Sometimes, your business evolves faster than you would have ever expected it to and starts to leave you behind when it comes to the knowledge and time you need to manage it. New technologies appear out of the blue, across the world someone finds more efficient ways of doing the same thing you are and your customers seem to be getting bored of what you have to offer. Hiring someone new, to help freshen up some aspects of your business might be what you need.

Freelancer or Full-time?

Before you start bringing people in, however, you should take some time and make an assessment of what you already have. You may find out a new full-time employee is unnecessary. If that’s the case, the best thing you can try is a freelancing website. Here you can find people unbound by the 8-hour schedule, who can work for you on a single project or start a long-term collaboration.

If you are concerned about the quality of their work, you really shouldn’t. The freelancing business has grown significantly over the past few years, with actual businesses keeping accounts on freelancing websites in order to pick up small projects alongside their day-to-day activity. Most websites also have at your disposal rating and review systems, through which you can make a very accurate idea about the person who will be working for you.

The financial aspect is not to be overlooked either. And you will find some advantages here as well, as freelancers usually tend to work cheaper than an employee or a vendor would. Take the taxes and legal headaches out of the equation as well, and you’ve got yourself a pretty sweet deal.

Big Resumes Don't Lie

Or do they? If you decide you do need a full-time employee or the job they are hired for needs to be done at the office, job search sites are the first place you should try, for obvious reasons. Apart from providing you with space where you can post a job offer, most sites also let you “hunt” for candidates. This can prove useful when looking for an experienced professional for a long term collaboration.

Keep in mind, though, one of the disadvantages this approach has compared to freelancing websites is the lack of reviews for the employee you are looking at. The resume is the first thing you will look at and, while some well-written resumes can convince you to hire someone even before the interview, keep in mind that not everything that is written there is necessarily true.

Recommendations are a very good thing to ask for as they help you get a feel for whom you will be speaking with during a potential interview and can also be considered a sort of review. Keep an eye out for the style the recommendation is written in, though. If the style is similar to the one the resume is written in, you should start asking some questions.

A good way to do that is through a backdoor reference check. While controversial, it can be useful in debunking some of the lies your candidates may have hidden in their resumes. Be sure to inform yourself accordingly of what consequences something like this can have, especially if you candidate finds out you did it. While not illegal, no one really likes people scavenging their past, especially professionals who take pride in their work.

Research Is Key

You won’t know most of the things your soon-to-be employee knows, and that is the very reason you are hiring him or her, isn’t it? But other people do. Search online for articles about the job you are hiring for and look at a few discussions on forums specialized on that particular topic. The articles will help you build the profile for the perfect employee, as the people writing them should be themselves professionals and know what should be valued. The forums, on the other hand, will help you make a list of issues experts in that field of work are confronted with most often.

During the interview, armed with your newly gained information, you will be able to have a proper discussion with your applicant. Despite lacking practical experience on the subject, theoretical knowledge should be enough for you to figure out how true to his word the person on the other side of the table is.

And, while reading the articles and browsing the forums, you find someone knowledgeable, whose opinions are respected by his peers, why not make a pitch? Most activities nowadays don’t require an employee to be in the same building in order to work, which should solve the distance problem, and the fact that his or her voice carries weight among other professionals solves the trust problem.

Even if your pitch is not successful, you can, at least, ask for advice on how to recognize someone good if you're new to this, or even ask him or her to directly evaluate your applicants. Throw in some compensation, and there isn’t really a reason for you to get refused.

Mirror, Mirror...

Finally, the one thing a lot of employers forget about is their own image in the job market. There are countless forums and websites where current or former employees can post opinions about the company they have or still work for. Employees who care about what they do will look you up as well to see if your company suits their style.

While a company’s image cannot be fixed overnight, it will help if you have explanations for some of the bad reviews you got.

Starting a new job is difficult for both parties involved, and this is especially true when you are not completely familiar with what your future employee will be doing. Hands are being shaken, promises are being made, smiles are being exchanged. But you can never be 100% certain your new employee will deliver. We do hope, though, that these tips in this article will help get you close.