How to hire the best WordPress designer: Finding the perfect fit

Building a team with shared values is essential for forming successful partnerships. Regardless of the position, matching the agency’s work ethic, alongside technical requirements, is crucial. It helps to build lasting relationships between professionals and end clients.

In the digital market, especially for the WordPress platform, the hiring process is highly competitive. Since WordPress demands specific skills from both developers and designers, finding the right talent becomes more challenging.

At White Label Agency, we understand the criteria to choose and maintain the perfect candidates. Our team includes 100+ members, who stay an average of five years, compared to less than two years for the industry generally. Let us share our essential steps and strategies in the process of hiring a web designer to help your agency choose the right fit.

Define your agency’s needs before the interview

When searching for a web designer identifying your priorities is the first step. Carefully articulating primary needs, makes the process easy and clear for both sides. Is your agency looking for a beginner web designer to do simple tasks like installing and updating existing media content? Or are you looking for a professional, who can handle multisite networks and plugin development? clarifying specific requirements upfront is important to avoid miscommunication later on.

Additionally, Consider the budget and resources your agency can provide for the ideal candidate. Ensure a perfect match that fits both skills and financial parameters.

After defining your agencies’ needs it’s time to start looking for the match. To fully demonstrate the process of finding the best WordPress designer, I interviewed our HR manager, Anano. She shares the candidate evaluation process and outlines the core values.

How to find the perfect entry & middle-level web designers: Soft and hard skills check

The best practice to see candidate compatibility with an agency includes checking soft and hard skills. Each ramification measures the candidate’s ability and skills through specific questions.

For soft skills, an applicant demonstrates problem-solving, communication skills, and enthusiasm for the role. Questions such as:

• What motivated you to apply for this job opportunity?
• Can you share your short-term and long-term career goals with us?
• How do you react to constructive feedback?
• Have you ever encountered unclear directives from a supervisor or team leader? If so, how did you manage the situation?

And the list goes on…

Hard skills measure a candidate’s technical proficiency, including the knowledge of tools, certifications, portfolios, skill assessment tests, and completed work. Anano explains the core competencies she is looking for to find the best WordPress designer for a beginner/middle-level position:

“From the hard skills, I always seek a candidate who has hands-on experience working in Adobe Xd and other Adobe applications (for example Illustrator, Photoshop) or Figma. A junior’s portfolio must show work experience in designing interior pages with Adobe Xd either during their learning courses/university studies or freelance projects.
For the middle role, a portfolio should also showcase some experience with vector graphics (development of logotypes, patterns, icons, etc.), good knowledge of Adobe Photoshop, Xd, Illustrator, and Acrobat, knowledge of material design guidelines and iOS human interface guidelines, and knowledge of modern design tendencies. Besides hard skills, the knowledge of modern designing tendencies and an ability to ensure effective communication with the customers and team members is also a must.”

Evaluating hard skills involves asking specific questions such as:

• What design tools have you used and how much experience do you have?
• I see an interesting project in your portfolio. Could you please explain the process of creating this particular work from scratch?
• Answer quickly: If you had to design a healthcare company website from scratch, without any given directions, how many colors would you choose totally and which color palette would you go for?
• Which is your favorite font and why?
• Are you familiar with HTML and CSS?
• Have you worked on cross-platform UI design before?

How to find the perfect senior web designer

For a senior web design roles, Anano looks for candidates with a broader range of experience.

“In the senior designer’s portfolio, we need to see more diversity, including evidence of more challenging projects. Also, the senior designer must be able to create UI/UX briefs for the projects, prototype low-fidelity and high-fidelity interfaces, and create color palettes, balance, typography, and graphic elements. Must acquire a wider range of skills and design tools such as:

• Sketch,
• Zeplin,
• inVision,
• Photoshop,
• XD,
• Illustrator.

Good interpersonal skills and a team leader attitude are a must.”

Strong communication and leadership skills for a senior web designer are crucial. Besides technical expertise, potential candidates should be able to explain complex technical concepts in simple terms. This skill isn’t just about guiding projects but also mentoring junior designers and simplifying technical jargon for the client. A clear communication style ensures that the end client’s needs are understood by everyone.

Anano continues: “Designers should be able to understand blurry, uncertain briefs as well as possible. Putting yourself in the client’s shoes and getting a good understanding of what the client might refer to is another huge pro for a designer.
Having the right motivation to work with the team on diverse projects, eagerness to learn as much as possible, and the willingness of constant personal development is another major thing that benefits candidates in the hiring process.”

Best platforms for web designers recruitment

There are several platforms, that you can use to find the best WordPress designer:

• Linkedin
• Diverse job posting platforms
• Social media thematic groups
• Design school career development communities
• Referrals

Specific search engines on each of these platforms can help in your search for applicants. For LinkedIn, you can use keywords such as ”Web Designer”, “E-commerce Designer”, “UI/UX Designer”, etc. Job posting websites, on the other hand, like Glassdoor allow you to filter candidates based on their years of experience and expertise. Using specific keywords makes your search process more targeted.

Find your perfect fit with White Label Agency

At White Label Agency, we understand the importance of hiring the best WordPress designer for your agency. If you’re looking for an alternative to an in-house design team or need additional design capacity, we’re here to help. Our design pricing is competitive and can be standardized based on your agency’s needs. We use clear and complete design files that a client approves before the development phase to reduce the risk of scope creep and prevent clarification delays.

Ready to expand your ideas and transform them into a WordPress website? Reach out to our sales team and join our network of partnerships with 600 more agencies.