Every year we hear about how companies must adapt to keep their operations strong and healthy.
The hiring process has transformed over the last few years, with businesses bringing in remote workers for their unique skills.
But remote hiring comes with its own undeniable challenges, from maintaining company culture in remote settings to buying the right equipment for remote interviews.
We’re here to help you navigate the tricky path of remote hiring. Follow us, and you’ll be attracting world-leading remote talent in no time!
Let’s get started!
How does remote hiring differ from traditional hiring?
“Remote work” is a system of working that lets an employee perform their tasks outside the traditional office setting.Remote hiringthen, is the hiring process a company does to bring a remote worker into the organization.
As a fun little throwback, in 1979, IBM changed the business world with anexperiment. They were leading the telecommunications landscape at the time, and they launched a work-from-home program called “Telecommuting,” tasking five staff with working remotely for 3 days a week.
It was a success for them at the time, and 40 years later, companies are similarly optimizing their workforce with remote workers. These new employees are bringing new energy and work styles to the office. Now HR departments, fromstartupsto multi-national conglomerates are hiring remotely, and hiring quickly!
Some staggering statistics show overwhelming positivity toward remote working. AState of Remote Work reportshowed that 98% of respondents said they’d like to work remotely, at least some of the time.
Even without this overwhelming desire for an increase in future remote work, anOwl Labs studyshows that 16% of all companies around the globe are alreadyfully remote.This number looks set to rise, and62%of workers between 22 and 65 currently work remotely, at least occasionally.
So as the tide of remote work rises, the remote hiring process becomes integral to maintaining a tightly-run ship. We’ve broken down a hiring plan for remote workers into 5 steps here:
A 5-step plan for solid remote hiring
There is no silver bullet for remote hiring. It is just as difficult as hiring in person, if not more so. Extra attention to detail is needed, and these details can be easy to overlook. Here’s our list of steps for setting up the perfect remote interview:
1. Define the traits you’re looking for
If you’re seeking a new hire that brings something new to your teams and electrifies the company atmosphere (regardless of distance), you’ve got to define what you’re looking for. Get deep into defining the exact traits, experience, and personality you hope to find.
Remote employees work under minimal supervision and often work with strengths and weaknesses that differ from traditional, in-office staff. Some of the most highly-desired traits companies look for in remote employees include:
- Communication skills:Communication with remote employees is often cross-country and across time zones. Sometimes, an email isn’t read instantly and sits in an inbox for a few extra hours. That means that when communication does happen, it always needs to be especially clear, direct, and succinct.
- Critical thinking:When group work happens it’s easier to brainstorm and bounce ideas with each other. Remote workers often work alone. They don’t have the option of walking down the hall to ask a colleague for some help, so they really need to be able to think critically while working in solidarity.
- Discipline:By its nature, remote work doesn’t simply revolve around how many hours a worker spends at their desk. Remote work is “results-based” rather than “task-oriented,” as task-oriented work focuses on workers completing work while assigned their office desks. Remote workers need an outstanding capacity for discipline and dedication while working alone, wherever they choose.
- Decisiveness:Again, remote workers don’t have colleagues and supervisors at arm’s length to consult with. They’ve got to be able to make killer decisions when the time is right. There might come a time when they need to submit something they aren’t 100% sure about. If their confidence in decision-making isn’t high, this could cause new challenges.
- Outside interests:Remote work can be a lot lonelier than working in an office. Remote work doesn’t include many of the positive social aspects that a traditional work office has, like making friends and going to sports clubs together. It may sound simple, but having healthy social interests outside of work is very valuable in a new remote hire.
- Sense of humor:Don’t overlook the power of a good sense of humor. Remote work can inevitably involve occasional communication breakdowns and mishaps, and what’s the best way to deal with this? A remote worker who shares an office sense of humor and culture is worth a lot!
There are more traits, and yours may differ or be specified to your job opening, but look for these general traits as you search for a remote new hire.
2. Create illuminative job descriptions
Of course, clear and concise job descriptions need to be crafted for every job opportunity. However, for remote workers who might not necessarily meet you face to face before being hired, it can be even more critical. Crafting the right job description can make or break a remote role. While lightning strikes randomly, having a lightning rod set up helps you to attract it!
Here are some general principles to help you craft the perfect remote job description:
- Keep the description short, sweet, and clear:Get the position name, key responsibilities, and the position's relevance to business goals in the description.
