Best Tips for Hiring Remote Employees
Introduction
In the last few years, many companies have started counting on hiring remote employees to keep the business moving. As a pandemic has hit the world so badly, working from home has become a standard thing. It might be surprising, but more than half of the companies already have a workforce that works remotely. As organizations have not yet decided to reopen the office, hiring virtual workers is the best option. There are a few things employers have to check while making remote hiring, which is discussed in this post. Listed below are the ultimate tips for hiring remote employees that will surely give some relief to recruiters.
Tips for hiring remote employees
1. Evaluate which profiles recruiters need to fill
The foremost thing hiring managers need to do is to understand which positions have to be filled. Recruiters have to make the hiring according to the business type. It is vital to make sure to jot down all the positions so as to pick and interview the candidates for each specified role. The key thing is to prevent the redundancy of profiles in the organization. So, one has to focus on filling the positions and not the desks.
2. Write a clear job description
Writing a realistic job description is of utmost importance as it will help attract suitable candidates. The job post must contain the following things clearly: qualifications, skills, experience, responsibilities, and tasks, whether it is a full-time or part-time remote job, about the company, benefits, and other perks of working with the company. When a job description states everything about the role, candidates are able to self-evaluate, and the ones who think are a perfect fit for the profile will apply for the job. Job seekers who do not meet the requirements may not apply for the position. It will save time for both, the hiring manager and the candidates.
3. Go through the resume when hiring
The next step that comes into play is to review the resumes of the job seekers. Hiring managers can manually go through the CVs of the candidates if the number of applications is less. Otherwise, using software such as ATS (applicant tracking system) would be a good option. This software lets hiring managers organize a large number of resumes for relevant keywords. Without any doubt, this tool saves a lot of time for employers. The crucial thing recruiters must consider is to also count on the candidates that have a career gap. Such job seekers should also be given a chance to kickstart their careers once again. Also, candidates with an employment gap will give their best when starting a new job after a few years.
4. Consider video interview
Hiring managers should never hire candidates just by communicating through emails or phone calls. The virtual interview is essential for the screening as it will be just like a candidate appearing for a face-to-face interview. In fact, this type of in-person interaction will save the time of both the interviewer and the candidate. Moreover, candidates will then not have to travel for the in-house interview as the process of the interview will be done on-screen.
5. Ask the right questions for remote jobs
It is obvious, but it has to be mentioned because customizing the question set helps save time for recruiters. Hiring managers need to look for candidates who are skilled in particular profiles. There are a lot of core competencies managers have to look for. Taking a skill-based test that contains thorough questions is crucial. Also, apart from taking a skill-based test, it is important to know if the candidates have ever worked remotely and why these candidates are counting on remote profiles. Such questions give some deep insights to the interviewer.
6. Do a background check
Managers must look for the previous remote experience of the candidates to understand if the shortlisted ones are capable of working remotely or not. It is also a good idea to check with the HR managers of the last company the candidates had worked for to understand their character and work experience. This will ensure the recruiters that the selected individuals have the self-discipline, mindset, and skills, and are independent to work with a little guidance. If the job position demands a fresher, then hiring managers can hire the candidate on the basis of how one appears in the interview.
7. Use social media
Social media is another powerful tool recruiters can make use of. One of the most popular platforms among job seekers is LinkedIn. Hiring managers can visit the profiles of shortlisted candidates to make sure that the work experience mentioned in the resumes is real. The point is that the candidates’ profiles will showcase their past work backgrounds. Apart from this, it will give insights to the managers if the candidate actively participates on the platform by sharing posts or commenting on others’ posts. By gauging this, managers will have a hint of the candidate’s personality.
Meeting with the boss
8. Never make a quick decision
When hiring remote employees, recruiters should not be in a hurry while selecting a candidate for the role. For example, if a candidate appears a few minutes late for the interview, then do not judge that individual quickly. Further, if an interviewee, out of nervousness, stutters once or twice while answering, then the hiring manager should not take it into consideration. Be kind to the candidates, but make sure to listen to candidates’ answers and queries carefully. The bottom point is to take some time in hiring a candidate and never judge any candidate on anything, not even on color, race, or nationality.
9. Consider a paid trial period for remote workers
If the hiring manager is confused about whether to give an offer letter to the selected candidate or not, then counting on the virtual job tryout would be a great idea. Managers must let the candidate know about it and should proceed at pre-agree conditions. Also, the employers have to make sure that the candidate is being paid for this trial period. After the successful completion of the trial time, managers should extend the contract and provide an offer letter to the top candidate. The key thing that comes into play is that by doing so, the manager would be able to know how skilled one is and how well the candidate can perform the remote job.
10. Count on referrals for a new position
Recruiters should never miss out on referrals when hiring remote employees. It is always good to ask for referrals from existing remote employees or in-office employees. This will save a lot of time for the recruiters as the path of hunting candidates will be narrowed down. One thing hiring managers should do is to clarify the job profile to the existing employees so that the individuals can understand the role and can suggest a good candidate. Managers can also continue searching the talented candidates on different sites along with asking for referrals. In this way, the recruiters will have a pool of candidates to select from. This is what any hiring manager wishes for.
How Uphires can help businesses
These tips for hiring remote employees are a surefire way of helping recruiters who are hunting virtual workers for companies. The foundation is to seek candidates on a reliable platform that has a huge number of job seekers. Uphires have an array of talented candidates who are seeking remote jobs. Recruiters can simply browse the site and share a descriptive job post to hire the best online worker for the respective organization.