He submitted time cards showing he was only working one hour here and a few hours there, but never anywhere near the time required.  I guess I should be grateful he was at least honest about how much time he was working. In the end, we had to reassign the work to a full time employee to get it moving forward and the lack of progress for those few weeks upset the customer. What happened? His life took priority over his part-time work. I spoke with him and he had a busy life – he worked full time at another tech company, he was involved in community theater and was rehearsing for a performance, he played soccer on the local team, and he had to spend some time with his family. After he got through his regularly scheduled activities then he started working on our project, and he simply didn’t have enough time or energy left for us. I asked why he took the project and he said because he wanted to earn some extra spending money.

We’ve all hired the part-time employee and vowed to do it differently the next time. Here’s some pitfalls and advice.

Beware of the Hobbyist

A part-time employee who has a full-time job may not be dedicated to your job.  One solution is to require them to only work in the office, and that will prevent their lives from taking priority over your work.  Don’t pay them hourly instead pay them for milestones and project completion.

Structuring Part-timer Payments

I’ve also paid part-timers on a project basis and on occasion the person has disappeared before the project completed because it was requiring too much of their time. The solution is to pay more for milestones towards the completion date and don’t pay money for starting the project unless the part-timer needs to purchase supplies.  Whether a consulting firm, service, or otherwise, I don’t like paying upfront fees for anything because I rarely have a good experience.

Beware of a Multi-Tasking Part-Timer

I’ve hired part-time employees that have had multiple part time positions. The problem here is when one of their positions unexpectedly wants more time or needs to rearrange the part-timer’s schedule. The part time employee will accommodate whoever is paying the most. Just this past week, I had a great part time employee, just drop us because their other employer suddenly needed 60 hours per week. We weren’t even aware they had another part-time job!

Online On-Demand Workers

I’ve even gotten freelancers and small task workers on several sites offering on-demand services. They’re not nirvana either.  If you need the work done now, it’s not easy getting into their schedules. I’ve been bumped out of schedules because someone with a bigger job came along and our work got pushed aside.

The Best Part-Timers

The best part-time employees I’ve found are those who only work part-time. In particular, professional moms who are also taking care of their school children because they can work from the office between morning drop-off and afternoon pick-up.  These moms want to keep their professions and are extremely efficient at managing their time and are highly productive because they don’t allow themselves to get distracted by socializing in the break room.

Consultants may cost more per hour, but can be worth it. They are highly productive and this makes up for the additional hourly costs.

Start-ups often need to outsource a variety of tasks, and many of these do not warrant full time positions or require someone for long periods of time. I know a business man who told me he doesn’t hire part-time employees because it’s so hard to find quality ones. When you are a start-up, the output of every person is important, or otherwise you shouldn’t be doing the task. Unfortunately, learning to deal and manage workers is something that requires experience. The more you do it, the better you get at it. The key is to build and create a network of part-time workers that you can call on to get things done when needed. But it takes time to develop this network and entrepreneurs are impatient people.

Filed under: Management

Tags: freelancers, on demand workers, part time employment, professional moms, start up