Business First Family Business, Accounting, Finance, Investing, Marketing And Management
Unless you had previous professional experience as a tech manager, building a technical team is challenging for most business owners. Yes, building tech teams requires intimate knowledge of the specific technical skills you need represented along with traditional knowledge of HR hiring practices. But more importantly, it proves difficult for start ups in particular. Startup owners often need top tech talent to compete in a highly competitive sector but cannot find top engineers and programmers that are willing to work for a startup. This is unfortunate, but it is also avoidable. Learn how to build a technical team that will help your business reach enormous success below.
Offer Mentorship
Providing mentorship programs to employees is a great way to find talent with high potential and groom them into excellent, skillful employees. It helps incentivize candidates with the most potential to work for you instead of your many well-established competing tech businesses. Mentorship programs also help to foster a sense of employee loyalty to your business and dedication to your company’s central mission. This is a great tip to keep in mind when building your technical team for the first time.
Foster A Collaborative Environment
Tech professionals require a collaborative environment that provides them room to take initiative when they see fit. This is true of most employees. However, it is even more important in the tech sector where a strong communication process is a must. These professionals highly value the ability to take ownership of their own ideas to produce results. Unfortunately, many underestimate the importance of this when learning how to build a technical team for the first time. Do not forget this tip. Otherwise, your potential talent pool will just keep shrinking.
Show, Don’t Tell
All tech interviews should test candidates’ abilities. Before you ever even bother having a traditional question and answer type interview, make sure you ask candidates to prove their expertise. Test candidates by having them do a simple task that they would be responsible for in their work day should they get the position. Or, you can test them by having them solve a more complex problem, depending on the position they are being considered for. Regardless, be sure to have interview candidates demonstrate their abilities instead of just telling you about them verbally. This is the best way to build a tech team that is sure to produce results.
Look For Passion
Passionate employees can outperform the most talented tech workers who lack drive and desire. Keep this in mind when recruiting technical employees for your team. Passion can make the difference between a mediocre worker and a stand out employee who becomes indispensable to your company. You want to hire tech workers who love what they do and are particularly excited about your products and solutions. Find candidates who are excited to tell you about their past projects and problems they have overcome. This will always produce the best tech team for any organization. Passion outperforms talent every single time.
Vary Levels Of Experience
Hiring a tech team full of tech experts is not a worthwhile pursuit. Have you ever hear the old adage “too many cooks in the kitchen”? If not, allow me to explain. When you have too many workers with the same technical expertise, they are sure to disagree a lot. They are also much more likely to be in steadfast support of their own idea’s superiority. When you hire some experts and some mid-level tech workers, you can groom future generations of tech experts and project managers. You can also benefit from the overlap provided by mid-level tech professionals who can offer support in a multitude of disciplines. This is the proper way to hire a technical team that efficiently produces a seamless end product.
If you are a business owner, building a tech team for the first time can be extremely challenging. But you do not have to start considering the outsourcing benefits just yet. Use the tips above to help you learn how to build a technical team that effortlessly blends different disciplines and expertise levels. Offering technical mentorship programs and a collaborative environment will help you find the best candidates to fill your open tech positions. Let us know how this advice worked out for you when you build a tech team you can be proud of. Good luck!
Photo from http://mashable.com/2016/03/22/isis-encryption-brussels-attack/#db4SY7BQkuqw
