How to Hire Writers with Workello
Hiring writers used to suck.
It’s the worst part about your job.
The whole process is manual and chaotic.
It sucks so much that you give up once you get a couple of dozen candidates and only test a handful.
So, you don’t hire the best possible writers you can afford.
You hire the best you can of the few you tested.
Then you spend too much time editing because their portfolio was way better than what they’re submitting to you, and they inevitably resign, or you terminate them.
Here’s the deal: just like the #1 lever for faster SEO results is publishing more content, the #1 lever for hiring better writers is evaluating and testing more writing candidates.
That’s it.
Whether you need sales-driven, persuasive writers or SEO-driven content writers, this process will get you results.
And Workello makes it possible to filter through hundreds of candidates to identify and hire the top 1%.
Why Content Teams ❤️ Workello
“Almost overnight, we had 100+ candidates that we could quickly filter through, and in about 2 weeks, we hired 10 writers.” – Kiril Kirilov, Founder, Rush App
“Workello has changed the game for us. In just under 2 weeks, we hired 4 really amazing, good-quality writers.” – Alan Martin, Founder, RNKD
“Our first hiring round with Workello has been our most successful hiring round so far. In the span of two weeks, we received about 140 candidates, tested 30, we shortlisted to 15 interviews and hired seven new writers that joined our existing team.” – Dr. Mark Coster, Founder, FairyDigital
“With Workello, we were able to test so many candidates that now we are absolutely confident that we hired the best people for the job.” – Alexander Heinle, Zavvy.io
“Never in my life have I managed to filter through 200 candidates in a space of two weeks, and actually get to a point where I’m ready to hire someone, and that for me was a game-changer” – Andrew Kemp, Managing editor, State of Digital Publishing
“With Workello, I can have a consistent stream of candidates that I can always reach out to very quickly and find new writers to help with our stories fast.” – David Adler, NetInfluencer
“Workello just brings it all into one easy place. I don’t have to chase around messages and portfolios in various different channels anymore, which was a nightmare to keep up with,” Jacob Andra, Founder, CustomerFaucet
“With Workello, it’s been so much easier to hire writers and video editors. The testing part is what really shines and makes our process more streamlined.” – Joey Daoud, CEO, NewTerritoryMedia
Start Accepting Candidates in 3 Minutes
It takes approximately three minutes to deploy your hiring funnel in Workello because it has pre-written and pre-optimized everything job descriptions and pre-hire assessments, based on the Workello team’s experience with hiring hundreds of writers.
- Your job description is pre-written
- Your pre-hire writing assessment is pre-written
- Your candidate notification emails are pre-written
Everything is ready to go, so you can start hiring better writers ASAP.
Step #1: Sign up for Workello
Sign up for Workello and breeze through the setup in about a minute.
Step #2: Post your job ad on your favorite hiring channels
Candidates find your job ad on LinkedIn, Reddit, ProBlogger (or anywhere else you post) and complete their application on Workello.
Click here for an example of what your candidates will see.
Further down in this hiring playbook, you’ll find the Workello team’s favorite hiring channels for hiring generalist writers – if you’re looking for writers with experience in a specific niche, they got you covered too.
Step #3: Watch candidates stream into your hiring dashboard
Step #4: Send pre-hire assessments to the best candidates
It only takes one click to send candidates a pre-hire assessment test or a polite rejection email.
This means you can filter through hundreds of candidates in just a few minutes.
Candidates receive emails inviting them to take a writing test on Workello.
Step #5: Review completed pre-hire assessments
Candidates who complete their assessment are moved from ‘Assessment Sent’ to ‘Assessment Received’.
Step #6: Invite your best candidates to an interview, or send them an offer
With just one click, invite your candidates to an interview, send them a polite rejection email, or click ‘Pass Assessment’ to send them to a holding status while you review your other candidates.
Best hiring channels for finding good writers
Now it’s time to get candidates.
You can post on all of the resources below in less than 30 minutes total.
If you’re not looking for generalists and only want writers with specific experience, check out Workello’s playbook on hiring niche writers.
Did you know that you can post free job ads on LinkedIn?
And it takes about 5 minutes?
Learn more here.
Reddit is a runner-up favorite for free job ads, right next to LinkedIn.
It’s quick, it’s easy, it’s free.
In our last round of hiring at Spacebar, we received the bulk of applications from these 3 writing-specific subreddits for job listings.
Writing Specific
General Hiring
Facebook Groups
Posting your job in Facebook groups is NOT necessary to getting 200+ candidates in 72 hours.
It’s also a bit more work because you’ll generally get fewer candidates from each post, so you have to make more posts.
But it’s invaluable if you’re looking for writers with experience in a specific niche/industry.
And it’s free.
But remember — it’s not necessary unless you want writers with specific experience and interest.
Here’s how to do it:
- Navigate to Facebook.com/Groups
- Type in your keyword
- Join 10+ relevant communities
- Wait to be accepted
- Go back and post your job ad
Some pro-tips:
- Skip the generic “Hiring Writers’ Facebook Groups—they’re filled with terrible writers.
- Don’t link to your Workello job ad in the post yet. External links reduce visibility in the newsfeed.
- Return to the post 24 hours later after it’s had a chance to accumulate reach, and respond to each commenter with a link to your Workello application.
- Check your ‘Other’ inbox on Facebook and reply to anyone who DM’d you with a link to your Workello application.
Paid Resources
ProBlogger costs $80 for a regular job ad, and it should get you about 100 writing candidates.
But if you upgrade to the premium job ad for $160, you’ll probably get 300+ candidates.
Go with the premium.
$160 might seem like a lot, but you’re going to spend at least $80 per page of content, and the #1 decision you’ll make as a content manager is who you hire.
Everything is either easy, hard, or impossible depending on that first decision.
Workello Demo
Check out this 10-minute demo.
If you have questions, book a call.