Whether your business is expanding its remote workforce in response to the COVID-19 pandemic or you already have past experience with hiring remote personnel to handle freelance tasks or full-time workloads, you likely know that the challenges of remote hiring are unique. The power of in-person interviews and onsite training and onboarding can be difficult to replicate when your communication with a prospective candidate or new hire is all via email, messaging, video chats, and phone calls.
As remote work becomes more common—it has reportedly grown 91 percent within the past decade—the best tactics for effectively hiring remote workers are taking shape. Here are five tips to help you execute a strong remote hiring strategy.
1. Shoot for a mostly-traditional interview process
Think about the factors that make an in-person interview effective. When you sit across the desk from a candidate, you not only get to listen to their answers and hear about their qualifications, but also assess eye contact, body language, and personality. These factors can tell you a lot about a candidate, from whether they are lying to whether they are a good fit for your company culture.
These factors don’t become irrelevant just because an employee is working virtually. For that reason, try to keep a fairly standard interview process in place. Incorporating phone screenings and video interviews can help mimic that crucial face-to-face contact that drives so many hiring decisions.
2. Incorporate questions about why your applicants want to work remotely
While most of your job interview questions for a virtual candidate won’t differ from what you would ask someone seeking an in-office job, find out the reasons why an applicant wants to work remotely.
Remote work isn’t for everyone. Some people thrive off the energy and camaraderie of an office environment. Other people find remote work ideal for their lifestyle or work habits—perhaps they focus better when working on their own, or maybe they have obligations (such as children or an aging parent to care for) that preclude them from working outside of their home. Learning these motivations can give you a better sense of who your candidate is and why they want the job.
3. Ask about soft skills
Most employers know to assess a candidate’s soft skills as well as their education, work history, and professional competencies. In a 2016 survey by Wonderlic, most employers (93 percent) said that they viewed soft skills as either “essential” or “very important” in their hiring decisions. For a remote worker, soft skills necessary for maximizing work output might be the most important piece of the puzzle.
Work ethic, communication, self-motivation, time-management…without these abilities, even a well-educated and experienced professional can’t function as a remote employee. Not all strong candidates are strong remote work candidates, and soft skills are the core differentiator.
4. Test them
Skills testing is a smart addition to any hiring process, but it’s crucial for remote workers. Assign a sample project that resembles the work that your remote hire will be performing regularly. Take stock not only of the quality of their work, but also their ability to hit a deadline, how well they follow the instructions or guidelines for the project, their communication with you and your team, and other factors.
You may find that the person submits high-quality work but turns it in a day late, or that they hit the deadline but fail to completely follow instructions. These indicators may show that your candidate isn’t right for the specific challenges of remote work.
5. Don’t forget the background check
Even if you never meet your next employee or freelancer face-to-face, they are still a part of your organization. It is important to check their criminal history. Verify their qualifications, including education, employment history, and professional licensing. Call character references to learn about their personalities. Use a service such as backgroundchecks.com to tailor an employee-screening process for your remote workers.
You need to be able to trust anyone you welcome into the fold, which means running thorough background checks even on your remote hires.
Conclusion
Hiring remote workers can be a challenge due to the barriers that geographical distance and virtual communication pose. Don’t be daunted by these challenges; while remote work is different from in-person work, the hiring process does not need to be more complicated than your existing approach to hiring someone for an in-office job. Following these five tips will help you make sound remote hiring decisions without overthinking the process.
