As a tech leader, you’ve received a call, text, alert, or email (perhaps all at once) notifying you that something is not working, and you’re needed ASAP.

However, over the years, you’ve honed your skills at looking around the corners (like a spidey sense) and know how to spot or prevent trouble before it escalates.

The same principles apply to recruiting. Anticipating potential challenges can help you stay ahead of the game, preventing headaches and ensuring you hire the right person for the job.

Here are five suggestions on how to avoid hiring trouble (plus a bonus tip):

1. Get involved in writing (or reviewing) the job description. You understand what appeals to engineers better than HR.
2. Don’t mistake liking the candidate’s personality for alignment with your team’s values; it doesn’t always signify a cultural fit.
3. Top candidates don’t like taking online assessments, they want to interview first to gauge if it’s worth the time and effort.
4. Be aware of the time zones for everyone on the team. WFH is important, but so is the location of the team. For instance, if most of your team is in on EST and India, make sure PST candidates can work with the team’s meeting times.
5. Be transparent with the challenges you face, the right candidate will want to join you in problem-solving them.

Bonus Tip:
Work with your HR Business Partner to understand and monitor pay equity and ensure employees are not grossly under or over-paid relative to their peers doing similar work. The reason people become anxious about pay is not because they are being paid unfairly, but because they do not understand how their pay is determined.