Shall I pay for a freelancer service that I don't like to hire in the future?

[mydriverlawyer]

I recently interviewed someone and do a sample work for me. I haven't hired the freelancer yet. But I tested her by giving a topic to write about, but in the end, the content that she submitted is very low in quality. I tried to coach her more on what I am expecting her to do, the style that she needs to follow, but it is still poor.

Before seeing her work, I promised that I will pay her for the content she will be submitting.

Ok, given the fact that I don't like to get her as a freelancer, shall I pay her for submitting a really poor quality job? 

Also, is there an option here that I can pay her without even hiring her yet?

Thanks for those who will answer.

[katrinabeaver]

Yes you need to pay her if that is what you agreed to. A contract should have been started to begin with because now it could be perceived as you asking for free work which is against TOS. 

To answer your question you will have to make a invite only post, invite her to it, send her an offer, then start the contract and fund a milestone for the test. 

[mydriverlawyer]

Okay Thank you for your answer. 

I just want to hire someone who works with quality as expected and before I do that, I need to test them first.

But I'll follow what you've said. Let me hire her, pay her. and if the quality of work is not improving, end the job.

Thanks!

[katrinabeaver]

I'm not saying you have to keep her. What I'm saying is that is the only way to pay for the test.  Just title the job test. If her writing doesn't meet your standards, then you shouldn't keep her. 

It's a great idea to test out a few candidates to see which may fit and which don't cut it. What you need to do is in your job postings explain what you're looking for, include that there will be a small paid test for the freelancers that you shortlist. Keep the one(s) you like and close the contract on the others. You can hire multiple people from one post for the test, you don't have to set up a separate post for each candidate. 

[2591126f]

You have not hired her and you have asked her to work on a test job. This is called free work.
No matter, how bad quality her work is once you asked her to work,in my humble opinion, pay them.
Bad hires (and unusable work) are unavoidable part of business expense.No body likes them but they cannot be avoided sometimes.
In my opinion, the correct way of testing freelancers would have been to post a small fixed price/hourly job , hire a few freelancer. Choose the best one among them based on their work. Pay and close all contracts and continue working with the chosen freelancer under a suitable contract.
There is no way to pay a freelancer you have never hired.
What you can do is to open a private fixed price job and invite her.Once she accepts invite, hire her. After she has accepted and a contract is formed, just release the money and close the contract.
In your case, the freelancer seems to be someone who does not properly understands how upwork works. She should actually have not worked before a contract but that should not stop you from doing correct thing and paying them.

[mydriverlawyer]

Thank you Vivek and Katrina for your insights. I have hired her already and sent her payment.

Before even the job starts, I have sent her the requirements needed to do the job. Problem is it was not of quality.

I will keep this in mind when hiring freelancers. Thanks guys for the input! 🙂

[kat303]

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@evangeline s wrote:

Thank you Vivek and Katrina for your insights. I have hired her already and sent her payment.

Before even the job starts, I have sent her the requirements needed to do the job. Problem is it was not of quality.

I will keep this in mind when hiring freelancers. Thanks guys for the input! 🙂

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Remember, that once you've paid her for that test, you do NOT have to continue working with her. Your prority is to get your work done, not to try and train/teach her. Especially if her work is of poor quality. The paid test singles that out. Now that you know, you can hire others for a small paid test, pick the one that performs the best and whose work is up to your standards and let the others go.