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What Is A Data Entry Specialist & How To Hire?

EM Admin
Oct 1, 2023
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A data entry specialist is an expert professional who knows how to use technical knowledge of record inputting well and maintain entries skillfully.

Various business process outsourcing (BPO) companies search for these professionals to entertain the needs of their own customers. These requirements can be related to examining and introducing accuracy, completeness, and freshness in their databases.

How to Identify a Perfect Data Entry Specialist before Hiring?

To identify, you have to observe key skills, certifications, and experience of the applicant or potential employees. If you’re still confused, think of the main requirements that you need to fulfil by hiring. This brainstorming will help you to discover job roles and specifications for the positions.

Take into account that these technically sound specialists are not like a programmer, data scientist, or software engineer. They are the ones who have a stronghold on the language, and a good typing speed. These things define technical aspects. If you consider the qualification, a diploma or typing certification are sufficient to consider the talent for the position.

Steps to Hire Data Entry Specialist

These talents are precious for BPOs, Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO) and business process management companies (BPMs). Although these entities delve into data mining, business intelligence, and customer support, these all are crucial. This is also true that no such things could be done unless accurate data is there. So, the role of a data entry specialist becomes significantly important. Therefore, these business entities establish criteria to hire such professionals from domains like business administration, computer science, or information technology. In reference to the technical skills, these details are going to help you to discover:

These skills can guide you to hiring the right onshore or offshore data entry service provider for your company or organisation. It can help you to streamline data processing, accuracy, and efficiency of related operations. In this post, we will discuss the steps involved in hiring a data entry specialist.

Typing Speed and Accuracy: Lightning-fast typing is preferable in this domain, which supports timely deliveries with premium quality of data.
Computer Skills: These professionals must be easy-going with the computer, which indicates their computer literacy and ability to deal with vital applications, such as Microsoft Excel, Google Sheets, and database management systems.
Attention to Detail: They should have an expert vision to see beyond normal details. With the help of their capacity to employ functions and formulas, these experts spotlight and even fix errors in no time.
Organizational Skills: This is typically the capacity to streamline datasets and teams. The volume of data can be large, medium , or small. Their organizing capabilities can effectively input a large volume of data with complete ownership.
Communication Skills: This is a secondary ability, which can align quick growth in the career. Customers often want to communicate their requirements and understand innovative efforts. Their strong communication skills can help in navigating challenges with no hassles.
Innovation: Innovation refers to creating or executing something new and useful. In the context of these specialists, this ability can be associated with employing technical knowledge to manage a large volume of data in the matter of a few hours. Creating comprehensive reports and consistently growing in terms of quality can be a part of an innovative approach.

Now, let’s move to discuss how to outsource for the best outcomes.

How Can You Hire the Best Data Entry Specialist to Outsource?

Various customers prefer hiring virtual staff for a specific time period (which can be the point of time when they achieve their objectives). In this case also, they have two alternatives- one is to look for a freelancer and another is to hire an outsourcing company. Both options have their own plus and minus. But, the second one is more beneficial and reliable. In other words, you can hire a data entry specialist on third party payroll for your project or business. This approach will help you to have trustworthy solutions and dedicated employees that don’t compromise with quality.

Confused how to hire them? Here is the way. Follow these steps:

Step 1: Define the Requirements

First and foremost is to decide what you want to achieve. It can be concerned with handling the data skillfully using tools and software for data entry, ensuring at least 99.99% accuracy and 35-40 words/ minute, or to streamline MS Excel records using the easiest methods of MS Excel entry. This specification will help you outline key responsibilities and approach the right candidate effortlessly.

Step 2: Determine the Required Qualifications

However, the qualification does not matter a lot. But, you should be very particular about the minimum qualification for expected quality of work. First, assess the kind of records you want to input. Then, decide the level of education that can justify the role and also, specify hands-on experience requirements accordingly. Additionally, you can ask some technical questions such as how to save time in inputting data, and discover how to improve quality by fixing data entry errors in their own ways.

Step 3: Source Candidates

Source candidates refer to discovering and approaching prospective candidates using various online or offline methods. For this, you can publish the requirement on job boards like LinkedIn while adding your expectations as how to create an advanced report. There is another source called social handles like Facebook, where you may specify questions related to your requirements. Getting significant answers to input eCommerce data or any other type can prove helpful. All in all, the job roles, specifications, and expectations should be crystal clear.

Step 4: Screen Candidates

Now comes the screening part wherein you can invite candidates for the interview. Thoroughly examine and match their profiles with your job role specifications. First, you can run a telephonic round and then, invite the most suitable talents for the face-to-face round. This will help you to examine their communication, organizational, and technical skills, which can be like how to create bills automatically, or more.

Step 5: Conduct in-person interviews

Once the best-fit candidate is shortlisted, invite him or her for another round of the interview. This screening will let you assess his/her personality. You can discover what qualities or certifications a data entry clerk has; how he or she works, and also the professionalism. You may ask open-ended queries to know if he or she can prove his/her efficiency in solving problems.

Step 6: Test the Candidate’s Technical Aspect

This is purely a technical test, wherein you can test his/her typing speed, accuracy abilities, etc. Aligning a predefined test or mock database entry can make it way easier. Also, you can closely monitor if he or she is able to use software, functions, and tools to simplify the challenges of work.

Step 7: Negotiation for Salary

Now that you know that the right candidate is in front of you, it’s time to negotiate the salary. Certainly, an outsourcing company thinks of the margin to hire and pay out. However, such outsourcers often premeditate the highest limit of the salary package. But, their HR team often negotiates to increase the margin of savings. Finally, the candidates secure their position who prove the best-fit in the slab of the company’s salary packages.

Step 8: Make an Offer

Finally, the candidate is hired by offering an offer letter. But, this is done upon his/ her background and reference checks. Initially, an intent letter is provided to secure his/her place. And once the probation is over, the candidate is offered an appointment letter.

Conclusion

Hiring a data entry specialist is not easy, especially when it is for a BPM or BPO company. The hiring process and training are no less than an ordeal. Both, an HR team and candidate, have to spend time and energies on testing, screening, salary negotiation, and appointment before hiring talents for fulfilling outsourcing data entry requirements.