Remote-first recruiting practices: How we do it at Remote

If you or the candidate are working from home, a common issue that can arise is bandwidth. If multiple people are online in a house at the same time, this can occasionally cause delays with video conferencing tools. To address such issues, you can opt to disable the video function on the application you’re using during the interview. This way you’ll still be able to maintain a conversation with the candidate, albeit without the visuals. Alternatively, you can reschedule the remote interview at a time when fewer people are online. The rise of remote work made many companies consider hiring outside of their local markets and employ people across the globe.

• If both candidates are excellent, sometimes we see if there’s a possibility to hire both!
• At some point during the interview process, the employer may also ask you for your location—even if your job is entirely remote.
• Start with the basics as stated above, create the job description, and yes, post it everywhere you can think of.
• Our recruiters go through the applied queue and know what to look for thanks to the work the hiring team did at the beginning of the process.
• Some organizations are quite prompt, while others leave workers hanging.
• When conducting a remote interview, it’s important to ascertain an interviewee’s experience and hesitations about remote work.
• Of course, Remote is vigilant about candidate privacy, limiting interview notes to secure platforms and not discussing individual hiring processes in public channels.
• If the candidate is presenting their portfolio or a detailed proposal, your video conferencing platform ideally needs to support screen sharing.

Check the resume, check other peoples notes, and focus on what you need to achieve in the interview. Documentation is critical to the recruitment team’s success, but how do you make an interview better in practice? In most cases, the balance of power is strongly skewed towards the employer. This means people interviewing are typically not the best representation of themselves. Success in interviewing does not necessarily predict success on the job.

How to develop a stronger remote-first hiring process

Just because an interview is being conducted remotely, it should still maintain the same professionalism as an in-office interview. Regardless of the position that you’re hiring for, you must dress professionally, even if the interview is being conducted from your home. Before and during the interview, you’ll likely have to provide the employer with work samples.

• For instance, there can be audio-video glitches or internet disturbance during the interview.
• Beyond any of the “usual” questions you might want to ask, make sure you ask some remote-specific questions, too.
• This interview could be with someone from the leadership team or a player from another team who will collaborate heavily with this role.
• A candidate is always welcome to ask for a time more suitable to their time zone.
• Here are some steps you may take or encounter during the remote hiring process.
• Insisting on documentation allows our recruiting team to scale a fair and transparent hiring process in countries all over the world.

If the candidate is presenting their portfolio or a detailed proposal, your video conferencing platform ideally needs to support screen sharing. Consider the structure of your remote interview and select the optimal platform to run a remote interview based on that. In an Owl Labs survey, 1 in 3 remote workers stated they would look for another job if they were no longer allowed to work remotely, with an additional 18% undecided. This indicates the extent to which remote workers value their remote work setting.

Reference check

Your candidates should be encouraged to ask as many questions as they deem necessary – after all, they’re interviewing you as well. This is further exacerbated if remote interview process they haven’t had the chance to meet you and your team in person. Without the right tools and a strong internet connection, you can’t conduct the interview at all.

As a way to keep the interview flowing, try to maintain a structured conversation with the candidate, just as you would with a standard interview. Make sure that you not only have the candidate’s resume in front of you but that you also have a list of pre-determined questions ready to ask. At the very least, you should have the candidate’s phone number and email address readily available. Most interviews will turn the tables at the end, giving you the chance to ask the questions. Beyond any of the “usual” questions you might want to ask, make sure you ask some remote-specific questions, too. Check out your intended employer on LinkedIn, Glassdoor, or even social media.

Practice With the Tech the Interviewer Uses

You can avoid this by providing applicants with all relevant details related to the job during the pre-interview stage. Also, putting up details online will ensure a level playing field for all candidates. Another great idea is to conduct career fairs before the scheduled interview to help candidates comprehend what you expect from them. While there’s no shortcut to hiring best-suited candidates virtually, employers can follow these guidelines while remotely hiring employees.

Rather than pushing on working hours, ask your candidates their usual methodologies and tools. Focussing on the quality of deliveries and due dates, rather than counting every minute, is a better strategy to help your team members manage time and avoid distractions. You can feel more secure and in charge during a remote job interview process if you prepare for the unexpected. Remember to be flexible, as well as to remain positive and professional throughout the interview. When you’re conducting remote interviews over platforms like Zoom, it’s more challenging to hold your focus than a normal face-to-face conversation. This means that it’s essential you maintain your concentration and listen actively to your interviewee.

The research we mentioned at the beginning showed how bad hires impact companies’ incomes. The worst part of all is that a bad hire not only affects your budget but also it’s a waste of time and energy for you and your team. According to a study conducted by Indeed, when companies use fun titles such as ‘Guru,’ ‘Rockstar,’ ‘Superstar,’ etc., they scare away potential candidates.

In virtual teams, defining your culture is the first step to attract people that can see themselves in the company – and not just looking for a job to pay out bills. When you start with your remote hiring process, you need to make sure that the job ad you’re writing explains clearly what the position is about and what are the skills required. Also, explain shortly what your company does and believes (without making an entire testament).

We want to ensure all individuals have equal opportunities and feel a sense of belonging within our organization. When we communicate with another person, whether it be a friend, colleague, or a stranger, only a small percentage of what we communicate is verbal. In fact, there have been a number of studies on the complex topic of nonverbal communication with most experts agreeing that 70 to 93 percent of all communication is nonverbal. Save time and find higher-quality jobs than on other sites, guaranteed.