A Guide on – How to Hire Remote Workers, Remotely

June 16, 2020 -

What does hiring look like when many companies are moving their staff off-site to comply with shelter-in-place orders? Are there different criteria to look for in remote workers as opposed to those who are on-site? And how can managers welcome new employees when everyone is staying home?

Here’s a quick guide to finding and hiring remote staff without meeting them in person.

Where to find remote workers

Job search websites are one of the go-to places for posting open positions and attracting new employees. But this broad approach often results in too many resumes from less-than-stellar applicants. You also need to consider suitability for remote work and your corporate culture, which isn’t always easy to determine, even when you can spend time in the same room with candidates.

When you need remote workers quickly, try these other methods as well:

Specialized staffing agencies. Contact a specialized staffing firm such as Live Assets | IT Staffing Solutions. Finding the right fit, fast, for your open role — including remote positions — is our area of expertise, after all. Our talent pool includes thousands of highly skilled professionals who are capable of working remotely from anywhere. And we have solutions, including the use of secure virtual workspaces, that enable them to securely access necessary data and applications regardless of a company’s particular setup.

Boomerang hires. Reach out to top talent who’ve left your company on good terms — people you know are disciplined and organized enough to work off-site and have the skill set you seek. It never hurts to call those past employees or send them a personalized email telling them about an enticing job opening. For those who have retired from your firm, it could be a good chance to busy themselves while at home for a long period. For those employed elsewhere, consider making your offer a step up from their current position.

Staff recommendations. Employee referrals are excellent ways of recruiting people who’d be a good fit for your organization and for remote work. What’s more, a team member’s endorsement of your company is extra enticement for their friend or former colleague to accept your job offer.

Ideal skill set for virtual workers

Not everyone is cut out to work from home. You want employees who won’t need a lot of handholding or direct supervision. Here are six attributes of a solid remote employee:

  • Technical savvy — Obviously, your new hire should be very comfortable with common cloud-based software, as well as audio/video conferencing platforms like Zoom, Skype and GoToMeeting.
  • Digital security — They should also understand the importance of VPNs (virtual private networks), two-step/multifactor authentication and other best practices for data privacy. Don’t let online security be a casualty of moving your team off-site.
  • Initiative — When reviewing applications and during online interviews, look for self-starters. These are individuals who can see a need and then take the appropriate actions without having to be told what to do.
  • Problem solving — While working from home isn’t an every-person-for-themselves scenario, remote employees do need to take care of many things on their own. The ideal off-site worker knows how to troubleshoot an issue before escalating it.
  • Communication — In-person conversations have the advantages of body language and visual cues. Since so much communication while teleworking occurs via email, phone and instant message, look to hire those who can speak clearly, write unambiguously and listen carefully.
  • Collaboration — Even though everyone is off-site, your department and company still need to work together well and coalesce as a unit. In fact, a sense of collegiality is more important now than ever.

Live Assets is a boutique IT Staffing/Recruiting firm specializing exclusively in building IT teams of excellence for the Information Technology sector.

        

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