Someone wise once told me:
"If someone does something once, they will do it again. You can guarantee that."
Nowhere is this little insight into human behavior more apparent than when trying to hire a new freelance writer.
I've noticed it time and again.
If they do these things on their test article:
- Miss a deadline
- Ignore instructions
- Hand in a really bad first draft
- Leave obvious spelling/grammar mistakes
Then...they will do it again. Guaranteed.
But, I'm a sucker.
I like to give people the benefit of the doubt.
So when hiring new writers, I'd accept the first article if it was "OK" and trust that if I asked them to:
- Read the full instructions on style
- Follow the brief exactly
- Make sure it's on time
- Use more examples
- Use Grammarly
Then they'd simply do those things for the next article.
Well...
Unfortunately, I get proved wrong on that on a daily basis.
And can be exhausting.
It's definitely inefficient.
And it occasionally creates waste (just last week, I had to throw out an entire article and pay for it).
So, naturally, I've built a systematic test into my writing hiring process.
Here's how.
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