Getting The Right Remote Workers: A Handy Guide

Remote workers have become indispensable for many businesses nowadays. They let companies continue their operations beyond the usual office hours. But getting the right remote workers for the job can be challenging. Here is a useful guide on how to spot perfect candidates and bring them in with your hiring process.

The qualities to look for in remote workers

One challenge you can encounter when hiring remote workers is sifting through the numerous applications and deciding which ones to shortlist. Here, you need to look for certain essential qualities that will make a candidate fit for the job.

Self-motivation

As remote workers often work by themselves, they don’t have other people reminding them when tasks need to be completed. This can cause them to become unmotivated in finishing these on time. As such, you want to get workers who can keep themselves on track to meeting work deadlines.

Forbes gives you a few quick pointers on how to determine whether a candidate has enough self-motivation for remote work.

Work history: People who have stayed with companies for long times and have a good promotional history are more readily motivated by a promise of rewards for good work.
Outside interests: The level of enthusiasm candidates have for their outside interests will give you an idea of how willing they are to exert an effort when remote working.
Failure: By asking candidates how they managed to overcome failures, you can know whether they can keep their focus on the task at hand and not be deterred by setbacks.

Take time to know more about these aspects of the candidates’ personality by asking them detailed questions. You can also reach out to the reference people they provide for more accounts of their personality.

Prioritization and organization skills

Another major challenge for remote workers is keeping their tasks organized in the absence of overseers. They can end up spending too much time on less important tasks and rush to get the more important ones done as quickly as possible. To avoid these situations, you should get a remote worker who can effectively manage their time and prioritize tasks.

Asking your candidates questions relating to their time management skills is a straightforward way you can assess this particular aspect. Throw follow up questions detailing different scenarios to see how they respond.

But don’t just rely on their answers. You would want to see these prioritization skills in action. Give them several small tasks they need to accomplish within a specific amount of time. Rank these tasks in terms of importance and see whether they accomplish the most important ones first.

Communication skills

While good communication skills are essential in any workplace, they are more so in the remote office setup. Good written communication is one particular area to focus on when hiring remote workers. This is because most of the communications in remote offices are still done through text-based emails and chats.

A quick way to assess how good a candidate’s written communication skills are is by going back to their cover letter. Were they able to deliver their intended message to you in a concise manner? Is the quality of the letter itself sufficient for the level of communication skills you need? You can also review your initial communications with them to assess their skills.

Aside from technical quality, you would also want to know how diligent they are in responding to your emails and chat messages. This is important especially if you need constant updates on projects. Go back to your correspondence with them and see how long they take to reply. You would also want to gauge their overall tone.

Collaboration skills

Knowing how to effectively work together with others is even more essential in the virtual office setup. Since everyone doesn\’t see face to face, they need to know how to effectively coordinate with you and other members through the available means.

While you won’t be able to know the extent of candidates’ collaboration skills until you work with them, you can still get a good feel for it. Reviewing their experience with remote work will tell you how well they have adapted to this type of work. You can also check out their non-remote work to gauge how well they team up with others in any environment.

Improving your remote worker hiring process

Now that you have a clear picture of the kind of remote workers you want, you need to fine-tune your h hiring process for them. First off, you should know where remote workers would be looking for jobs. Numerous platforms that specifically cater to remote jobs have sprung up in recent years, like:

Upwork
Freelancer.com
Fiverr
WeWorkRemotely

Aside from these, you can also look for ones that are specific to your niche. These include Facebook groups and online forums. Aside from being recruitment platforms, they allow you to interact with possible candidates and determine qualified ones you can reach out to.

Helping candidates see if they are fit for remote work

Since remote work is a relatively new opportunity, not all candidates might be ready for it. As such, you want to help them decide whether they are up to it. One way to do this is by providing them with resources to help better understand your remote work culture. Outsourcing firms like Virtua Solutions do this by regularly publishing articles describing how they work.

The personal stories of your employees are also a great way to illustrate how remote work is going to be for potential candidates. Here, it would be a good idea to let your employees freely tell their stories. Candidates are more receptive to anecdotes that they hear from workers like themselves.

Doing the right interviews

To get a better feel for the remote worker candidates you are assessing, you might want to conduct several interviews. Each of these interviews will look into specific areas of the candidate’s qualifications. Three of the most common interview types are:

Culture and values interview: This initial interview serves to gauge the above essential qualities of a remote worker candidate and see how they fit your company culture.
Experience interview: The second interview is geared towards gauging the candidate’s technical skills. This is also where you can conduct related tests.
Final interview: The final interview is where you give more details about the work, like areas that might need more attention. This lets candidates decide whether they can take the job.

Note that your company might have a different interview structure, depending on the job being offered. But you can still follow the specific areas above to be sure that you end up with the most desirable candidates.

Bring in the right remote workers for your team

While the remote worker hiring process can be a bit of trial and error, using the listed qualities above will help you make it easier. And by understanding how each of the qualities plays into the job you are offering, you can be sure that only the best candidates remain in the end. Good luck in your hunt for new members of your virtual team.