Whether you are a fully distributed team or just taking your first steps into the world of remote work, there are a number of things to consider when hiring remote workers.
Recruitment Process
As our company has grown and changed, our hiring process has evolved. We start with a very simple systematic resume screening, looking for reputable college backgrounds, having an excellent work history, etc.
Beyond that, we have many screening suggestions to offer. A multi-step screening can be used to quickly and efficiently rank potential candidates by obtaining what we consider to be the “key parameters” of a good remote worker.
The first step is a type questionnaire, which is designed not only to assess whether the candidate is a good cultural fit, but also to test their communication skills in this way. Many HRs have said, “Communication is really important, and a lot of the communication we do is online. That’s usually a big issue for us.”
This doesn’t mean that everyone we hire has to be a “writer” or have a perfect grasp of multiple languages. It’s not what you say, but the way you communicate that matters.
After we evaluate the answers to this type of form, we ask a group of candidates to move on to a values interview with a senior member of the company. This is either face-to-face or via video call, depending on where the candidate lives. Here, we predict whether this candidate will thrive in a telecommuting environment by asking questions about how they currently live.
After the first round of interviews, we continue with role-specific interviews with the candidate’s potential leaders. This is followed by a process that revolves around possible jobs to review their ability to match the position. At each stage, the list of potential candidates is reviewed and refined.
Finally, a feedback is given on the suitability of the relevant interviews.
Identify capable remote staff candidates
We interviewed remote recruiting HR at a number of multinational companies to learn how they screen remote staffing candidates.
We found that many good remote workers share the same traits. The main traits may be communication skills, self-motivation and discipline, and oddly enough, previous remote work experience often helps them corroborate these points very well.
Communication skills
When you telecommute, most of the way you communicate with your company colleagues is through written expression, so you have to clearly articulate some of the subtle differences in complex concepts.
It is very important for anyone who is part of a distributed team to have excellent communication skills, and this was evident in the first few interactions.
Previous experience has been more towards practical applications than anything else, and we rely heavily on written communication. Therefore, candidates who may have a great background or experience, but who do not communicate accurately enough, do not understand our written instructions, or are slow to respond, will not be successful.
Self-motivation and self-discipline
If a candidate is required to answer a lot of questions from the interviewer during the interview process, and if they always have nothing to say before placing a request, then they are probably not a good fit.
The ability to complete tasks, self-motivation and self-drive are all important factors.
It’s critical to hire proactive, curious people who don’t wait for someone to tell them how to do something. That’s something we look for very much in our interviews.
Conclusion
Although some companies insist that anyone can work remotely if necessary, the reality is that certain types of people do better in such environments. Usually, such people have good written and written communication skills, they are self-motivated and can push themselves to do the job in a quality way at all times, and of course, many have a lot of relevant experience. Such a conclusion lets us know that telecommuting is not a traditional office, where we cannot communicate and check instantly, and that all this can be an important factor in the success or failure of a job.
