Mastering Remote Recruitment: Tips and Best Practices for Building a Strong Distributed Team

Remote work, mobile work, working from home, if you are a hirer, this is probably one of the biggest assignments you might be dealing with. And this is no surprise as working from home is one of the most expected eventualities the modern workforce has welcomed with open arms. The concept is interlinked with being inclusive of life after work.

One thing is quite evident as a result of the pandemic. Remote work cannot be done for crucial supply chain and healthcare positions. But there are a lot of office and desktop chores that can be done remotely with ease. The way that organizations approach hiring needs to alter.

According to SHRM, 67 percent of respondents acknowledge that they think remote workers at their company are more easily replaceable than onsite employees. However, remote work opportunities are here to stay and it is up to the Human Resource department to strike the  balance between a workforce that has supervisors attuned to working from the office and the new generation of employees that prefer remote working.

What is remote recruitment?

The process of finding candidates, conducting interviews, and selecting staff virtually is known as remote recruiting. Additionally, recruiting and recruitment practices are altering significantly as more businesses move to a remote (or virtual) environment. Digital hiring tools were already on the rise, but the pandemic has expedited their use. AI and automation are gaining prominence as essentials for growth in a post-pandemic workplace as businesses reconsider how they hire.

In essence, remote recruiters' goals are the same as those of a traditional recruiter: they want to help companies by matching qualified applicants with open positions. The primary distinction is that remote recruiters are worldly and frequently concentrate their efforts in international markets where qualified, motivated applicants are more easily accessible.

In situations when direct sourcing—i.e., searching inside your own ranks—proves unsuccessful, remote recruiting can be a helpful alternative.

How Should Remote Workers Be Selected?

Your outdated methods of candidate screening won't be effective for hiring remote workers. You must also employ the new screening techniques in conjunction with the new recruitment strategy. You must put the following strategies into practice if you want to digitally screen remote workers. After a rigorous screening procedure has produced a small number of qualified and appropriate candidates, you must conduct virtual interviews with each of them. 

You can learn about a candidate's cultural values, work ethic, and personality through an interview. However, you must adhere to a good remote interview methodology, which includes the following, in order to obtain sufficient results from interviews:

1. Get ready

Like candidates, interviewers also have needs prior to the interview. The remote hiring procedure ends with the interview. Therefore, you must use this final opportunity to assess the prospects wisely. Keep the interview structured as much as possible. This guarantees that you won't miss anything and maintains the consistency of the procedure. A panel interview is another option for a joint hiring procedure.

Determine Your Remote Recruiting Budget and Resources 
The HR department of a corporation is typically in charge of setting a budget for the expenditures associated with remote hiring. While working with an outside recruitment business makes it simpler to stick to a budget for hiring, the recruitment process usually involves additional expenses

1. Jobs and Advertising: This covers the costs associated with advertising your vacant position on job sites and the cost of using paid recruiting services like LinkedIn Premium. 
2. Candidate Evaluation: Tests that are purchased and given by other consultancies are examples of tests and contests that can be paid for. 
3. Online Employment page: Your online careers page must entice job hunters and persuade them to contact your business. Your online careers page's costs are often focused on its redesign, development, and upkeep. 
4. Compensation costs for your recruitment team: This is true if you decide without using outside recruiters. When you take into account the time it takes to fill one position, these costs are typically rather expensive, especially if your company does not have a designated hiring department. 

2. Put Employer branding first 

All employees will judge a company, just as any company examines potential hiring; for this reason, employer branding is crucial. You won't likely be able to recruit the most in-demand personnel if your company has a poor reputation in the community. The Employee Value Proposition refers to how appealing businesses are to employees.

The idea of an "employer brand" has changed in light of the rising number of employees who work remotely. Despite this, having a good employer brand makes it possible for customers and potential employees to recognize your business and raises brand recognition. One item should stand out above all others in your remote-first employer brand: providing remote workers with the finest work environment.

The marketing firm Sullivan's Nicole Ferry claims that "a strong employee value proposition aids not only in retention and happiness, but may also effect business outcomes" such as "improved quality of people, cheaper hiring costs, lower turnover rates, and even revenue."

A survey by branding consultants Papirfly found that 75% of applicants look at a company's reputation and employer brand before submitting an application. According to the survey, 69% of applicants would not accept a position with a company with a poor image, even if it meant they would not have a job.

In terms of remote work, employees look for a variety of employees look for many of the same benefits when working remotely as they would in a conventional office environment. Work-life balance, an inclusive workplace culture, being recognized for their efforts and achievements and having faith in the company's leadership are just a few of these advantages.

Employers should concentrate on the following to develop a strong employer brand in a remote-first culture

• Granting remote workers control over their work hours
• Reassuring remote workers that they have access to the same chances for professional development and education as their office-based counterparts
• Investing in systems like Zoom and Slack to combat loneliness and isolation, as well as promoting virtual team-building activities
• strengthening teams through online "meet and greets," group projects, and team-building exercises. 

