It’s no secret that employees working from home is more commonplace now than it was a few years ago. Which means a lot of organizations have had to create an efficient and effective remote hiring process. If your company is considering going to a remote or hybrid work environment, or if you’re new to hiring remote jobs, check out some of these best practices and items to consider.
Which Industries are Best Suited for Remote Hiring?
Whether or not remote hiring is a good fit for your business is going to depend on specific job roles and company requirements. That said, there are several industries that have successfully embraced remote work. These include:
- Technology: At the forefront of remote work, many tech companies offer remote positions in software development, IT support, data analysis, and digital marketing.
- Customer Service: Customer service roles, such as call center representatives or customer support agents, can often be performed remotely with the help of communication tools and customer relationship management (CRM) systems.
- Creative and Design: Jobs focused on graphic design, web design, content creation, and digital marketing often have remote opportunities, as these roles can be executed using online collaboration tools and communication platforms.
- Education and E-Learning: With the rise of online education and e-learning platforms, remote hiring is common in the education sector for roles such as online instructors, course developers, and educational consultants.
- Writing and Editing: Freelance writing, copywriting, content editing, and proofreading are well-suited for remote work.
- Consulting and Professional Services: Many consulting firms and professional service providers have embraced remote work, allowing consultants, analysts, and project managers to work remotely while serving clients.
- Sales and Marketing: Remote hiring is prevalent in sales and marketing roles, including sales representatives, account managers, digital marketers, and social media managers, as these roles often involve online communication and collaboration.
An Extended Reach When Recruiting
The good news is, when hiring remote, your potential pool of candidates can be as large as you like because you’re not restricted to geographical boundaries. On the flip side, you want to make sure you’re attracting qualified candidates or else you could end up with more applications than you can handle. Consider using AI-powered tools to help write job descriptions which can help remove the guesswork.
Invest in recruiting software that can get granular and narrow down job seekers to those who meet the minimum qualifications for your organization and then for a particular role. If that doesn’t narrow the field enough, you can factor in a behavioral or skill assessment (great recruiting software makes this easy). And if you aren’t seeing the number of quality applications you’d expect, consider an employee referral program.
Skip the Phone Interview
Next, you’ll want to learn more about the remaining candidates. Typically, hiring managers might choose to do this by phone. The problem is, phone calls can be awkward and hiring managers have a tendency of not showing up for the calls, especially when there are more pressing problems. Your recruiting software should be able to automatically send out requests for further info (Paycor Recruiting integrates with Gmail and Outlook to simplify interview scheduling), so you can reach out electronically to your candidates and ask them the things you’d normally ask over the phone:
- Tell me a bit about yourself.
- Why are you looking to make a move?
- What do you know about our organization?
- Tell us about a time where you had to deal with an unhappy customer.
- What kinds of jobs are you applying to?
- Are you currently talking to other companies for an open role?
When you get answers, your recruiting system should score them so that you begin to see a natural hierarchy emerge. Chances are that your winning candidate is in this pool.
How to Assess a Cultural Fit
When remote hiring, to help assess a cultural fit, prepare questions that evaluate both technical skills and alignment with company values. It’s best to conduct the interview via video so you can observe non-verbal cues and communication skills. Involve multiple interviewers to gain diverse perspectives. Provide a virtual office tour and introduce candidates to team members to help them visualize the work environment. Follow up with references to gather insights on teamwork and adaptability. Document and compare assessments to make informed decisions—use interview scorecards to help keep a fair playing field. All of these practices will help ensure your new hires will be a cultural fit who align with the company’s values.
Text, Don’t Just Email
People are bombarded with email these days, and it’s all too easy for important messages to get lost. We recommend sending candidates texts at each stage of the interview process instead. This speeds up candidate response times and keeps the hiring process moving.
Don’t Rush Background Checks
Some things never change. Background checks are still important, so don’t skip this step. Criminal history is the obvious one, but there are actually quite a few background checks you can run.
Logistics of Remote Hiring
One of the biggest challenges to hiring remotely is handling time zone differences and creating balanced schedules. This can be addressed by offering flexible working hours, being mindful of time zones when scheduling meetings, rotating meeting times, setting clear communication expectations, using asynchronous communication methods, and empowering work-life balance. These approaches help accommodate different time zones, promote fairness, and ensure effective communication and collaboration among remote team members.
Another challenge can be getting candidates to sign on the dotted line quickly as to not slow down the hiring process. Don’t force candidates to come into the office to sign. Instead, send a digital offer letter to close the deal immediately. (Paycor Recruiting partners with DocuSign for reliable remote document signing.) View more hiring tools here.
Keeping Remote Employees Engaged
Once you’ve hired remote employees, it’s important to keep them engaged with fellow coworkers and what’s happening around the company. Preventing remote employee disengagement and isolation requires regular communication, clear expectations, and fostering a sense of belonging. Providing support, resources, and recognizing achievements helps remote employees feel valued. Encouraging work-life balance and offering growth opportunities promotes motivation. Seeking feedback and addressing concerns promptly ensures a positive remote work environment. To take a quick snapshot of what employees are feeling, use a survey tool such as Paycor’s Pulse Surveys for immediate insights. You can then move forward with planning different strategies to address the concerns of remote employees.
How Paycor Can Help
Paycor Recruiting was built by recruitment professionals, who understand what an Applicant Tracking System needs. Paycor’s hiring software reduces barriers and allows applicants to apply from anywhere, on any device, at any time. And Paycor Smart Sourcing, our innovative AI-based recruiting tool, automates the candidate search and captures up to 67% more candidates that other solutions miss. Click here to learn more about Paycor Recruiting.