[jtfairbank]

Early stage startup founder here. I usually do a 30 day trial as a contractor for a candidate that I am confident about. This allows me to forgo the terrible interview practices a lot of places have, and focus on ironing out the kinks of working together. How it works:

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30 days only, more than that is too much risk for both of us. The potential hire wants to find a full time job, and we don't want to lose a good person to a competitor.

We pay ahead of time: 50% up front, and 50% halfway through. This helps build goodwill and show the potential hire that we are serious about full time employment.

In this case, either of us can walk away anytime if it is not a good fit. Regardless of who makes the call, the candidate keeps the total that we've paid so far. This allows candidates to be honest when it's not working out instead of pretending like everything is fine to get paid for their work during that time. That allows us both to move on instead of wasting time when it won't work.

As an alternative, candidates can choose to get paid after the fact based on how many days they worked. In this case, we pay 1.25 times their expected salary to compensate them for the risk. Either party can still walk away at any time.

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All of this is designed to build mutual trust, allow either party to walk away during the trial period, and show a potential hire that this really is just a trial period and we won't lead them on into further consulting.