By Debbie Gregory.

Hiring the right employees is one of the major challenges to growing any business. It is especially important for small tech related businesses due to the constantly changing nature of the industry. Your employees need to be prepared for the current technologies as well as the future ones.  They must be able, eager, and passionate about staying up-to-date.

Offer a career and not just a job:

Your perfect employee is one who isn’t simply qualified for the position but someone who is also passionate about the field and connected to the company. You need to be able to offer them challenges and opportunities for growth and advancement. You need to show that you care about your employees both professionally and personally. Offering a ‘home’ where employees can grow with the company and make their mark on it will go a long way towards attracting the right kind of employee; one who will make a long-term difference for your company.

Use/hire a pro to screen candidates:

In order to find and hire the right people you may need outside help from a professional in the field. This is especially true if you are not technical yourself. A professional will help you sort the good candidates from the bad ones and they will be able to provide you the right questions to ask in the interviews.

Test the candidates:

If you are hiring someone for a highly technical position, it is not uncommon to ask them to demonstrate their hands-on knowledge. You need to know whether they can perform as they say that they can before you each make a commitment to one another. Make the test relatively simple yet make sure it will show what you need to see whether that is hardware, software, coding, or design. Don’t overdo the test as too much heavy testing can frustrate good candidates.

Make sure they continue to learn:

The tech world is constantly evolving and changing. This means that your business needs to do so as well. Your employees need to be passionate about learning and able to change with the industry. You should ask candidates about trending tech topics and how they relate to your business, check their certification dates and ask if they attend classes or seminars on industry topics.

Make sure they fit with your company culture:

Knowledge and ability are essential to performing a job.  However, every employee needs to fit in with the company culture in order to be able to do their job effectively and be happy at your company. This can be difficult to gauge since because asking personal questions is a huge no-no in an interview. You will need to put together a list of questions that relate to your company culture that can help you find out a bit about the person without straying into illegal topics.   You need to be cautious.

Don’t forget:

When hiring a tech employees, you will also need to ask the standard interview questions such as:

• What are your strengths and weaknesses?
• Tell me about a time where you had to overcome an issue or obstacle and how you handled the situation.
• What project are you the most proud of and why?

Also, always make sure to obtain references and actually contact them. Those references will help you determine if the candidate will be a good fit for your company and the open position.

Hiring the wrong employee can potentially open you and your business up to risks and even unhappy customers. Hiring the right employee means they will hit the ground running on day one and they know how to fix the issues that may pop up. Take the time to make sure you hire the right people.