Remote working is all over the news right now, with the government strongly encouraging employers to adapt to working-from-home wherever possible.

If your business is still growing though, and you need to take on more staff, this adds an extra dimension of difficulty to the already-complicated recruitment process.

However, the amount of remote-based businesses in the world is growing and some of the top brands have made it work for them. Here are some tips on how to make it work for you.

Create a detailed job posting

If you’ve ever had the pleasure of job hunting, you’ll know all too well that people are sometimes very vague in job descriptions. Sadly, this can lead to a lot of time wasted, both for yourself and the candidate. The best way to narrow your search down is to provide a detailed job posting.

Don’t just write a one-line summary of the job and a bullet point list of skills. It’s a good idea to introduce the company, describe the ideal candidate (in terms of skills, personality or experience) and also provide some detail on your remote working situation.

Make it clear that it’s a fully-remote position and how you manage your remote team. For example, can the candidate expect regular video calls?

Arrange a timed online test

Some candidates loathe the idea of an assessment as part of a job interview, but they’re incredibly useful in many industries. From your point of view, it also gives you an idea of what the candidate is like working under pressure!

These tests could be personality tests, knowledge or skills tests or feedback on projects you want to hear the candidate’s thoughts on. For example, a lot of marketing jobs ask for the candidate’s strategy on promoting a brand online.

If you would rather not assign a formal test, it might be better to ask for work samples or case studies of projects they’ve worked on.

Set up an interview

Most remote companies make use of video calling for interviews and company meetings. This is the closest you will get to traditional hiring and it gives you a chance to put a name to a face.

Video calls can be pretty daunting so you may want to keep it as an informal chat at first and then schedule a more formal interview at a later date with other managers or directors.

Have a solid onboarding process

When you offer the job to someone and they sign on the dotted line, it’s time to get organised. A solid onboarding process is crucial to ensure that a new hire’s first few days or weeks are structured, informative, and productive.

Keep in mind that they will have lots of questions and could even be entirely new to working in a fully remote position.

It’s a good idea to have things like a staff handbook with things like company policy, history and culture in. You may want to point them in the direction of various guides, videos or other resources so that they can learn more about the company.

And don’t forget – introduce them to their new team, if there is one!

Stay in touch

Make sure you are available to answer any questions, either by video or text messages and check in regularly to make sure they’re happy and know what to do next. It’s a good idea to introduce the new hire to the person they’ll be reporting directly to early on in the process so they’ve got a solid point of contact.

While hiring and onboarding new employees remotely can be a bit difficult and awkward, it can be done effectively if you’re organised and ready to answer questions whenever they crop up.

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