3. Establish your needs

What characteristics do youseek in remote workers? You can brainstorm with your management to identify the appropriate range to screen applicants once you've decided what traits you want your remote workers to have. The needs are unique to each company organization, therefore you must develop your list after discussing it with everyone on your team. A Cornell University study found that the perfect remote worker must be self-reliant, goal-oriented, and a strong communicator.

4. Experiment and find your sweet spot

You should analyze remote workers' performance using a variety of digital tools to adequately screen them. You should apply a variety of techniques while conducting remote employee screening. The candidate's personality will be interpreted differently by each method. Psychometric exams, for instance, can be used to assess a person's personality and cultural beliefs. Video resumes can be used to evaluate a candidate's drive. Their technical and domain talents can be discovered through interviews.

5. Make a list of pertinent questions

No matter how frequently you have interviewed remote workers, there are specific sets of questions you should ask each applicant to gain a deeper understanding. A list of questions that recruiters will need to ask prospects via various platforms should be prepared in advance. Finding a falsehood in an application can be aided by the diversity in responses to several commonly asked questions.

- Why do you favor working from home?
- What kind of schedule do you follow?
- Can you tackle a demanding task?
- How quickly do you turn around work? 

6. Gather candidates form available social media platforms

Today, all it takes to learn about someone is a few hours spent on social media. From there, you can learn pretty much everything there is to know about them. As a result, you can look for applicants who have been shortlisted on various social networking sites, like Facebook, Twitter, Linked In, and others. You can assess their prior job history, testimonials, and feedback on social media. Social media makes it simple to learn about a candidate's interests and ideas so you can decide whether or not they are a good fit for your business.

7. Put a pre-employment test in place

Assigning pre-employment tests to your remote staff is the greatest way to screen them. This would offer a simple means of assessing proficiency and skill. For instance, if your business is hiring a remote programmer, all of your applicants should take an online coding test. In this manner, you can determine which applicant accomplished the task within the allotted time range and who employed the most effective strategy. 

In order to avoid having to assess too many answers, the assignment should only be presented to a few selected, screened candidates.You can use skill-based and video-based assessments with the help of platforms like HireQuotient. It makes your work much easier as you only need to pick from the most skilled set of candidates from the pool that has applied for the job. 

8. Examine your technology

Before beginning the procedure, test the virtual tools if you don't want to appear unprepared and unprofessional during the live interview session. Because 85% of remote workers are impacted by malfunctioning technology if your virtual tools fail when conducting an interview, it will just be a waste of time for you and your prospects. Therefore, test the microphone, headphones, camera, and computer system before the interview session begins. Before contacting the candidates, do a mock trial with your team members, especially if you're going to be using third-party communication platforms. Make sure your network connection is reliable because a bad connection might ruin the entire interview process. 

9. Keep an open mind

If you're conducting a virtual interview, you need to appear completely prepared and polished. It's important to dress appropriately, especially above the waist. You must adhere to the fundamental interview protocol, which includes introducing oneself, providing a quick overview of your business, exchanging pleasantries, and creating a comfortable setting for the applicant. Your tone, body language, and word choice can all be used to indirectly demonstrate how attentive you are.

10. Pay close attention

Sometimes you might not be able to listen to someone else well because of a misunderstanding or signal failure. Approximately 60% of remote workers experience the effects of misunderstanding. In order to avoid talking over your candidate, you should always be reviewing the most important elements of their answers, nod your head when doing video interviews, and ask questions. 

As a result, you should continuously summarize the most important ideas from their comments, nod in agreement when doing video interviews, ask questions, refrain from talking over your candidate, and maintain eye contact with your screen. Candidates will remain interested and focused if they are aware that you are paying attention to their arguments.

In addition to Airbnb (71%), Lyft (81%), Twitter (89%), and Zillow Group (100%), other professional groups preferred permanent work from home above a pay raise.

The desire of workers is to work remotely. Models of remote work increase productivity. Employees who work from home are 13% more productive on average. Your business must adapt as technology develops and think about adopting remote or hybrid work arrangements. It must also reduce spending on antiquated hiring practices in order to put more money toward talent acquisition software. 

11. Decide What Your Ideal Remote Candidate Must Possess 

Make sure hiring managers and/or external recruiters are aware of the hiring guidelines and the demands of the new role before you hire any individuals. You must list the qualifications and experience your ideal candidate should have before making any new hires. This comprises formal credentials, job-specific training, hard and soft talents, and past work experience. Once you've listed these talents, the job posting and your interview questions can appropriately reflect them.

A thorough grasp of the "perfect" prospect will speed the hiring process from advertising to the assessment, testing, and interview processes, according to Rebecca Skilbeck in a Forbes article.

Consider the following advice to help you find the top talent (and your ideal candidate):

- Identify the technical expertise and credentials required for the person to perform the job successfully.
- What company values do you anticipate your remote employees to share?
- Determine how you want your remote workers to interact and cooperate with your team.
- Identify the time zones you want your remote workers to work in.
- Determine if you have particular requirements for how much work your remote workers must complete (for example, how many hours per week?)
- Ask potential employees how they remain motivated and engaged when working from home. 

