Perhaps one of the biggest challenges that business owners have had to face throughout the past few years has been their approach to hiring and maintaining a remote team. Online business owners had mastered this task, as their business model called for a remote team years before the pandemic kickstarted the remote work movement. But for those thrust into this working environment or those who have begun an online business recently, hiring a successful remote team can appear quite daunting.
With the proper tools and resources in place, you can make the remote onboarding process a much smoother ride than it was at the pandemic’s start. However, ensuring that the remote employee is the right hire for your business is another venture altogether.
Have an Idea of What You Are Looking For
Similar to hiring for a location-dependent job, you’ll want to have a few characteristics and strengths in mind when imagining your ideal candidate. The first round of applications is generally done online to start with since walking in and asking for an application is a thing of the past. For at least a decade now, individuals have been utilizing online job platforms, social media, and their personal networks to apply for jobs online. While the difference is now that interviews are done online, it doesn’t change the fact that you’ll need to have an idea of what you are looking for prior to beginning the interview stage.
Require an Interview Task Prior to Your Virtual Interview
In order to narrow down your search pool and weed out the unqualified candidates, you might consider requiring an interview task prior to your virtual meeting. Some candidates might be wary of this, viewing it as free work that you might later use. Instead, assure them otherwise and inform them that they will not need to submit anything. They can present their work to you over your virtual interview rather than sending digital files that you can later use. Requesting this of your candidates can show you who is serious about the job and willing to contribute to your company’s goals. It will also showcase their ability to work remotely, as their work will be done on their own time, with their own resources, and in their own working space.
Set Clear Expectations
As employees were thrown into remote work throughout the pandemic, many companies had not set clear expectations for this new working environment, and understandably so. However, as an entrepreneur who wishes to grow a thriving remote team moving forward, you’ll want to make your expectations clear from the start. Use your interview process to set these expectations that you’ve developed through trial and error, and also showcase how you will set them up for success as a remote employee.