Frequently Asked Questions

  1. Why should I use SkillSoniq?

    SkillSoniq is a free AI-Powered Recruiting App where you can Hire Employees on your payroll from Day 1 or hire Freelancer (s) and convert them to your payroll at the best time. We are the simplest, most efficient way to hire employees and freelance contractors in your city or country. We are the perfect fit if you:

    1. Are sick of screening an endless list of resumes on job portals.
    2. Want a quick and affordable way to hire skilled freelance contractors and employees.
    3. Want to reduce hiring risk by trying out employees before moving them to your payroll.
    4. Are looking to save on exorbitant agency fees.

    Through our intelligent artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms, you directly get connected with the best, most affordable talent required for you to kick-start or grow your business.

  2. How does the "Freelancer-turned-Employee" model work on SkillSoniq?

    Unlike other freelance websites, 60% of clients on SkillSoniq hire employees on their payroll on day 1 or hire freelancer (s) who get converted to an employee later. All the talent on SkillSoniq are looking for a full-time job, so eventually all of them want to work on your payroll. However, you get the option to try them out before moving them to your payroll, thereby minimizing your hiring risk and cost.

  3. What sort of employees and freelance contractors are in your marketplace?

    You can hire freelancer and employees across 3 broad buckets:

    1. Tech roles: These comprise of Developers, UI/UX Designers, Technical and Non-technical Product Managers, Business Analysts, Project Managers and many more who will help you build your products and services.
    2. Marketing roles: These comprise of social media marketers, content writers, proofreaders, sales professionals, customer service reps, growth hackers, email marketers, and many more who will help you expand your business.
    3. Other roles: These comprise of Big Data Analysts, Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence Experts, Blockchain Specialists, Operations Specialists, Financial Analysts, Accounting book-keepers, Admin/Exec Assistants, Call Center Agents and many more.
  4. How does the process to hire freelancer and employee work on SkillSoniq?

    Once you are signed up, you can start posting jobs for free. Thereafter, our sophisticated algorithms search for the best matches for you and present them to you within a few seconds. You can then instantly screen and hire freelancer and employee matches.

  5. When do I convert a freelancer to an employee?

    There are many factors that come into play when deciding when to convert a freelancer to an employee. Most companies take 3 months to convert freelancers to an employee. However, this can vary by company depending on the flight risk of the candidate, cultural fit within your organization, your budget for hiring an employee on your payroll and several other factors.

    What's cool is that SkillSoniq predicts when you should convert a freelancer to an employee, based on trends we see on our platform. This way, you can easily hire freelance talent on SkillSoniq, and depend on our technology to predict when it's time to move the freelancer to your payroll. While most companies use our "Freelancer turned Employee" model, you can choose to hire someone on your payroll from Day 1 as well.

  6. What happens after I interview the candidate?

    After you interview the candidates, you can either send them a job offer to work directly with them or a project offer to try them out for a bit on SkillSoniq before moving them to your payroll. Once the candidate accepts your offer, we run a background check on them which usually takes less than a day. After the background check is completed, we complete onboarding documentation after which candidates start working with you.

    Once candidates start working with you, you can manage them through our intuitive dashboards.

  7. Where are your candidates based?

    SkillSoniq has talent across all the major cities in the United States and Canada and is expanding rapidly to all major cities across the world. We get thousands of applications every month and approve only the top 10% of candidates on our platform.

  8. How are you able to source talent at such affordable rates?

    We provide you talent at highly affordable rates, so you don’t have to worry about outsourcing your tasks/roles to foreign countries while compromising on the quality of work. Candidates prefer to ask for lower rates on SkillSoniq because of the following reasons:

    1. Candidates have recently switched industries and domains, hence are looking to start at low pay rates.
    2. Candidates are looking to get paid a low rate to be able to get a foot in the door, and hopefully be offered a full-time gig by you!
    3. Candidates are looking for supplemental part-time gigs to make more money and gain relevant experience.
    4. SkillSoniq’s algorithms keep candidates highly utilized throughout the work week, so they can clock in more hours and reduce their pay rates for clients.
  9. How do you screen candidates?

    All candidates go through an intense screening process (highlighted below), after which the top 10% are approved on our platform:

    1. In-depth analyses of skills: We analyze skills and how they have been used in past experiences. This helps us decide if the skills mentioned on the resume are genuine, and if they will be needed by our clients.
    2. Dynamic Demand-Supply matching: Our threshold for approving candidates increases if demand for their skills is low, and decreases if demand for their skills is high. This way, we maintain an active pool of candidates ready to work on projects when needed.
    3. Phone Screening: We also conduct a 15-30 min phone screening, if needed.
  10. How does your matching algorithm work?

    Our sophisticated AI and ML based technology gets you skilled talent within seconds. Our candidates go through an intense review process by SkillSoniq after which the top 10% are approved.

    We then analyze millions of data points across candidate resumes and jobs posted, to get you the best matches. Our matching algorithm is backed by powerful Machine Learning and AI technologies, and dynamically ranks candidates against one another to find you the best match. Our algorithms get smarter as you use our recruiting app, and gives you hiring superpowers!

    Our matching algorithms have proven to provide very high conversion rates for clients, reducing the hiring cost by as much as 60%.

  11. What is your price?

    SkillSoniq is free for companies to post unlimited projects, screen, and hire unlimited freelancers! We charge a nominal payment processing fee on top of what you pay freelancers, to cover our payment gateway costs.

    If you decide to hire an employee directly from Day 1 or convert a freelancer to an employee, SkillSoniq charges a nominal buyout fee.

