How to Streamline the Process of Hiring a Graphic Designer for Small Businesses

The right graphic designer is your key to success in the digitalization economy where your brand identity, marketing collaterals, and customer engagement are the nuts and bolts. Competition is a huge hurdle for businesses, especially for small businesses in the flooded market. Nearly 73% of the businesses invest in design to stand out and 49% of SMBs claim graphic design as ‘very important’.

A substantial percentage of small businesses face the challenge of finding skilled graphic designers in some form or other, such as:

1. Lack of expertise in evaluating the top graphic design skills.
2. Restricting geographical boundaries which limits access to the local talent pool.
3. Budget constraints limit options.
4. Difficult in crafting an effective job description.
5. Failing to conduct salary comparison to stay relevant and competitive with the existing salary trends.
6. Navigating the overwhelming number of applications from various online platforms. 

To find the right talent faster while staying in your budget, you must streamline the hiring process to avoid costly mistakes. If you are thinking of doing the same and need a strategic plan of action this blog is meant just for you. To know how, continue reading. 

Defining Your Design Needs: A Key First Step

Before jumping straight to the end of the tunnel that is the hiring process, it’s essential that you clearly define your design needs. Doing so will not only help you in hiring graphic designers who align with your vision, but will also streamline your hiring efforts. 

• Understand your project requirements

Outline what exactly you need from the graphic designer, whether you are looking for a logo design, social media graphics, or a full brand overhaul. The clearer you are, the easier it gets to identify the right candidate for the job.

• Determine how much you can afford

Set a realistic hiring budget based on your project scope and industry standards. Graphic designer salaries can vastly vary based on distinct factors which is why you must understand your financial limitations. This will ensure that you don’t underpay or overpay the skilled designers for their valuable services. 

Creating a clear and compelling Job Description

In the hiring marketplace all of us are well-acquainted with the significance of a compelling job description in the hiring funnel. A well-written job description is the foundation of a streamlined hiring process. A study by Gallup revealed that 31% of job seekers would pass on a job opportunity if the job description was vague. 

This indicates the imperativeness of ensuring clarity in the job descriptions and setting realistic expectations from the outset. When writing a job description for hiring graphic designers, include the following:

• A concise company and project overview.
• Required qualifications such as experience with specific design tools like Adobe Creative Suite.
• Key responsibilities of the role.
• Examples of previous projects to convey the design style compatibility.
• Details about your hiring budget and any flexibility around pay.

The more specific your job description is, the higher are your chances of attracting ideal candidates while saving time. 

Choosing the Right Hiring Platforms

The success of your hiring process also depends to a great extent on the platforms you use to source the candidates. There are multiple options available in the market to find the right candidates, but not all might be equally well-suited for your project.

Some of the top-rated platforms that have gained immense popularity globally include:

Freelance marketplaces

Upwork, Freelancer, Fiverr, are a few examples that fall under this umbrella. These platforms can provide you access to thousands of freelancers globally. You can post a job, review bids, and select a candidate profile that best suits your needs and budget.

Professional networks

If you want to reach a network of professionals who are actively seeking for a job, LinkedIn can be a resourceful professional network. You can post jobs, network, and vet candidates based on their professional work experience and endorsements. 

Specialized design platforms

When you are hiring graphic designers these platforms are tailored specifically for this talent segment. Behance, Dribble are such platforms where graphic designers showcase their portfolios, making it easier for you to evaluate their skills before reaching out to them.

Hiring partners 

If you want to further streamline your hiring process, hiring platforms like Uplers can be your ideal one-stop partner. We offer a unique approach where based on your job description and a 4-step vetting process, the top 3.5% of Indian remote talent is matched with your job.

The benefits of choosing Uplers as your hiring partner includes:

1. Access to a 1M+ talent network.
2. AI matchmaking algorithm eliminates the unfit candidate profiles. 
3. Top 3.5% of pre-vetted candidate profiles.
4. Up to 40% cost-savings.
5. Hiring timeline of 48-72 hours.
6. Get talent from across 5+ time zones with zero hassle.
7. 2-weeks risk-free trial.
8. A 30-day talent cancellation policy.
9. A lifetime free talent replacement.

Evaluating Portfolios and Resumes Efficiently

A work portfolio is the reflection of the candidate’s skills and expertise in real-time. It’s inarguably the most important step in the hiring process to verify the truthfulness of the resume claims.

You can gain valuable insights into the work quality, professionalism, reliability, work ethics, and suitability of the graphic designer. When reviewing the work portfolio of graphic designers, pay attention to the following details:

• The designer’s portfolio should show a consistent quality across different design projects. This shows that they can prioritize high work standards irrespective of the task.
• A good graphic designer portfolio should include experience of working on versatile projects. This is especially important for small businesses where designs need to be adaptable with the evolving design expectations in the market to align with your brand vision.

Bonus Tip: As a red flag, beware of portfolios that only show one type of work, such as working on social media graphics, without a diverse project exposure. This indicates a lack of versatility and adaptability of the designer.

Conducting Effective Interviews

Once you have shortlisted candidates based on their skills, portfolio, and resume evaluation, it’s time to conduct interviews. The purpose of in-person or virtual interviews is to test the waters in real-time. 

Your interview should be aimed at assessing technical proficiency as well as the soft skills of the graphic designers. For this you must keep a mix of technical and non-technical interview questions bank ready. 

Technical Interview Questions to Ask:

1. What design tools do you primarily use?
2. Can you walk me through a recent design project that you handled from concept to completion?
3. What is your approach to responsive designing for websites or mobile applications?
4. Can you explain the use of grids and guides in your design process?
5. Have you worked with design systems or style guides and how do you implement them?

Non-Technical Questions to Ask:

1. How do you balance creativity with brand guidelines?
2. How do you optimize multiple projects with tight deadlines?
3. Tell me about a time you had to work closely with a developer or other non-design professionals.
4. Can you describe a situation where you faced a design roadblock and how did you overcome it?
5. How do you handle a situation where a client’s vision differs from your design perspectives or suggestions?

Essential Tools that graphic designers must know:

1. Adobe Creative Suite
2. Sketch
3. Figma
4. Canva
5. InVision

Onboarding Your New Graphic Designer: Setting Up for Success

Once you have chosen the graphic designer for your small business, the last but most vital step is to onboard them. Start by clearly outlining your expectations, setting milestones, and ensuring they understand your brand guidelines.

To streamline your hiring process from candidate sourcing to onboarding, Uplers can help you. Our 4-step vetting process can resolve your dilemma of where and how to find skilled graphic designers as under:

1. Provide your job description.
2. Uplers will vet the candidate profiles from its 1M+ talent network based on their language proficiency, aptitude test, skills evaluation, and cultural compatibility. It also has an AI-matchmaking algorithm that is smart enough to further eliminate candidates based on your specifications.
3.  Uplers will set up an interview slot for you with the shortlisted applicants at your convenient time zone.
4. Uplers takes care of the onboarding formalities of the finalized hire at a transparent pricing. 

Final Thoughts on Streamlining Your Hiring Process for Graphic Designers

The final call of choosing the best candidate profile should be based on all the above-mentioned evaluation criterias. Consider how well the designer’s work style and personality aligns with your company culture. 

In addition, to streamline the hiring process you must also confirm the designers availability to meet your project deadlines and fit within your budget. 

Streamlining the hiring process for graphic designers can help you cut on costs, save time, and find an ideal fit for your small business. As a rule of them, define your needs clearly, choose the right candidate sourcing platforms, and thoroughly evaluate the candidate profiles. This will help you ensure that your next hire is a good investment in your brand’s future growth.