Now more than ever, how companies treat remote workers and how they approach the concept of remote work is of the utmost importance.
Businesses are attempting to keep their operations running smoothly during COVID, which has created a slew of logistical issues and made them aware of how important agility is in the workplace. Aside from the logistical challenges, employers need to consider how remote work will affect their brand, company culture, and appropriate work/life balance for their employees.
The bottom line is that companies have been forced to rethink their employee experience. This starts with hiring remote workers.
Remote hiring can be successful for companies if they follow helpful guidelines and strategies that have arisen during these challenging times.
In this article, we will discuss how to hire remote workers, breaking down the process into a few stages for remote positions:
- Before the interview process
- During the interview process
- After the interview process
Before the Interview Process
Creating a compelling, in-depth, and correctly formatted job post is the most critical component of a successful hiring process. Before the wave of demand for remote employees, bad job posts and descriptions were the downfalls of many companies looking to hire.
The job description should accurately depict what should be expected for the role of the remote employee and clearly define how that would differ from the in-person variation of the position.
Here are a few examples of candidate qualities that may not have been as critical to the role prior to COVID:
- Clear written communication skills and experience with video conferencing platforms are needed for the role.
- Ability to prioritize and maintain a productive self-driven workday
- Self-sufficient and technologically savvy. The ability to adapt and learn new technologies and platforms without intensive training
Once the job description is developed, it’s extremely important to make sure the job post’s data is correctly aligned with Google for Jobs’ schema requirements.
Google for Jobs is a powerful ally in gaining visibility to those job-seekers companies desire most. Not aligning your job post data with Google for Jobs is a tremendous lost opportunity.
What is Google For Jobs Is Looking For?
Read Our Blog: Google for Jobs Ranking Signals: The Top 6 and How to Improve on Them
Google for Jobs’ Initiative on Remote Hiring
In early August, Google for Jobs created adjusted protocols to ensure that remote work positions are indicated when they rank on the platform. Job seekers looking to be hired as remote employees are looking for these remote work indicators, and companies need to ensure that they are clearly visible with Google for Jobs listings.
Google sent a newsletter to all clients announcing their efforts on highlighting remote work positions to hire with Google for Jobs. It’s a great opportunity for companies to include Google’s telecommuting scheme in its Google job postings to lure remote candidates.
During the Interview Process
Because in-office interviews are not being conducted right now, it’s important to be open and honest with candidates about how far along they are in the hiring process.
Companies that hire remote workers must take care to keep open communications with candidates during the interview process. It can be confusing for job seekers to understand where they are in the interview process, as the typical hiring formalities have changed.
For example, the hiring manager under normal circumstances may first conduct a phone interview, then invite the candidate into the office for the second round of interviews, and potentially further in-house interviews after that. Because in-office interviews are not being conducted right now, it’s important to be open and honest with candidates about how far along they are in the hiring process.
During the interview process, HR personnel should be stressing how important the remote skillsets and abilities are to being successful at the position.
The job description detailing the need for self-sufficient, technologically savvy, and highly communicative individuals should be restated during the interview process.
There’s even an opportunity to test these skills by asking the jobseekers to use certain programs and accomplish tasks before or during the interview is conducted, thus proving they have those abilities.
After the Interview Process
Keeping an ongoing and open dialogue with job candidates is paramount to keeping them interested in continuing the hiring process. Without clear communication, the most desirable candidates will lose interest and move onto the next prospective employer.
Conduct extensive background checks on all candidates that are being seriously considered for the positions. Businesses are more vulnerable to improper candidate vetting, as all aspects of the interview process happen remotely. Since you’ll be hiring someone you have never met in person, you want to take every precaution you can to protect your company.
The likelihood of fraudulent applications is still low, but without being able to conduct in-person interviews, it does create a new vulnerability in the hiring process.
A New Era for Remote Hiring
Without a doubt, as a global workforce, we’ve entered a new era for the remote employee.
Companies that were reluctant to rely on a remote workforce are now forced to do so. This means the entire hiring process has been forced to change too, and pivot toward attracting a self-sufficient remote workforce.
Make sure you and your team are treating the process unique to remote hiring at all stages: before, during and after the interview. Your processes will very likely be different at each stage than they were pre-COVID.
Is your company evolving its remote hiring practices? Learn how to post a job on Google with Jobiak here — we’ll help you evolve to the next level in recruitment & hiring on Google for Jobs.
