How to Recruit Workers Remotely

Remote working has become the new normal, which makes remote recruitment essential if you want to continue attracting and hiring top talent. Although many companies have been fully remote for a while now, more and more companies are making the switch to fully remote teams since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This article will therefore look at essential steps in remote recruitment.

Advantages of recruiting remotely.

Remote recruitment has several advantages for both businesses and workers.

1. Cost reduction

Remote work allows companies to reduce costs in many ways. They no longer need to rent or buy office space, use cleaning services. Employees also save money when working remotely. They don’t need to spend on office decoration, maintenance, fuel, car maintenance, Lunches at the office and even corporate clothing. Infact, studies have shown that remote workers save more. If not for any reason, the simple fact that they don’t have to spend so much on transportation. Moreso, for employers it helps them invest more in employees rather than concern themselves with the less important stuff.

2. Increase in employee productivity 

Although monitoring productivity and efficiency in a remote setting is potentially more challenging for managers, a Stanford study by Nicholas Bloom et al. demonstrated that productivity increased by 13% for home workers compared to those working in an office.  

Of course, not all sectors allow for remote work. Among those who do, marketing, finance, tech, IT, management, and professional services have the highest potential for distributed work with no loss in productivity.

How do you recruit remote employees? 

1. Define the position you’re hiring for

Define the role you’re looking to fill by outlining the duties and responsibilities, as well as the required skills and qualifications. Besides that, you need to define what “remote” means for this position: is this a fully remote job or a partially remote (hybrid) role? What’s the level of flexibility you’d like to provide? 

You also need to decide on the geographical scope: will you be hiring in your home country or globally? This has tax & legal implications for you and your new hires. If you’re hiring globally, you might decide to opt for a contractor who is working for you part-time instead of an employee. Define what your exact needs are. 

2. Write and publish a clear and engaging job posting

Write a clear title and a job description that gives enough specific information on what you’re looking for. Avoid terms like “ninja,” “rockstar,” and the like, and set clear and realistic expectations for the role. 

In a job ad for remote work, you need to include some important information, such as:

• Whether you’re open to receiving contractor applications

• The required time zone availability 

• The necessary equipment and whether you’ll be providing any (or whether you’re able to allocate a budget for home office equipment)

This way, candidates can instantly see whether they can be a good fit, and you won’t be wasting time reviewing applications if there’s time zone incompatibility, for example. 

You can publish the job ad on websites for remote work specifically, as well as on LinkedIn, on your Careers page, and classic job boards, such as Glassdoor and Indeed. 

3. Be mindful of your employer brand and company culture

Remote applicants will likely research you online before applying, so you need to ensure your online presence gives the right impression. 

Here are some of the things hiring managers should assess before you begin recruiting remotely: 

• Do you have a polished online presence? 

• Are your social media profiles up-to-date? Do you post frequently? 

• On social media, do you talk about your company culture, team-building events (even virtual ones), and the things that make your company a great place to work?

• Does your employer brand inspire trust? What are your values, as an employer, that you’re communicating to the world?

• Have you put your vision, mission, and value statement on your website? 

• Are you able to guarantee a positive candidate experience to all your applicants?

• What are your employees saying about you?

4. Pre-screen remote candidates 

Now comes the time to quickly pre-screen your remote candidates. Disqualify candidates who don’t meet your basic requirements, such as:

• Applicants who don’t have the right skill set for the role

• Applicants with no relevant experience or qualifications

• Applicants who aren’t located in the geographic location where you’re hiring, unless you’re hiring globally

• Applicants with whom you’d have a time zone incompatibility

Make sure you’re keeping disqualified candidates informed on the outcome of the pre-screening process to guarantee a smooth remote recruiting process and a positive candidate experience. 

5. Conduct structured interviews

You can now proceed to interview your top candidates. 

For remote recruiting, we advise you to use structured interviews, i.e., interviews in which you’re always asking the same questions in the same or similar order and during which you’re taking detailed notes. Structured interviews help you mitigate hiring biases and hire a diverse workforce. 

6. Select your best candidate 

Compare results, select your best candidate and make an offer to them. Reconfirm their availability and the level of flexibility your company allows. 

Check their equipment to ensure they have all the tech they need to get started and plan to buy and have equipment shipped to them if necessary. Based on their location, you might want to allow at least a week for this, sometimes more. 

8. Let the onboarding process begin!

The onboarding process can be a very tricky one.  Onboarding should start with an orientation and introducing the new employee to existing team members; for this, you could schedule a quick Zoom chat with their team, as well as weekly check-ins. Let them know whom they should report to if they have additional questions. Make sure the new employee knows what their first tasks are, the exact requirements, and what success at the role looks like. Check whether they have access to all the information, systems, and files to get started. 

Finally, remote recruitment is challenging, and if you’re a fully remote company, you need to be particularly mindful of several things. At Conedge, we help with your recruitment processes and other operational management strategies.