How to Attract And Hire Remote Employees
SEP
2019
Written by Denise Reed in Choose the Right Tools & Tech
It’s the age of the remote worker. These days you no longer have to be limited to your physical location when looking for good people for your team. Workers don’t have to change their entire lives just to look for employment locally or in a different city.
If you have a laptop and a decent internet connection, you can be a remote worker. It’s an immensely beneficial and dynamic both for the employer and the employee, but it’s not without its challenges.
I’m talking about the recruitment process. Yes, it can be a bit more difficult in this case than if you’d hire locally, but it’s not impossible. Keep reading to find out how to create great recruitment and hiring strategies for remote employees - and how to manage a remote team.
Presenting Your Business
When you recruit locally, it’s easier to create some buzz about a job opening. For one thing, the members of your community know you and your business. If you have a good reputation you’ll be greeted with a lot of resumes to review.
But when you are looking for remote or off-site workers, your name might not be as recognizable. So the first impression counts here even more, which is why you need to make sure people can find loads of relevant information online.
And don’t limit yourself just to what you do as a company - really go for the company branding and the ‘why’ of your business. Here are some things to consider:
- Your Identity
- Your office culture
- Company principles
- Objectives and growth aspirations
Make sure a newbie gets to know your company from your online presence, and maybe even show them what it’s like working for you. Employee and client testimonials are a great way to do that. An added benefit of these testimonials on your social media platforms is the positive impact on your search engine optimization (S.E.O.).
Spread the News
Now that you’ve successfully told the awesome story of your company, it’s time to think of the best places to advertise your job openings.
For remote positions, there are two main types of channels you should focus on: job boards and social media.
There are loads of job boards either dedicated to connecting you with remote workers, or which offer the option of only making your offer available to this type of worker.
Here are some great examples:
You don’t have to spread the news on all of these sites, but consider opening up an account on 1-2 of them.
Then, there’s social media. If you have an established network of followers, promote your opening through your accounts. Perhaps your future employee already follows you, or they know someone who does and will be recommended the job. Either way, social media is an incredibly powerful tool.
We have successfully posted available positions in the past on our social media profiles. A clear position expectation helps weed out people that wouldn’t be the right fit. Consider promoting your job opening on:
- Facebook - on your page, but also on remote job groups. All you have to do is join these groups and post about your offer
- Instagram - particularly for more creative, visually-directed positions
- LinkedIn - it’s specifically designed for this
How the Hiring Process Should Look
So, you’ve sent the word out that you’re hiring or boosted that position opening in Facebook for your ultimate remote worker, and now you have plenty of resumes to read through. But how will you handle the process?
There are two main things to consider:
Communications
The main worry is communication, right? Nothing beats a good, old fashioned face-to-face conversation where you can look your potential employee in the eye and see how you interact with each other. Not quite. Video calls or simple phone calls can be quite effective too, and you should consider these as the primary media to talk to your candidates.
You can email them initially, but as you go through the recruitment stages it’s best to take it to the next step. Email is great for official talk, so definitely use it to send interviewees the logistics (the time and date of the interview, the contract, and legal stuff). But for the rest, like the interviews themselves, maybe think of something that will let you get closer to the candidates, and facilitate working with a remote team.
We think phone interviews are very important, as our Business Concierge team offers phone support. Part of your work will definitely include speaking over the phone if you’re working remotely no matter what the position is. We want to experience your professionalism and follow through before we ever schedule a face-to-face or video interview. Through every step of the process potential employers, including us, are experiencing your communication skills and professionalism.
If you’re texting a potential employer, DO NOT, use texting shorthand. Use good grammar when writing no matter the platform.
Thankfully, there are loads of tools that can help:
Experience
How do you know the remote worker is actually the right person for the job? Sure, they could be a great person and pleasant to talk to during interviews, and perhaps even be rather skilled for the position they applied for, but any business owner knows that's not really enough. It’s very important that you have your team meet each other prior to offering a position if they are going to be working on a long term basis. Consider a phone or video interview with various team members, as you may not notice something someone else may in a conversation.
The right employee needs to have so much more:
- The same values
- A good work ethic
- A professional demeanor
- The ability to deliver intended results
- The ability to integrate into the team
Ultimately, some of these examples of values, ethics, etc. for a potential employee just can’t be observed from a few video chats. You should consider asking for referrals and ask for examples of how someone handles “X” circumstance.
You can ask the people you already work with if they know anyone who might be a good fit for your team. We’ve even asked vendor contacts if they know someone they would recommend. These referrals have been gold for us.
Business Success Means Finding the Right People
Particularly because your team may not be working under the same roof, you need to hire the right people for your remote team. This dynamic greatly depends on trust, and how well a remote employee can integrate into your company culture. The rest of the story is actually understanding the type of work and length of time to complete a task your remote team is actually doing.
But the prospects of it being a bit of a challenge shouldn’t keep you from looking for remote employees. They bring in a lot of value and greatly expand your options for recruiting. Unless your business absolutely needs people to be present in a physical location, there is no reason not to attract and hire remote employees.
If you need some help with crafting a strategy for remote recruiting, we can help. Get in touch with us now and we can work together to get you the right people for your remote team. Our Business Concierge support team members specialized in general clerical, online research, executive assistance, concierge support and much more. Free yourself from the mundane tasks so you can focus on the work only you can do to move your business forward.
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