Great talent is not just limited to a certain geographical area—it’s scattered all around the globe.
Fortunately, remote hiring allows recruiters to source talent from every corner of the world without worrying about physical barriers.
The extensive possibilities of remote hiring have been served on a silver platter since the beginning of the pandemic. If you are still struggling to adopt the virtual hiring process, here are 10 ways by which you can do it.
Decoding the remote hiring process for recruiters
1. Define strong remote characteristics
Whether for an in-office position or a remote one, identifying the ideal candidate is vital for any job listing.
However, job descriptions become more critical for remote hiring because they require specific remote working traits that candidates must possess.
As a rule of thumb, evaluate character traits and abilities instead of focusing on experience. This will help you outline the requirements of a remote position much more effortlessly.
If you’re hiring for a remote position, certain personality traits and skills are more critical now than ever. Through a series of targeted questions, aim to find candidates who are organised, proactive, focused, communicative, independent, yet collaborative.
Read more: A recruiter’s etiquette guide to remote hiring.
2. Modify remote job descriptions
Job descriptions are often commonly overlooked and end up being neglected.
But while hiring remotely, this description is what will bring more interested job seekers to you.
When drafting your job description, be sure to specify the nature of the working environment right in the very beginning.
Emphasise your workplace values and culture so that candidates understand what it would be like working remotely with your team. Be sure to mention your expectations, including the required skills and traits.
Include the typical working hours, especially if weekends or travel are required. Be specific but concise.
Remember, if your description is insufficient, you’ll either end up receiving applications from unqualified candidates or very few applications.
On the other hand, if you are too narrow in your approach, you will lose top-quality candidates who feel they don’t fit the exact description.
3. Take advantage of recruitment software
As a remote hiring team, instead of manually handling all administrative tasks, leverage recruitment automation and intelligent recruitment software to do the work for you.
An Applicant Tracking System and Candidate Relationship Management (CRM) software can effectively manage your recruitment tasks by automating the most time-consuming tasks.
Along with this, recruitment software can accelerate the entire process by organising your data and presenting you with the most relevant information, allowing you to make the best hiring decision.
4. Make hiring a collaborative effort
Collaborative hiring is a great way to get your team involved in the hiring process, remote or not.
But with a heavy focus on getting a real deep dive into a candidate’s skills, personality, and experience, it may be worth getting your team involved in the entire process of remote hiring.
Moreover, collaborative hiring efforts will considerably reduce your burden by bifurcating tasks among your team members.
To make collaborative hiring easier, invest in a centralised cloud-based hiring software to easily monitor and track all hiring activities. For instance, Recruit CRM is completely cloud-based and provides visibility to your entire team without relying on long meetings or email exchanges.
Whether you’re searching for candidates locally, nationally, or globally, you have the advantage of a larger pool of candidates when you hire remotely.
A study by Aberdeen Group revealed that 73% of millennial job seekers found their last job on social media. This says a lot about the importance of social recruiting!
Remote job seekers are already active on career sites and social media searching for remote jobs. Therefore, make sure you leverage social recruiting to your advantage by staying active on sites like LinkedIn and CareerBuilder.
A lot of agency recruiters are leveraging the power of Instagram too. We have prepared a guide for you on how to go about it!
Today, most job seekers are guaranteed to be on social media multiple times a day—especially tech-savvy, millennial, and Gen Z talent. So make sure social recruiting tops your remote hiring strategy.
6. Keep candidates engaged
The most prominent aspect of remote hiring is keeping candidates engaged and maintaining consistent communication.
Disengaged candidates will lose interest and opt for employment opportunities elsewhere.
Consider engaging with remote candidates by doing the following–
- Use social media platforms to keep your remote candidates aware of the recruitment process. Share content related to your work culture, keeping candidates connected
- Share automated reminders and updates regarding candidates’ status
- Give instant feedback
Remember, consistent communication and engagement are the secrets to a stellar candidate experience and employer branding, leading to better prospects in the future.
7. Leverage online assessments to uncover talent
Remote recruiting brings the challenge of effectively assessing candidates without any physical interaction.
Fortunately, digitalization and AI allow recruiters nowadays to administer online assessments or psychometric testing.
When done correctly, online skill assessment tools can significantly raise the probability of hiring top talent as they provide a more objective selection process than other recruiting methods such as interviews.
They also help reduce time as they include pre-determined questions and are automatically evaluated.
To integrate online assessments into your hiring strategy, include a personality questionnaire to effectively pinpoint standout candidates. On the other hand, recruiters can use skill assessment software to identify hard skills.
8. Fine tune the hiring process
Remember that remote hiring requires a different approach than traditional hiring strategies.
As mentioned earlier, remote workers require different traits, including being culturally fit, self-disciplined, collaborative, and having proper communication skills.
Take note that remote job interviews differ from traditional interviews in several ways.
To find success in remote hiring, reconfigure your approach in terms of your teams and new hires.
For example, consider changing your evaluation process by sharing assignments with candidates. As for your hiring team, incorporate consistent communication in the recruitment process to keep all of your team members in the loop.
Download our Ebook: How to create a remote recruitment agency?
9. Prioritise remote onboarding
Remote hiring doesn’t stop at the final hiring decision.
Once a candidate has been finalized, do not waste time getting new hires on board. To make sure you don’t lag in onboarding, prepare a structure and remote training material so that you can instantly start onboarding new hires.
A smooth remote onboarding process requires thorough planning.
Start by introducing new hires through a common communication channel or group.
Next, make a checklist for all the tools, accounts, and other information new hires will be presented with on their first day. This can include their email, a walkthrough of communication protocols, etc.
Today, there are online tools and apps that make remote onboarding easier! You could be using a webinar software to host an interactive onboarding webinar for all new recruits.
Here’s a guide on remote onboarding by GitLab that can help you understand the process better.
10. Create a structured process
Prepare a structured remote work schedule so that you and your team can stay productive and engaged.
To avoid creating a chaotic environment in your organization, construct a set of remote recruiting goals around the following elements–
- Keep a unified database for sharing data and relevant information
- Have a common communication channel like Slack, Teams or Zoom
- Plan weekly meetings with the hiring team to understand goals and hindrances
Having a well planned and structured recruitment plan will help you work more efficiently and help deliver better results to candidates, further accelerating the hiring process.
With the rise in remote hiring practices, the competition for the best remote talent will be fierce in the years to come. However, with guidance and preparation, recruiters can kickstart their remote hiring strategies with ease.
Let us know in the comments how you’re preparing for remote recruiting.