  12. How do timesheets work?

    If you hire freelancers on SkillSoniq, you would be able to manage their timesheets easily. Every day, you would be able to see the hours worked by your candidates in your Dashboard. Candidates will submit a weekly timesheet by Sunday. You will get notifications when weekly timesheets are submitted and can view the hours worked by the freelancer during the week. Based on hours worked by the freelancer, you will be billed by SkillSoniq every Monday for the previous week. We encourage you to review the hours worked by the freelancer before they submit their timesheets every week.

    Constant communication with the freelancer is essential so that you do not get surprised by the hours clocked in by freelancers.

  13. How do I pay the freelancer during the trial period?

    You will need to pay SkillSoniq every week based on the number of hours worked by your freelancer from Monday through Sunday in the previous week. We provide a consolidated invoice for all the freelancers you have hired on SkillSoniq, so that you can pay just one entity, as opposed to paying several workers individually. Once we receive payment from you, we will retain up to a 20% commission and pass on the rest to your freelancers. You can pay SkillSoniq via an ACH Bank Transfer and/or all major credit / debit cards.

  14. Can I hire freelancers based only on commission?

    Yes, you can hire freelancers based on commissions that are paid based on a performance metric. Remember, SkillSoniq still keeps up to a 20% commission from the amount due to be paid to the freelancer.

  15. How can my company join SkillSoniq?

    You can sign up with us for free by clicking here and begin posting projects right away! Our technology ensures that we connect you with the best local freelancers as soon as you post a job!

  16. Any advice for recruiting successfully?

    Once you post jobs, we advise you to conduct interviews and hire skilled talent quickly. Unlike on most recruitment platforms, job-seekers on SkillSoniq are always on the go and are actively looking for a job. This means that we have a very high interview and job offer acceptance rate on our platform, and you do not waste time screening candidates who are not interested in working with you.

    Almost every candidate you invite for an interview will respond to your offer within a day, either accepting your interview request or stating a reason for declining your interview. Once you’re matched with a candidate, our biggest piece of advice is to move quickly. Either present a project offer, or decline the candidate process within 5-7 business days. The longer you wait, the more companies and offers you’re going to be competing against.

  17. Where do you source your talent?

    We value highly skilled candidates or candidates who are willing to learn to get a job of their dreams. We attract candidates through a combination of word-of-mouth, paid and viral marketing. We also have strategic partnerships with top business and engineering schools, coding schools and coworking spaces such as Dartmouth University, Cornell University, App Academy, Launch Academy, and WeWork.

  18. Can I contact candidates outside of the marketplace?

    Yes, after a candidate has accepted your interview offer, we connect you with the candidate over email. Thereafter, you can communicate with them over email, on the phone, or in person. However, all offers have to be made on our platform. If we find that you hired candidates outside of our platform without our written consent, we will charge you $5,000 and 10% of the amounts payable to the candidate for the first 12 months of such engagement or employment. You and the candidate will also be prohibited from using the services of SkillSoniq in the future.

  19. Do you specialize in a certain industry?

    No, our candidates come from 12+ industry verticals, and hiring managers across all industries hire candidates from our platform.

  20. How long does it take to hire a candidate on SkillSoniq?

    As long as your schedule lines up with the candidates you are interviewing, on average, it takes 5 business days for a company to get started with candidates from the time a project is posted on our platform.

  21. Who does the documentation for Freelancers?

    SkillSoniq manages 1099, W9 and other legal documentation for all freelancers, so you don’t have to worry about paperwork and regulatory deadlines.

  22. Do you conduct background checks on your freelancers?

    Yes, every candidate goes through a comprehensive criminal, social security and sex offender check on SkillSoniq, before they are placed on a project. We refresh background checks on active freelancers every year.

  23. Does SkillSoniq sponsor work visas?

    We do not sponsor work visas for freelancers and only offer freelancers who have a valid work permit to work as a 1099 independent contractor in the United States. Having said that, once you work with our freelancers on projects, you always have the option to hire them on your payroll and then sponsor their work visa (e.g. H1b visa).

  24. Do you provide insurance benefits to your freelancers?

    In our pursuit to level the playing field between freelancers and full-time employees, we have partnered with Trupo, to provide portable insurance benefits to our freelancers. Through Trupo, our freelancers have the option to buy into illness, accident, dental, vision and life insurance benefits. We are continually working to add more insurance products to the portfolio of products currently offered by our insurance partner. This means till the time you work with our freelancers, they can opt for our insurance coverage, and if you hire them on your payroll, you can offer them your own benefits.

  25. Can I work with a freelancer outside of SkillSoniq after a few months of completing a project with them on SkillSoniq?

    Clients are not allowed to work with past, current, or future freelancers on SkillSoniq directly, unless it has been at least 12 months since they completed a project with a freelancer on SkillSoniq. If you absolutely need to work with a freelancer directly before the 12 month lockout period has expired, we request that you write to us at [email protected] and take written approval to do so. SkillSoniq charges clients a "buyout fee" to work directly with freelancers they source on SkillSoniq. Once you pay this fee, you are free to work with your freelancer outside of SkillSoniq.

    Please note that SkillSoniq imposes heavy penalties if we find freelancers working directly with a client outside of SkillSoniq after being introduced to a client, during a project, or within 12 months after a project has been completed on SkillSoniq. These penalites include a $5,000 fee charged to the client, and restrictions imposed on both the freelancer and the client from using the SkillSoniq recruiting app in the future.

  26. If I found a candidate on SkillSoniq, but want to hire him/her in a few months, can I hire them outside of SkillSoniq?

    For all candidate matches who accept your interview invite on SkillSoniq, you are liable to hire them on SkillSoniq, unless it has been at least 12 months since you they accepted your interview invite.