The first person you pay

Labeling and capping are the obvious first tasks to pay somebody for, because they are the longest and the least skilled.

What you hand over first

Labeling, capping, banding, boxing and picking orders. Between them they usually exceed the making.

They are also self-evidently checkable: a crooked label or an uncapped tube is visible to anybody.

What you cannot hand over

Weighing and the melt, at least not early. Both are quiet failures: a mis-weighed flavor or a melt held twenty degrees low produces a batch that looks perfect and fails a two weeks later.

Hand those over only once the process is written with real numbers and there is a specification to check against, which means the documentation has to come before the person.

Making the work handable

A written procedure per task, with the numbers, not a demonstration.

A reference tube to compare against.

A short check at the end of each run, weigh ten, wind three, look along the tray, that somebody else can perform and record.

If you cannot write the task down, you are not ready to delegate it, and that is usually about your process rather than about the person.

The employment part

An employee and a contractor are different in law, and the distinction is decided by the reality of the working relationship rather than by what the agreement calls it.

Somebody working your hours, in your space, with your equipment, to your instructions is generally an employee, and treating them otherwise is the expensive kind of mistake.

Wage and hour obligations, and any state requirements, attach from the first person. Worth an hour with somebody who knows the local answer before the first payment rather than after.

References