12. Write a Job Description That Grabs the Attention 

Remember that the main goal of a job advertisement is to give prospective employees a thorough description of what the remote position entails. To do this, begin with a succinct, interesting job description, concentrate on the duties related to growth and development, and instill a feeling of urgency in the role. Although you should avoid using superlatives at all costs, make sure your job description is compelling as this will help you stand out from the crowd.

You must make an advertisement for any remote position that is clear about the duties and requirements of the position. Above all, you must make it clear that the position is either entirely or partially remote.

An online job posting should include the following:

- A firm summary Included in this should be the remote work-related goals, core principles, and policies of your firm. An appealing job title that accurately describes the position's responsibilities
- Remote, work-from-home or virtual are all terms that should be used in the job description's title.
- Information about the position: If the position is entirely or partially remote, full-time or part-time, and subject to any geographical or time zone restrictions, you must disclose these details.
- the main duties associated with the position.
- Required education and training. This may include educational credentials, professional certifications, work history, and soft talents like communication and problem-solving aptitudes.
The following task is disseminating your effective job posting to as many qualified prospects as possible.

This may include educational credentials, professional certifications, work history, and soft talents like communication and problem-solving aptitudes.
The next step is to spread the word about your effective job posting to as many qualified prospects as you can. The best place to do this is through websites that specialize in remote employment. You may effectively advertise your remote employment on some of the greatest remote job sites, such as Remote OK, We Work Remotely, Flexjobs, LinkedIn, Facebook, and your company's blog. 

13. Take into account specialized job promotion sites 

While a job advertisement is essential for drawing applicants, there are additional strategies you can use to expedite the recruiting process.

You can submit a thought-provoking essay that promotes your business on LinkedIn in addition to posting a job listing and looking for applicants. Additionally, if your business wants to draw in passive applicants, you might consider inviting one of your top performers to speak on a webinar. You're likely to receive an influx of interested candidates if they bring up important factors like your company's work-life balance, team collaboration, and career progression prospects.

It makes sense to concentrate on websites like Indeed, LinkedIn, GitHub, Facebook, and Instagram if your organization wants to both attract quality candidates and build brand awareness. You can connect with a more engaged audience and demonstrate how dynamic your corporate culture is through Facebook and Instagram. These platforms also give you the chance to connect with potential customers who are already fans of your brand as well as active and passive candidates. They can also share your article with others who might be looking for work if the position isn't a good fit for them. 

14. Take Advantage of Technology 

Any position can be filled remotely, but the hiring process should be organized and time-effective. Instead of concentrating their efforts on lower priority tasks, hiring managers and external recruiters must make effective use of their resources.

The process of creating and promoting job adverts, selecting candidates, and holding virtual interviews can all take a lot of time. Fortunately, technology has made it possible to significantly reduce the time constraints connected with remote hiring. Technology, like AI screening, can speed up a lot of the hiring process when used properly, allowing you to spend more time on candidates that are of higher quality. This might potentially lower the cost of hiring while increasing the speed and caliber of hiring. 

15. During the Interview, Use Technology

"A great recruiter is a great interviewer, and now you must be adept in virtual interviews," writes David Windley in a Forbes piece.

The use of video technology for distant job interviews gives both candidates and businesses more freedom. Because candidates can speak more authentically in video interviews than they do in phone interviews, employers can learn more about a candidate's personality and communication abilities.

A video interview can also be a great way for your business to select potential candidates from a long list of applicants for a position that has to be filled. Additionally, video interviews can be conducted at a time that better fits a candidate's obligations to their jobs, families, and schooling.

The Covid-19 pandemic has practically forced the employment process to go virtual, even though it may not be usual for your organization to use a video-driven hiring procedure. According to a recent Gartner poll, 86% of firms use virtual interviews to choose applicants.

Hiring managers and recruiters should be ready for any problems that can arise when conducting a video interview. Additionally, applicants should be informed if the video freezes or if there is an unexpected stoppage. Therefore, in case the technology fails, there should be a backup strategy. Therefore, you must always have the candidate's phone number and email address.

Here are some helpful hints to maximize your upcoming video interview:
- Test both your audio and your video in advance.
- Mute any computer notifications you may be receiving.
- Conduct the interview in a distraction-free space.
- Give the candidate a few minutes of leniency if they are experiencing any issues logging in.
- Prepare a list of questions.
- By maintaining eye contact and giving candidates your undivided attention, you can make them feel more at ease.

Check your privacy settings and make sure you have a solid login if you use a personal Skype or Google account. For your video interviews, you should set up a backup account in case you have any doubts about whether your username is appropriate.

An employer may occasionally use pre-recorded video interviews with the aid of video interview software. This format gives you guidelines on how to enter the interview from the employer. You won't be connected with a person; instead, you'll be asked to respond to pre-recorded or written interview questions that show on the screen. Every question will be recorded, and the employer will afterward listen to your responses. often there is a deadline

You would have realized by now that remote recruitment is not a walk in the park. But, there’s no way to understand it without completely immersing yourself in the recruiting process with the help of all the guidance you can get. Our Experts who have been in the hiring space for a while have valuable insights that could help you with the whole ordeal in a systematic and organic fashion. Get in touch with our experts here at HireQuotient and let us take the wheel to help you steer toward the better set of candidates in your candidate pool.