How To Streamline Your Process For Hiring Freelance App Developers

The success of your business/product and marketing strategy is hinged on a fixed budget, scheduled product release, and especially, the quality of the app, and a good user interface. Failing to render the desired business application means that you hired the wrong person for the task.

Including the appropriate app development talent is an ability that requires technical acumen, process management, and lastly, raw intuition. A worthy candidate needs to carry far beyond than just technical proficiency and excel in problem-solving ability, creativity, as well as team compatibility.

There are a lot of factors that go into evaluating an applicant than what meets the eyes. If you hire freelance app developers who possess considerable experience in your business niche, it will save you a lot of money and time in the long run.

Hiring the right people for a project has always been an inexact science. 

On that note, let's take a look at the key steps to keep in mind in order to streamline your hiring process for freelance app developers.

Step #1: Identify your Business Requirements & Perspective

Before going on a manhunt for app developers, you need to put things into perspective. 

The reason you're looking for freelance developers might be because you want to implement a technology that you've never dealt with before, you need more specialists to amp up the strength of your preexisting team and/or you have plans to develop a project from scratch. All three require different sets of candidate evaluation.

Also, since you're hiring 'freelance' developers, it would mean outsourcing a major chunk of in-house app development. Although there might be an unavoidable lack of face-to-face communication, this will save time (minimized recruitment process) and money (for office space and equipment).

This facilitates flexibility to quickly add and remove team members, with respect to different project needs. 

Use the best work order software for maintenance management so that you can easily create, assign, and track work orders while handling multiple freelance developers.

Step #2: Create a Job Description and Shortlist the Top Prospects

Creating a workable job description involves knowing about the job duties, responsibilities, skills, and level of experience needed in an ideal employee scenario. 

This template should have a broader sense of what the position requires, placing all the necessary prerequisites in view.

After formulating a pool of viable applicants based on the basic merit points, you should research about their previous clients. Testimonials from clients give way better feedback than you could ever gather from an hour-long interview.

Go through portfolios to assess if he/she can create apps for your business niche, what design principles they follow, and finally, how they approach development challenges. Get to know about the technological tools that they use, and if it falls in line with the developmental project you're offering. 

Moreover, the Android or iOS app developer should carry a combined a set of tools, and techniques used to achieve a stable architecture, reusable code, and excellent user experience, thereby ensuring the elite quality of their services.

You can interview them for more clarity over the aforementioned points. You can ask questions specific to your business.

Step #3: Avoid These Errors and Hire the Best

Despite having a decent crowd of developers, sometimes employers fail to pick the best. Various factors like pay, working hours, experience and more, tend to sway their decision in the wrong direction often, and they end up selecting the not-so-perfect developer for their beloved project.

The difference lies in avoiding some basic mistakes. 

Compromising on quality developers for money is bound to hurt your business in the future. Trying to save money will end up giving you a cheap candidate who might not have been the best of the lot, and chances are he/she will fall short in providing the high-quality application that you so desperately desired.

Make sure that the select few possess cross-platform expertise. As a recruiter, you wouldn't like it when the app developer you hired, finds it hard to ride the waves of the ever-changing technological trends. 

Along with proficiency in Android and iOS platforms, test the applicants for Windows and Blackberry as well. It will secure the future of your business's digital presence.

Always prioritize expertise in the said field, over stacked years of experience. If the applicant's portfolio seems aligned with your technical requirements, he/she should hold preference than someone who has years of work experience in niches, excluding yours.

Hiring a developer who is well-versed with the technological trends in the industry that concerns you will keep the app future-ready at all times. The regular updates and bug-fixing will be timely, and the application will stay connected to the present curve.

Step #4: Onboarding and Orientation

Once the offer has been accepted, make sure the employee gets a proper feel of the work culture, the team and the workplace. Go over the important past projects that will help him/her understand the workflow. 

You should also provide basic training that deals with the job at hand, and gives the developer a touch of where to begin in the application design process. 

Conclusion

The importance of the smartphone era cannot be downplayed, by any means. The end-user wants to access almost all the services via his/her fingertips, and an app provides a clear pathway to do so. Now, businesses can directly communicate with their customers through in-app features and purchases.

Competitive business atmosphere calls for increased sales of products and services, and the app developer decides how the customer will perceive the transaction.

Marketing the product through in-app offers and promotions, as well as creating brand awareness and recognition are key features of a sophisticated business strategy. And all of it is facilitated through the application's interactive experience.

Therefore, hiring the best developer becomes critical for the success of the business, owing to the dramatic surge in digitization. Usually, it is advisable to hire app developers who have already made apps for enterprises, companies, and startups. But most importantly, they should be able to meet the developmental challenges along the way, through expertise acquired previously.