As 83457 put it - HR should never be tasked to hire a programmer. Same with recruiters. You can give them a set of criteria to weed out people by (they shouldn't be sending you .net resumes if you are a PHP shop) but the end task of choosing a developer should be vetted by someone who can determine if the candidate is good. Either a technical director (with actual knowledge) or by peer review from your current programmers.
If you don't have any programmers and are making a first hire, ask for code samples and have someone you know that is a developer review them. If you don't have any programmer friends then you need to spend some more time on HN or at local meetups :)
If you don't have any programmers and are making a first hire, ask for code samples and have someone you know that is a developer review them. If you don't have any programmer friends then you need to spend some more time on HN or at local meetups :)