- Make sure the job title is exact:Remote workers often use highly specialized software and knowledge, so ensure the job title is precise. Also, add (remote) to the end of the title!
- Remember the importance of inclusiveness:Remote hires come from extremely diverse backgrounds and work globally, so being inclusive helps you attract stronger talent.
- Be authentic:Make sure the description is transparent, and the job’s perks are conveyed honestly, as remote work is a two-way street. Keep nothing hidden as remote workers move fast.
- Insights into company culture and goals:Massive changes have happened over the last few years and people are reprioritizing their lives. In turn, companies arerethinking remote hiring. Ensure the company culture is given in the description so remote hires can align with it.
3. Weigh up the resumes
As you proceed through the remote hiring process, you’ve likely received a surprising amount of resumes. Now more than ever, people are seeing remote work as attractive for its flexibility and convenience. In fact, an Upwork survey calledThe Great Resignationfound that 10 million American workers are considering becoming freelance. That’s going to result in a lot of resumes.
As you sift through resumes for that stand-out candidate, you can consider optimizing the filtering with applicant tracking systems (ATS) to scan and parse every potential hire. These systems can get very specific. You can consider adding keywords, skills, and qualifications to eliminate candidates who don’t quite reach the minimum requirements. You could even try filtering by location, hourly availability, or education. This way you’ll be saving time sorting that electronic mountain of resumes.
One big point of consideration is how careful you need to be to get the most out of these tools. If you’re hiring in the US, you need to get to grips with the legal proceedings of using AI tools in the hiring process.
On top of this, some aspects of these tools might not be smart enough to really take into consideration a remote worker's soft skills. There is no real way to quantify honesty and integrity, so don’t just rely on data to find the perfect remote worker.
Keep it smart and thorough in the resume screening process and you’re setting yourself up to bring in the most outstanding candidate possible. Remote workers really are bringing something new and unique to companies, so make sure your filters work properly, both on your computer and in your mind.
4. Time for the interview
All of your preparation has led to this, the most critical part of the hiring process, so it needs to be done with the utmost consideration. Remote interviews are subject to a few more risks than a traditional interview setting. If you’re hiring remotely, a few more factors of virtual etiquette might be needed.
Small details require extra attention, like the date and time planning that are conscious of both your and your candidate’s time zones. The earlier you can plan and confirm dates, the better. It might be helpful to inform them clearly with an email on exactly what they need for the interview too. That might be software with screen-sharing abilities, or a quiet space with considerations for sharing private information.
Body language is one of the biggest factors that can vary in remote interviews, for both you and the candidate. Be conscious of the body language your new hire is displaying, as well as your own. Well-lit rooms with no audio feedback issues are crucial for running remote interviews smoothly.
While your interviews might need added details for role-specific applications, here are some bonus tips for setting up the best remote interview possible:
- Run regular and thorough equipment tests:Remote hiring tools are constantly evolving. You might upgrade one component like a web camera with high resolution, and forget to upgrade something else, like the speed of your internet. You need to make a big effort to stay on the cutting edge when hiring remotely.
- Bring up small details from the application:During the job posting, you can add a small detail that they must include in their resume. Something small and specific, likeResearch what our company did in 1992.At your discretion, you can bring this up in the interview. This checks if they paid attention to detail when applying.
- Put your candidates at ease:Even for remote employees, the interview can be an extremely nerve-wracking process. On top of being just nervous, they might be outright stressed. You really aren’t going to see the best version of this kind of person if you don’t make a small effort to put them at ease a little.
- Develop some standardized interview questions:Of course, some of your job postings need different questions to others, but at least create a set of standardized questions to use as a base, and work your way forward from there. Don’t overlook small details, like the time zone of your remote hire or how seasons might affect their internet connections.
- Create an interview scorecard:Standardized questions can more easily be tracked with standardized ranking or something similar to an interview scorecard. By having a scorecard for remote settings, you can objectively rate your candidates. Over time, you’ll also be able to recognize if your questions can be improved for future iterations. If you aren’t the person carrying out each interview, scorecards can even be used for assessing your interviewers.
5. Narrow down and hire your candidate
Now that the biggest and most thorough step is complete (the interview process itself), the final step is to shortlist your candidates and hire your chosen superstar. It’s easier said than done, and in a remote setting, there are a few extra steps needed for a thorough evaluation.
