How To Hire Great Technical Employees

Isaiah Bollinger

Isaiah Bollinger

Hiring great technical employees is crucial to almost every companies success. I don’t just mean software engineers or mechanical engineers. Hiring great technical employees is not just about hiring people who are deeply entrenched in building the technology itself. Hiring good technical talent applies to every facet of business, Finance, HR, Product development, marketing, sales, etc. Sales teams are built using platforms like Salesforce, Hubspot, marketing automation, and other software tools. Marketing is increasingly digital and controlled by technical things like search engine optimization, and finance runs on platforms like Quickbooks or even larger more complex ERP systems.
Technical employees will help you implement new and better systems, as well as make the most of existing systems. In today’s world, automating is everything, and it’s important to grow via improving efficiencies and maximizing revenue per employee. So how do you hire better technical talent? Here are some ideas to help you.

  1. Invest in a strong technical leadership team. Hire a great CTO, CMO, and other leaders that have some level of technical background even if they are not directly managing developers. If budget is a problem and you have a good team that isn’t too technical invest in training. If you are not technically savvy yourself but are the CEO, perhaps spend some time at night learning basic coding principles, and other software concepts. Technical employees want to learn and improve from great people. If the leadership team can’t do that, they will be less likely to want to stay.
  2. Pay More. This may sound stupid, but a big mistake we made early on was underpaying and instead of getting one really good person we would get two JR people. When it comes to technology, unless you have a huge team, you can’t waste time with JR people. You are better off shelling out more for one good technical person than two people that need training.
  3. Invest in market research. Learning about what’s new and what is going to stay is important. We invested heavily into becoming experts in WordPress and Magento early on because we felt they were the best platforms at the time that had huge staying power, and we were correct. We recently expanded our Shopify offering because of the explosion it’s having in the market. Technical employees like to see that you have done your due diligence and are investing in the right technical solutions that have good documentation.
  4. Consider remote employment. It might be difficult to hire technical employees in your city either because it is cost prohibitive or there is a lack of talent. Consider remote employment for cost savings or to find better talent.
  5. Use Slack and other trendy tools. Technical employees like to see that you are leveraging tools to become more efficient. Tools like Slack, Basecamp, and other new cost-effective SaaS programs can make communication and work much more efficient.
  6. Invest in innovation. Are you investing in anything that is innovative or disruptive in your industry? Even if you sell something that on the surface seems boring, there is always a way to become a disruptor in the industry.
  7. Offer flexibility. Technical employees are often highly sought after. Sometimes it is not the salary that makes them excited, but the flexibility and ability to have a good lifestyle at the job that will make them want to work for you.
  8. Invest in Digital & eCommerce. Almost all purchases are either paid via eCommerce, a login via SaaS, an app like Uber or are heavily influenced via Google search and other digital means. Invest in digital marketing and eCommerce to make technical employees want to work for your company that is trending in the right direction.

Hiring good technical talent can be the key to growth. However, it won’t just happen because you want to hire them. You need to invest in the right things to attract such coveted talent and keep such talent. It might not happen overnight but making an effort to invest in technical talent will become easier over time as you get more and more used to what works and what doesn’t.

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