Remote work makes the world smaller. In a typical office environment, where every employee commutes to and from the office each day, your professional community of peers and teammates is reserved for those people you see in the office. You all have similar commute times, maybe some of you even live in the same neighborhoods. Now, thanks to remote and hybrid work, not only may you no longer live in the same neighborhood as your coworkers, you may not even live in the same time zone or country as them.
As we expand the way we view the modern employee, we’re also expanding the way we approach the hiring process. Office culture of yesteryear was so on-site and in-person focused that the idea of hiring full time remote workers who couldn’t easily pop into the office each day was not in anyone’s mind. But now, we have seen firsthand the true capabilities of our employees when they are free to work remotely and from home on more flexible schedules. It’s clear that the local way of thinking is a thing of the past.
2021 is the year that we officially say goodbye to the 25 mile recruitment radius. This year and beyond, recruiting new talent has the freedom to break out of the confines of the city where your organization is primarily located and reach out to attract talent from any corner of the world. And the best part is, this process has already begun.
With 1 in 2 people saying that they would move if they were able to work from home all or most of the time, the modern employee no longer wants to be tied to one central location. Being confined to our homes for a year has made everyone even more eager to explore new territories and move to new, exciting cities. If you stay stuck in a local mindset when it comes to the employees you hire, you won’t only be missing out on attracting the top talent out there but you also run the risk of losing the ones you already have on your teams.
Now that you’ve decided to expand your recruitment radius to include remote and hybrid workers, how should you approach this new type of hiring? Luckily— similar to how remote work has always been a reality for a lot of employees and COVID-19 simply shone a spotlight on it— remote employee recruitment has also been a fixture in some industries for years now. But just because something isn’t entirely new to the world doesn’t mean it isn’t new to you. To put your best virtual recruitment foot forward this year, keep these best practices in mind when hiring remote employees.
As a company that has been recruiting and hiring employees since its creation, you are sure to already have some hiring process best practices up your sleeve. Instead of throwing those in-person tactics out the window and starting fresh with a brand new remote process, use those in-person techniques as a blueprint or jumping off point for your remote techniques.
For example, if you used to recruit potential new hires at job fairs, pivot your recruiting efforts to the online world of virtual professional communities. As a pre-interview screening tactic, send prospective hires skills tests to complete. Then, once you’ve selected promising talent based on the results of their skills tests you can move on to the interview phase of the process.
Conducting remote interviews is not that different from in-person interviews. The content is the same, the stakes are the same. The only real difference is that you are communicating through video conferencing technology. And because you are hiring for a remote or hybrid position, seeing how well interviewees navigate this technology is just as much a part of the interview process as anything else.
To get you started on your remote and hybrid employee hiring journey, you may want to post job openings on sites that target flexible employees. Remote job posting sites include:
Before you can go out searching for new hires you have to determine what it is you’re looking for. Especially when you open up your search to candidates living anywhere in the world, you’ll want to create a clear rubric for yourself so as to not become instantly overwhelmed by the sheer volume of potential new hires you’ll encounter. Additionally, because you are hiring for a remote or hybrid position, ensuring that your new hire is prepared to succeed while living the work from anywhere (WFA) lifestyle is an essential part of the hiring process.
Regardless of the position you’re recruiting for, to make sure they are a good fit for your hybrid teams, look for an employee that:
Of course, no employee is flawless and many of these skills can be learned during the onboarding process. But if you choose to hire a remote worker just for the sake of hiring a remote worker and you don’t take the time to find a new recruit who is a talented, skilled remote employee then you may be inadvertently setting yourself up to run into some otherwise avoidable roadblocks in the future.
Now that you’ve hired the best remote candidates for the job, it’s time to begin the onboarding and hiring process. During this process, keep in mind that if it is new for you then it is likely new for your hire as well. The remote onboarding process, especially for those companies new to full time remote and hybrid work, should be treated as a safe environment for hires to ask questions and receive useful feedback to set them up for success in the long run. Additionally, depending on the exact responsibilities of the job, the remote training process will look a little different for each position.
Let’s walk through a standard remote training process that you can use as a jumping off point when you design your own program:
As the world and our industry continues to evolve, companies would be smart to embrace the evolution and grow along with their employees. Happy employees are the best employees. To make sure you are continuing to hire the best employees out there, expand your recruitment radius beyond the 30 minute commute circle. And to make sure you are putting your workplace policies where your culture is, take a look at our remote, flexible, and hybrid policy templates and see if yours might need a refresh.