Hiring an independent contractor could be the perfect solution to your hiring woes, but you need to be just as diligent in screening these types of hires as you are traditional employees.
Responsiveness
Contractors may be offsite and not regularly seen by your team, so they need to be prompt in responding to all kinds of queries. They need to tell you and your team, often, what's getting done and how things are moving forward. Start gauging responsiveness and availability from the very first interaction you have with a contractor. If their replies and responses aren't coming fast enough for you in the hiring process, that's not going to get better once you enter into a working relationship.