Recruiting Strategy
Hiring and managing remote workers
Orla Hodnett
HireHive
Orla Hodnett
HireHive
Orla Hodnett
HireHive
Orla Hodnett
HireHive
The same thing can often be seen with recruiting. With the increasing competition for talent, sometimes the most qualified person for the job is at a geographical remove from your office.
Being able to work remotely may give your organisation a competitive edge in an environment where people want an improved work-life balance. You may also find that some of your workers are already working from home one or two days a week. By using your recruiting software and other processes, it will be like your remote workers are in the office with you.
Discipline and time-management are essential in remote workers
The qualities you will need in a remote worker are a little different to those needed for your in-office staff. While skills and experience should be at the top of your list of requirements, there are a subset of capabilities that should take priority.
Discipline and time-management are essential in remote workers. A motivated self-starter would fare well in such a role. If a remote worker does not have these skills, the role may impact their home life and ability to meet targets, so it is bad for the candidate, as well as company.
The interview might be your only opportunity to talk to your candidate, but if your candidate is not in the country, the traditional interview is out of the question. But how do you get the information you need from a candidate and an impression of their personality?
Video interviews are one good solution, but you may need a little more. You can add tasks or assessments to the interviewing and screening process to give a greater indication. The line of questioning should really look into the capabilities of the candidate to manage their workload and work independently.
Onboarding is an important part of the recruiting process and it will have to change for any remote workers. Onboarding allows a candidate to get to know the current team and it is the stage where training is provided.
If a candidate is unable to travel to your office, that does not mean they have to miss out on understanding your team and culture. You can still assign a mentor for the initial period, but training may have to be online or done through video calls.
Excellent communication skills are absolutely necessary in a remote worker
Excellent communication skills are absolutely necessary in a remote worker. From getting the job done, to getting on with remote co-workers, communication skills must be excellent in any remote worker.
The same goes for managing remote workers. If your communication skills are not on par with your candidate’s, it will make their day to day job tougher. If you have got the right communication tools and processes in place, this should not be a problem. Online recruiting software, like HireHive, centralises your communications.
This is really closely related to the last point. If communication is not a high priority, it can be very difficult for remote workers to understand what current priorities and needs are.
By focussing on goals and setting expectations, everyone on your team, even remote workers, will be on the same page. There are various project management tools, which may be useful in this case, taking care of both communications and goal-setting.
“HireHive makes the team a lot more productive. We’d be lost without it. Team Leaders can do it all themselves if needed or jump in at the right time and know exactly where everything is and what’s happening.”
Hilary Dempsey Head of HR at Life Credit union
