ODesk is a huge marketplace of developers, designers and other contractors globally. When you hire someone on there, they have software that screencaptures the contractor’s screen while they work. So if you’re paying $20/hour, you see that hour of the programmer actually working and not dilly dallying.
It’s not perfect by any means, the programmer might have a second screen open where they dilly dally, but if you actually watched, you could likely see if/when the programmer isn’t clicking keys [although maybe they are reading a reference book on a scripting language].
Does something like this exist outside of ODesk for contractors? Paying someone $50/hour vs another $100/hour really doesn’t matter, if the first guy does it in 2 hours and the second guy did it in an hour. Finding a reliable programmer that meets deadlines and writes great code, is what matters.
When you are testing out a new programmer or designer or whatever contractor, that initial dating phase is up-in-the-air, unless the contractor comes referred to you by someone you trust, then you trust your instincts.
But I think clients would prefer to have a screencast system. And contractors would say that’s an invasion of privacy, but if someone is paying you and hourly rate, then it’s not. If someone is paying on a project basis (fixed fee), then no screencast is needed obviously.