Hiring Advice for Technicians

They have impressive certifications, and an outstanding list of previous experience. However, when you contact the references, it seems they lack a good work ethic, which led to their termination of employment in the past. How can you hire good technicians and be guaranteed they’ll be a good employee in your team? There are no guarantees. But you can do much to ensure that the individuals you hire will be a good fit for your team by following some simple tips. Here are a few steps regarding hiring advice for technicians.

1. First Appearance

First impressions are important, and are very important when it comes to job interviews. Was the candidate punctual for the job interview? How is the prospective candidate attired? Are they fidgeting or slouching? Good posture shows confidence, and is a good sign. Do they use offensive language or profanity in their casual conversation? Are they someone you would be glad doing business with if you were a client? How do they describe their previous employment? If they are negative about previous workmates or employers, they may be negative about you and your team as well, and it’s a good thing to watch out for. Enthusiasm for the prospective job is another good sign, and if they ask for the job at the end of the interview, that is also a good sign, but it’s not everything. There are a few other tips you can follow.

2. Test Their Knowledge

Testing their knowledge is a good initial step for hiring a technician. This effectively separates the ‘Search Engine Techs’ from those with actual experience. There’s a difference between searching online resources for error codes and rare error messages given by software and applications, and searching for ‘computer won’t turn on’ every time they need to work on a machine that won’t boot up. Throw a few scenarios at them, and ask them what their repair or troubleshooting procedure would be. Allow them a specific list of tools and supplies to work with, of course.

If you have a spare machine available, loosen some connectors, throw in a bad power supply, or swap out some hardware with some bad hardware you have sitting around. Give them some time to work with it, and see what they come up with. The idea is to give them a chance to show their experience and potentially their work ethic as they go. They might feel put on the spot, but clients often ‘hover’ over and around technicians while they work, so it’s still just a basic experience test, as well as a test in customer relationships and patience on the job.

If you don’t have a spare machine available, write up a simple scenario and request they work out a simple flowchart of the troubleshooting options they might take. It’s a good test of their experience, and will give you insight into some of their techniques. It might also reflect a little on their work ethic as you see how detailed their solution is.

3. Check Their References

When contacting their references, inquire as to their work ethic, and how enthusiastic they were about their job. Many prospective employers ask for only two references, but I recommend requesting more. An individual with a good work ethic should not be in short supply of good references. These references could be places where they volunteer, people they’ve done business with before, teachers in school or professors at colleges. A good study ethic in school is often a precursor to having a good work ethic. If they can’t supply any good references outside of relatives or close friends, that’s a rather large risk to take, and depending on your situation, you may or may not be in a place to take that risk, so that’s something you’ll need to use your own discernment on.

4. Knowledge isn’t Everything

A lot of techniques and tasks can be easily trained, whereas a work ethic cannot be easily trained. In fact, some organizations prefer training untrained enthusiastic workers with a good work ethic rather than using trained workers with little or no enthusiasm for the work. If the job candidate has an excellent work ethic, it may be worth training them quickly according to your service procedures and then giving them a chance at proving themselves. Of course, we’re talking about the technician field here. Some candidates may just not be cut out for technician work, and lack of any computer experience whatsoever is a considerable drawback, so there is need for balance and discernment as far as this goes.

5. Honesty is Imperative

If the prospective employee shows any tendency to dishonesty or has past dishonest conduct reported by their references or previous employers, that’s an instant red flag. You need a team you can trust when you’re hiring employees, and a dishonest employee has ruined more than one company in business history. Often companies lose a lot of their profit margin due to employees taking hardware home, taking office supplies for personal use, or as in the case of a certain computer tech chain, smashing company devices in store rooms just to supply entertainment or see how difficult it was to do so.

Supply a small honesty test, requesting that they lie to cover for the company. Often, people who have no qualms about lying when it comes to personal profit via their job will have no qualms doing the same to the detriment of the company when they feel it is in their better interest to do so. Someone who will lie for you will often lie to you when they feel they need to. That’s not the type of employee you need. You need employees who will be honest as a matter of principle, not just because they see it as being in their best interests to be honest at a particular time or another.

Honest employees will be accurate in their paperwork, in their reports, and in their dealings with clients on the job. They have the integrity you need for your business, and you won’t have to second guess them when doubts come up about a certain situation where the client claims one thing and the employee asserts another. The integrity of your workers will add to your business reputation as well, whereas dishonest employees will detract from your business reputation.

If you follow these basic tips when searching for prospective technicians, using discernment and balance, you can find excellent help that will boost your work team and add to your business and your business’ reputation as well.

If you have any hiring tips, drop a comment below! We’d love to hear them.

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