SQLite query to return records earlier than a certain year?

I am trying to come up with an SQL query to return all the records earlier than a certain year with SQLite using DB Browser. I can't seem to come up with the right regex expressipn to use for filtering only the year from a row for comparison, below is the query am using. It is returning 0 records please help.

SELECT * FROM EMPLOYEES WHERE strftime('%Y', HireDate)<2003;

I am trying to get all records where the HireDate which is a column is earler than 2003, please help.