With the rise of remote work, many people are now seeking out opportunities that will allow them to work from home. While this can be a great way to attract a wider pool of candidates, it can also make it tricky to find candidates who will truly excel in a remote work environment.
Remote Recruiting Tips
When screening candidates for remote positions, it’s essential to look for signs that they will thrive, as remote work has often been portrayed as deceptively easy. As a recruiter or hiring manager, you need to employ some additional tools to ensure that you’re finding candidates who will succeed in a remote position.
Ensure Your Remote Work Options Are Transparent
A common mistake made by companies recruiting for their first remote jobs is not clarifying the type of flex they’re offering. Ensure that you’re transparent in postings about your remote work policies. Provide as much detail as possible, or you risk those with specific needs moving on when it might be an excellent fit.
Consider the following details that remote workers will be looking for:
- Is the role a full-time or hybrid remote role?
- Will the position require working Monday through Friday, or does it offer flexible schedules that include weekend options?
- What are the location requirements?
- Will the position support working from anywhere in the world?
Be clear about it. These are all things any potential remote worker will want and need to know. Ensure all this information is stated in your job descriptions and company career page. You may miss out on quality candidates if your job description indicates you need to live in a specific city or the job is only partially remote if neither is true.
Build an Employer Brand That Attracts Remote Workers
When you’re trying to stand out in a remote-friendly world, it’s crucial to establish an employer brand that will attract top remote talent. Your potential candidates are looking for more than just a job; they want to know what it’s like to work for your company and whether your culture is a good fit for them.
Your employer brand should reflect your company’s values and how they manifest in the day-to-day work experience. If your company is all about teamwork, mention how you support collaborative efforts among remote employees. If you promote a healthy work-life balance, let candidates know about the policies and benefits that make this possible.
Be sure also to mention what makes your company unique. Do you have any cool perks or benefits? What about a flexible work schedule or the ability to take unlimited vacation days? Whatever makes your company culture special, be sure to shout it from the rooftops (or at least include it in your job postings).
Showcase Communication and Teamwork
Most tenured remote workers will walk away from a company that is still trying to figure out how they’re going to communicate and collaborate. Do you have employee reviews that accentuate how the expectations are clearly laid out and how communication is fostered despite the distances?
If so, those are the reviews you need to highlight. Remote workers want to know that resources are easily accessible, expectations are clearly defined, and they can accomplish their work even though the rest of the team is in a different building.
Go Where the Remote Workers Are
Not all job boards are created equal, and you’ll want to focus on niche job boards specializing in remote work, where you’re most likely to interact with experienced remote professionals. For instance, FlexJobs and Remote.co are two the best places to launch your recruiting efforts.
You’ll find many candidates seeking remote jobs who already have professional experience. Candidates come to niche boards such as these with a highly targeted career goal matching your hiring goals.
Work With Support Organizations
While remote work appeals to many people for many reasons, a few target audiences find remote work especially beneficial: military spouses, those with limited mobility, and caregivers, for example. A great place to launch your recruiting efforts is with organizations focused on supporting professionals in those demographics.
You’ll often end up with many highly qualified professionals in one location, meaning it might be the easiest recruiting you’ve ever done.
Ask Questions Specific to Remote Work
Specific skills and abilities are needed for a remote worker to succeed. Determine what is most important to your company and ask questions of potential candidates to find the right person for the job.
Examples of questions to ask are:
- What’s your previous experience with working remotely?
- Tell me about a time you worked with little supervision.
- Do you prefer to work independently or with a group?
- Do you have a home office set up?
- How do you organize and stay on top of work?
- How do you motivate yourself?
- What is your plan to deal with everyday distractions?
Assess Their Technological Savvy
The best remote workers tend to be highly independent and self-sufficient. They need to have the ability to troubleshoot their problems, as they won’t always have someone in the office they can ask for help.
When interviewing candidates for a remote role, get a sense of their technical skills and knowledge by asking questions about their computer setup, internet connection, and other tools they use for work.
You could even ask them to do a quick test as part of the hiring process to see how they would handle a technical problem that may arise during their work. This is especially helpful for roles that support customer service through different tech resources, such as chat or email support.
Creating a Dynamic Remote Team
While recruiting for a remote team does require some focused effort, the trade-off is a significantly broader pool of candidates to choose from. With a few focused changes in your approach, you’ll be able to quickly build a dynamic remote team.
Looking to build a thriving remote team? Check out how some best-in-class remote companies recruit top candidates.
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By Rachel Jay | Categories: Build a Remote Team