Create Your Dream Team: How to Successfully Hire Remote Employees

People form the beating heart of every business, so building and nurturing a talented and productive team will contribute significantly to business success.

The start of an employee’s journey with a company, whether face to face or remote, will determine whether they triumph or flounder, so it’s imperative to take the time to screen and onboard employees efficiently and carefully.  

Throwing remote work into the mix can create challenges. There’s no hiding from the fact that the future of hiring talent is remote - according to Gartner, 74% of companies are planning for a permanent shift to some degree of remote work. This means we have to step boldly into this new way of hiring remote workers.

This 5-step guide provides hints and tips to help you hire remote workers, onboard them successfully and build your best team. ‍

1. Create a job description

Start at the beginning. It might sound simple, but make sure you know what you’re looking for. Paint a picture of the role you need to fill and your dream candidate - their skills, experience and personality traits. Put fingers to keys and flesh out a job description off the back of this.

Remember, in a work from anywhere world it might be harder for employees to engage with recruiters meaning that a clear job description is key.

A few tips for writing a clear and enticing job description:

• Be specific - outline the requirements for the role and how it fits within your wider organization
• Don’t repurpose - regurgitating the same ads for every role is risky, and you might miss out on the perfect hire
• Keep it direct - brevity and simplicity is key
• Include elements outside of the role - think company culture, remote working policies, and why someone would enjoy being part of the wider team and organization
• Be upfront on remote work policies - is the job 100% work from anywhere or are they expected to come into the office?
• Include salary details - be clear on salary and salary range to manage expectations
• End with a call to action - invite candidates to apply to the role and tell them how to do so

Once the description has been written, think about where best to post it. On your website, social media, LinkedIn or via a recruiter? Don’t forget to tell your employees that you’re looking to hire - referrals can often yield great results.

2. Sift through candidates

A work from anywhere culture means that candidates from all over the world can apply to your job posting - and that means you’ll likely get a lot of applications!

Carve time out of your week to look through all of the applications — and if needed, enlist the help of HR partners or external recruiters. Refer back to your ‘perfect candidate’ and job description, identify key experiences or qualifications that are non-negotiable and be strict. If a resume doesn’t have it, it goes onto the ‘No’ pile.

Be sure to review work samples thoroughly as well. For creative or marketing roles especially, having a portfolio alongside a resume will help you get a clearer sense of their experience, cultural fit and personality ahead of the actual interview.

3. Schedule the interview

It’s a waste of your time and their time when candidates show up to interviews unprepared so take care to set clear expectations about what you require of them in the interview. You could even post an FAQ page on your website or within the job description that outlines your hiring process, number of interviews and what is expected.

Virtual hiring means we’re reliant on tech - pad out the interview slot with extra time to account for tech difficulties and delays. This means that precious interview time won’t be eaten into and will avoid you or your candidate feeling even more flustered or nervous.

Always hold interviews via video using Zoom, Microsoft Teams or Google Meet so that you can get a real sense of the candidate’s personality and experience. Remember to send the video conferencing link along with the interview invite and request that the candidate downloads the software ahead of time.

4. Conduct the interview

Prepare questions and a general structure for the interview, just as you would if it were face to face. You might want to include some remote working specific questions such as:

• Have you worked remotely before?
• Have you worked in a similar role in a remote capacity before?
• What challenges have you faced working remotely and how did you overcome them?
• How would you describe your communication style?
• How do you ask for help when you need it?

It’s important to be able to pick up on a candidate’s body language, expression and to hear their tone of voice. It’s harder to find natural conversational flow with a screen barrier, but it’s important to let parts of the interview be impromptu and organic so that you can gauge personality and cultural fit and help the candidate feel at ease.

Aim to be transparent. Offer up as much information about the role and company as you can - include salary details, remote working policies, hiring timeline and give the employee plenty of space to ask questions.

You might want to consider including a task or assessment, which might come in the second round interview. Asking a candidate to prepare a presentation or answer a brief will help you evaluate their hard skills and see them put their skills into practice.

5. Onboard your new candidate

After everyone has signed on the dotted line it’s time to onboard your remote worker.

Think back to your first day at work — it’s nerve-wracking, exciting and overwhelming. Imagine doing your first day all over again but in a remote environment. You can’t meet your team mates face to face or go for a welcome lunch, and you can’t shake your manager’s hand and have a walking tour of the office. Working remotely throws an extra layer of vulnerability into the mix.

A successful, virtual onboarding program will give your new hire confidence, help them establish strong relationships from the get go, build an understanding of company culture and will set out clear expectations.

Your onboarding program should include:

• Introduction to your company and its policies
• IT and HR orientation
• Meet with the team/departments
• Relevant training calls and videos
• 1 to 1 meetings with you, their manager
• Process documentation
• Tax compliance (depending on where the employee is working from)
• Company health and safety policies
• Company values and culture

Ensure that your new employee has all of the tech, equipment and systems that they need to start in their role. This includes sending out hardware and instructions ahead of their start date so that they don’t spend their first day trying to log into their laptop and on hold with IT. If you’re struggling to manage onboarding flow, allwhere can equip your new candidate with everything that they need to be fully set up on day one — learn more here.

Recreate some in-office experiences virtually. You could organize some welcome drinks, schedule team wide social meet ups (without you!), announce your new hire on your company newsletter or all-staff meeting and assign them a buddy or mentor.

Good communication is critical to the successful running of remote teams and that starts right at the beginning of an employee’s journey with you. Ensure that you stay connected with your new employee during those first few weeks, and even months. Your new hire might be feeling a bit overwhelmed and isolated so regular check-ins are key.  

Hire remote workers with confidence

Hiring and onboarding a new candidate can be challenging for both the employer and the employee with the in-person element removed. It’s important to remember that even from the very first point of communication you are establishing a relationship with this potential new employee and this will shape their future in your company.

Taking the time to adapt current job description templates, interview questions and onboarding programs will ensure that your remote employee, and your business, is set up for success.

‍

allwhere equips teams with everything they need to work from anywhere. We’ll help you create a world-class workplace with a suite of services such as: outsourced, centralized procurement; full lifecycle asset management (deployment, replacement, retrieval, storage, disposal, and redeployment); and more to help teams navigate the future of work. To learn more, book a demo with us here.