Hiring Remote Workers... Remotely (It is possible!)

Whilst the pandemic rages on, the business world hasn’t stopped. Companies have adopted new technologies and new working practices to adapt to the current events. Remote hiring has become a necessity for many businesses.

What is the best way to do this? We’ve put together this helpful article to assist you with navigating the best remote hiring and onboarding practices and pointed out some common mistakes to avoid.

How to Hire Remote Workers

Whilst the current climate has made remote hiring a necessity, the reality is, this change doesn’t look like it is going anywhere soon. Businesses have realised they can hire the absolute best talent when location is no longer a requirement.

This has led to an uptick in business productivity and performance for the businesses who adopted the right way to employ remote staff over the course of the last year.

These businesses have adapted and realised proximity to an office should no longer be a priority or barrier.  Instead, they’re focusing on hiring the people who embody the right qualities for the role, in conjunction with fitting the wider company culture.

This is the most important thing to keep in mind when hiring remote workers, together with these four clear steps to attract the right talent for your company.

1. Describe Your Way of Working

Be clear in your job advertisement as to the exact remote setup. Attracting the best remote talent means being explicit to meet the candidate’s expectations.

Many employees won’t consider a role that’s only temporarily remote or a hybrid working arrangement. In fact, many prefer a complete flexible work schedule altogether.

Hence, if you’re offering flexible hours to fit around their lives, shout about it. If not, don’t worry; you just need to be clear when explaining the working arrangements to ensure you attract the right candidates, and it suits everyone’s needs.

2. Clarify Time Zones

Australia alone has three different time zones. If you want all your employees available throughout certain hours of the day, you need to make this clear in your job advertisement.

Clarify which time zones employees will need to work, as opposed to excluding time zones altogether. You may end up missing out on some incredible global talent if you opt for the latter.

3. Choose Your Tech Infrastructure

Remote working has led to huge investments in remote working technologies like Zoom, Slack, and Trello, to name only a few. Though most candidates can learn to use these various technologies fast, it’s always helpful to be upfront about your tech infrastructure.

This helps to weed out candidates who don’t know or want to learn about certain technologies, particularly more advanced ones like Jira. As expressed earlier being upfront about this is the best way to attract the right talent for your company.

4. Identify Different Communication Styles

One of the amazing things about remote hiring is it can open your company up to candidates across the globe who may never have been interested in working for you company previously due to proximity.

However, you should be aware that global remote workers may come with cultural and language barriers. This isn’t to say you shouldn’t consider hiring those with a different native tongue, you just need to be aware of different communication styles.

Common Remote Hiring Mistake to Avoid

As many businesses are new to remote hiring, there are mistakes that can be made during the hiring process. Here are some common mistakes to avoid when hiring remote employees.

Avoiding Face to Face Interviews

A common practice when selecting remote workers previously has been solely conducting telephone interviews.   We feel this is detrimental to your business, it is essential to utilise video technologies for your interview process, allowing you to attain an insight into your candidate’s non-verbal communication skills.  It is imperative you read their body language and facial expressions when asking in-depth questions, enabling you to gauge a more rounded perspective as to their suitability to your company culture.

Asking the Wrong Questions

Remote working has changed soft skills necessary as candidates need to be self-motivated and can demonstrate they can work autonomously in many situations.

Therefore, it is essential to ask the right questions during your video interview process, You should be asking questions around career to date, passions, expectations, organisational skills and self-motivation. Seek out specific examples from the candidate wherever possible,

Skipping Pre-Hiring Assessments

Pre-hiring assessments e.g. personality testing, emotional intelligence testing etc. can assist to identify whether a candidate is the right fit for your company culture.

These skills are often just as critical as their technical skills for the given role. Technical skills can be taught much easier than soft skills.

For example, let’s say you’re interviewing a salesperson who has used the same technologies as your business however lacks interpersonal skills. Meanwhile, there is a candidate who hasn’t used your technologies however has excellent social skills. Which do you think would be the better fit for your business?

These assessments can be the difference between a high performing candidate and one that does not fit the role well, so it’s always wise to include skill assessments before making your decision.

Onboarding Your Remote Workers

Great ! so you’ve identified an excellent candidate with the right skills and behaviours for your business. What’s next?

Onboarding your new employee the right way is vital in retaining the best talent for your business. A poor onboarding process is one of the most common reasons new talent leaves within a year.

You can improve your remote onboarding process by:

• Having clear, established processes and responsibilities in place
• Utilising virtual meetings to make initial introductions across the company
• Organising weekly check-ins to ensure they’re settling in well

Need Help Hiring Remote Employees?

Remote hiring is the new norm for many businesses, and that doesn’t look likely to change anytime soon. Businesses can adapt to the new norm by utilising assessments, hiring for culture fit, and implementing strong onboarding processes.

If your business is struggling with remote hiring and onboarding, we can help. WellsGray is an experienced recruitment agency based in Melbourne that can help you find the right talent for your business.

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