{"id":1077,"date":"2023-07-18T14:35:02","date_gmt":"2023-07-18T14:35:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nixq4qvp95-staging.onrocket.site\/?p=1077"},"modified":"2023-12-11T17:04:16","modified_gmt":"2023-12-11T17:04:16","slug":"how-to-recruit-remotely","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.adzuna.com\/blog\/how-to-recruit-remotely\/","title":{"rendered":"How to recruit remotely"},"content":{"rendered":"

Remote working remains a hot topic, not least because we’re seeing a polarization in businesses’ attitudes to working from home. Businesses across the US that were typically resistant to remote working were forced to adopt it during the pandemic, and while most are keeping it going in some form, an increasing number are creating back-to-office mandates. After telling staff they could work from home \u2018forever\u2019, Twitter U-turned and ordered all staff back to the office – and many others have followed suit. But other business giants like Atlassian have embraced remote working and reinvented their ways of working to make it a permanent fixture.<\/span><\/p>\n

One thing is for sure, employees continue to demand home working. A study by Zoom<\/a> found remote and flexible working to be the top most sought after work perk, beyond financial incentives. Why? Employees who relocated during the pandemic don’t want to stomach long and costly commutes to show their face in the office. Others have found the flexibility that remote working offers makes it easier to balance work with other commitments like having a family – and they don’t want to give that up.<\/span><\/p>\n

As fully remote roles get harder to come by, there’s an opportunity to steal talent away from companies with return-to-office mandates.<\/p>\n

So, if you want to ride the demand for remote working how do you go about hiring for it? We\u2019ve collected some tips for you, based on our own experience as a business with a number of remote employees.<\/span><\/p>\n

1. Embrace the technology<\/h3>\n

Let\u2019s get the obvious out of the way. Clearly hiring for remote roles requires remote interviewing, so you need to become handy with video platforms and other solutions. Bear in mind that body language won\u2019t come across as well, and some people struggle to maintain eye contact via a webcam, so you may have to curtail some of your judgement on the softer skills.<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>Recording interviews can sometimes be useful as you\u2019re learning, but make absolutely sure you\u2019re clear on why you\u2019re doing it and make sure the candidate gives you permission. Always chat with your data protection officer about how to approach this. If it\u2019s not possible, try practising with a colleague and look for clues.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Asking candidates to record interviews for screening purposes can also be time efficient for you both, as they can do them at their leisure, and you can watch a series of them back to back to make your decision. These are best when short and following the same format. Ask all candidates to answer the same 3 or 5 short questions so you have standardized responses.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

2. Extend the interview process<\/h3>\n

While it\u2019s tempting to use the nature of remote hiring to shorten the process because you don\u2019t have to get everyone in the same room at every stage, which removes some logistical challenges, you should try and avoid this. This is because it takes a while to build a rapport and establish relationships online, so if you take your time you allow yourself more opportunities to get to know candidates and establish if they are a cultural fit.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

We\u2019ve all had that candidate who was great on the phone, but completely blew the face-to-face interview. You need to give candidates the opportunity to show themselves in different lights, and become more comfortable with you and your business.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Of course, you need to be up front about this to the candidate so it doesn\u2019t seem as though you\u2019re being chaotic or that you\u2019re just stringing them along.<\/span><\/p>\n

3. Maintain engagement throughout the process<\/h3>\n

We\u2019ve all had that experience where you walk out of an interview and there\u2019s a really good feeling in the air on both sides. That\u2019s the result of a series of steps in the process that went well building to one another. It can be harder to generate in an online process, so that\u2019s why it\u2019s important to build engagement throughout the process.<\/span><\/p>\n

Between meetings, it can be a good idea to share more information about the company, the role, or the team. It doesn\u2019t need to be complicated – you could record a team meeting so they understand the dynamics of the team they are hoping to work with, and share that for them to watch. Or, ask some of your team to outline what a typical day looks like, so candidates have the chance to get excited about the role.<\/span><\/p>\n

4. Include other people in the interview process<\/h3>\n

A job is about so much more than your relationship with your line manager. You want to know who you\u2019re going to be working with beyond that. Schedule some informal chats with members of your team to get both sides familiar with the potential candidate.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Also, use the opportunity to ask people from other teams to interview your candidates, both as a sense check to see if candidates make the same impression on them as they did on you, but also because that gives the candidate greater ties to your business and makes any decision to accept a role that bit easier.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

5. Think about the job posting<\/h3>\n

If you are expecting people to work remotely, you need to be very clear about that in your job ad, and also to explain how the policy works. Even if you are still working it out, being up front about where you have got to in your thinking will be really helpful for prospective applicants.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The worst thing is to get part way through a process and find out that the candidate misunderstood the nature of the role. Or worse, if they expect to work from home permanently but you are expecting them to come into the office for certain commitments or meetings! Be specific and clear about whether there are occasions when they will be expected to be on-site.<\/span><\/p>\n

6. Take home tasks and assignments<\/h3>\n

A standard part of many interview processes is to ask a candidate to make a presentation, or complete a worksheet to show that they\u2019ve got the capabilities to do the job. This becomes even more important for remote hiring as it allows you to test competencies and presentation skills that you might otherwise not be able to do remotely.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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7.\u00a0Equipment<\/h3>\n

What\u2019s your equipment policy for remote employees? Can you make sure that any equipment they need can be shipped there? Bring your own device policies are common, but for security purposes you may need to ensure that equipment is up to a certain standard. It might be easier to provide a budget for staff to find their own laptop, but whatever you decide, make sure that you communicate that clearly at the start of the process and reiterate it throughout.<\/span><\/p>\n

Good luck with hiring! Did we miss any tips? Let us know by dropping a line at <\/span>sales@adzuna.com<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

\n

\"?\" Read more: <\/strong>The new perks and benefits employees really want<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Remote working remains a hot topic, not least because we’re seeing a polarization in businesses’ attitudes to working from home. Businesses across the US that were typically resistant to remote working were forced to adopt it during the pandemic, and while most are keeping it going in some form, an increasing number are creating back-to-office Continued \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[591],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1077","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-recruitment"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.adzuna.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1077","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.adzuna.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.adzuna.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.adzuna.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.adzuna.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1077"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.adzuna.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1077\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3916,"href":"https:\/\/www.adzuna.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1077\/revisions\/3916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.adzuna.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.adzuna.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.adzuna.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}