To a certain extent, you have already measured up your candidates in the remote interview, but unless you had the whole team on the video call (which would be overwhelming for the candidate), you could benefit from a few second opinions. Involve as many team members as you see fit, they’ll give you some insights you could have overlooked in the interview process.
Create a shortlist of, let’s say, 5 to 8 candidates for an individual hire and work from there. You can try assigning values to non-essential skills if all of the candidates line up in a similar way. There’s a massive value to some skills that might not be make-or-break for a single role.
It can sometimes be harder for remote hires to immediately understand and then integrate into your company culture, so this could be a highlight to focus on in yourremote onboarding process. You need to come to terms with how your onboarding program communicates your work culture and lets new hires collaborate with teammates stress-free.
Follow up with reference checks if you still have a few candidates left and it’s difficult to choose just one. As a reference person to describe a candidate’s personality and how they got on with their coworkers in their previous job. There’s a world of information to learn from previous employers.
From here you should be able to shrink your short-list into one single choice.
So that’s our 5-step plan for getting remote hiring right. Now let’s run a quick breakdown of the benefits of hiring remote workers (and some risks to watch out for!)
Benefits of hiring remote workers
The benefits of hiring remote workers generally outweigh any drawbacks. Here are some of the biggest perks a company hiring remotely can expect:
- Higher productivity:Contrary to some traditional beliefs,datasupports that remote workers are 35 - 40% more productive than their office counterparts. This heightened productivity could be the result of the fact that remote employees find it easier to take healthy breaks. They can immediately break away and do things important to them whenever the time is right, andevidenceshows that taking breaks leads to higher rates of productivity.
- Employees are more engaged:Leading on from productivity, the actual engagement when a remote employee performs a task is higher than many of those in the office. Engagement has long been understood as a cornerstone for a healthy business, andremote employee engagementlooks positive.
- Commuting is over:A long commute is draining for most in-office employees. First thing in the morning, squeezing into a packed-out train or paying through the nose for taxis is disliked by most. Some research shows thatnearly one-quarterof workers have left a job because of a bad commute, which is incredible. For remote workers, their commute can be as short as finding the nearest laptop, and incredible amounts of money are being saved from this commute reduction. Win all round!
- Remote workers may be physically more healthy:Relating more to matters outside of the office space, some data is showing that remote employees are healthier, in terms of exercise. Remote workers are clocking in two hours and 44 minutes of physical exercise every week, and a healthy workforce brings benefits to many aspects of a company.
- Improved employee relations:For most companies,establishing employee connectionsis one of the most important things they can do to keep their teams bonded and working together. As the number of remote employees increases, so do the tools available for keeping team bonds strong. Dedicated group channels for work and recreation mean that remote workers can build and play together just like they do in the office. That’s extremely important for teamwork, so make the most of it!
- Access to talent around the world:There’s no doubt about it, the talent pool of global hiring means new windows of opportunity are opening for companies. Specialists from the 4 corners of the globe can be hired to elevate your workforce to levels we never previously could have understood. Great news for global businesses!
Risks to watch out for when hiring remotely
Hiring remote employees inevitably comes with inherent risks. A few of them include:
- Communication challenges:One thing that’s often overlooked when companies hire remotely is very simple: not everyone speaks the same language. Even when they do, cultural communication styles are an incredibly deep topic. A worker in the Far East won’t communicate things exactly like a remote worker in the Far West, even if they’re both doing it in English. Be considerate of the nuances in language and communication styles when hiring remotely.
- Remote work can be lonely:Another indisputable risk that remote workers face is the simple element of loneliness or the disconnection they face from having no colleague physically next to them. Many veteran remote workers have learned to deal with this and have adapted, but people new to remote work shouldn’t overlook how alone they might feel when working. Help them overcome this with socialteambuilding activities for remote teams.
- Security risks:The final risk we recommend looking out for is potential security dangers from remote workers. Many companies with experience hiring remotely have found this out the hard way, but it needs to be understood that your remote workers need high access to your information. This data is often sensitive information, such as your customer details. Yes, similar dangers have existed in traditional office work before, but sensitive information was physically held in security boxes in the office. This has changed, so get deep into the details and legalities of secure remote working, just in case of any mishaps.
That’s the benefits and risks of remote hiring cleared up, now how do you maximize teams with remote workers?
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