Remote Recruitment: A Guide for Recruiters

At the current time, many organisations in the world started and adopted this common standard of working from home. Also, it is true that talent drives the growth of the companies.

A large portion of a business’s success is attributed to onboarding the right candidates at the right time. With that said, remote recruitment can benefit your organisation because they bring in skills that are scarce in your area. 

Pretty soon, remote working will become the norm.

However, hiring high-quality talent and virtual onboarding can be challenging, stressful, and confusing. 

A report by Forbes mentioned that 74% of working professionals expected remote work to become the new normal. 

So are you one of those remote recruiters who plan to expand your team by acquiring remote workers? 

Hiring remotely is not an easy task. But with proper planning and execution, it can be done effectively. Let’s understand how. 

Definition of Remote Recruitment

Remote talent acquisition, which is also known as virtual or online recruitment, is a process of identifying, assessing, interviewing and onboarding the best candidates who can efficiently work in a remote mode. 

The whole process of acquiring candidates is accomplished in online mode with tools for video conferencing and email communication. 

Also, talent acquisition specialists aim to ensure a quality recruitment process and a positive candidate experience while conducting the online process.  

Benefits of Remote Recruitment

Recruiting remotely offers plenty of benefits to organisations in reducing costs, providing flexibility to reach to global talent easily, and improving diversity and inclusion.  

Let’s explore the advantages of remote hiring in detail. 

1. Reach the global talent pool

The remote talent acquisition process allows recruiters and hiring teams to access broad and diverse talent from any corner of the world. 

It not only reduces the cost but also decreases the geographical constraints. The hiring teams can find, attract and hire talent from different geographical locations. 

2. Reduced Time-to-hire & cost-per-hire

Online recruitment saves time for applicants and recruiters as it eliminates the need to make travel arrangements and adjust schedules. Hiring managers can efficiently conduct virtual interviews using video conferencing tools.

Also, remote staffing can significantly decrease the hiring cost associated with the conventional recruitment process. Recruiters and hiring managers do not need to travel and accommodate to conduct in-person interviews.

Video interviews and online assessments remove the necessity for physical infrastructure and resources. 

In addition, online interviews decline stress and financial burdens on candidates, letting them concentrate more on showcasing their technical skills and qualifications. 

3. Enhanced diversity and inclusion

It is true that remote recruitment has the potential to improve diversity and inclusion by breaking down geographical barriers and enabling access to a broader candidate pool. 

Also, it allows companies to assess candidates from different backgrounds, cultures, and locations, which results in fostering a more diverse workforce. 

Remote recruitment destroys hiring biases arising from physical interviews or in-person interactions, concentrating only on candidates' qualifications and skills, leading to a more inclusive hiring process.

4. Flexibility and Convenience

Remote hiring offers flexibility and convenience for hiring managers and candidates. 

Recruiters can schedule interviews that accommodate different time zones and the personal commitments of hiring managers. 

On the other hand, applicants can attend the interviews from the comfort of their homes, the stress of travelling and finding accommodation that enhances the overall interview experience. 

Remote talent acquisition enables organisations with the ability to adapt to unforeseen circumstances like travel restrictions, pandemics, and natural disasters.

Tools and Technologies for Remote Recruitment

Having the right tools in place when acquiring new talent can help reduce the risk of misfiring, turnover, and bad employer branding. Here are the tools you absolutely need for recruitment. 

How to attract remote employees and build a strong employer brand online Having a good employer reputation will help you attract and retain qualified people. 

Local candidates might be easier to reach: they’ve probably heard about your company, know one of your employees, or they’ve seen your offices first-hand during the interview process. 

But, if you’re hiring remotely, candidates have to rely on your digital presence to learn about your company. 

Make sure your online presence shows you’re trustworthy, clearly illustrates your culture and helps candidates visualise themselves as members of your team. 

To achieve this, create informative careers pages and attractive social media accounts that describe your work. 

Remote employees often make their own schedules, but they still want to know what the job entails and what their obligations will be. 

Explain the level of flexibility you offer and, if possible, give a glimpse into the 

• For Sourcing Remote Candidates

Software like Nixa.io, Remotive.io, and RemoteOK.io are remote job platforms that allow you to search for qualified remote employees. With millions of workers on these platforms, you’re sure to find someone.

• For Assessing Remote Candidates

Imocha, HackerRank, and Berke Assessment are platforms with several remote skill tests available. 

GoodHire is a pre-employment background screening company that can integrate with your Applicant Tracking System (ATS) and other tools.

• For Talent Operations

iSmartRecruit is an Applicant Tracking System (ATS) that scans resumes to decrease time spent in the recruitment process. Beamery is a talent operating system meant to attract, engage, and retain talent, which improves your hiring process.

• For Interviewing

ScreenhingHive allows you to view recorded interviews and compare them. 

Jobma screens candidates by letting you share interview questions candidates can answer in their own time. 

HireVue helps candidates self-schedule their interviews.

• Managing Remote Teams

With remote work being part of the new normal, company managers need an efficient way to communicate workflow processes with remote employees.

In that regard, Visme offers a comprehensive platform to create an employee handbook, which can be easily customised and updated.

• For Assessing Culture Fit

Human employs AI to help remove bias from the hiring process that may occur from cultural differences. Saberr predicts how well candidates can fit into a role. 

ThriveMap identifies how candidates like to work.

• For Onboarding/HR

Workday and Personio are HR and finance management software that helps you build better onboarding policies. 

Deel is a company designed for distributed teams that takes care of local compliance for remote employees.

• For Recruitment From Start to Finish

iSmartRecruit is an All-in-one Recruitment Software for teams. You’ll also find many useful tools and informational resources, such as on how to create a solid recruitment plan. Without software, you’re going to have a hard time connecting with remote talent. 

But there’s just one problem: how can you tell the difference between a good and a great remote worker?

What Makes a Great Remote Employee?

At first glance, remote employees may seem identical to their in-office counterparts, but there are subtle differences you need to account for. Here’s what makes a great remote employee.

• High Level of Productivity
  Remote workers are more productive on average, but that doesn’t mean all of your candidates will meet their deadlines. Look for workers with a good track record of productivity or who are highly motivated and trustworthy.

• Excellent Communicator
  Great communication is the backbone of remote work. Remote candidates must be comfortable using communication tools like Zoom, Slack, Teams, and project management software. They also must show up to meetings on time.

• Incredibly Organized
  Without organisational skills, your remote workers won’t be able to manage their projects effectively. At the same time, their employers should set their employees up with a reliable, well-organized filing system, preferably cloud-based.

• Results-Orientated
  Remote workers can’t just “look busy” they have to show up each and every day to make progress on their projects. Employers can truly focus on the skill and talent of an individual to ensure that they provide unique value to the company.

• Self-Starter/Motivated
  Goal setting improves worker performance by 12-15%. If your candidates can set solid objectives, you’ve just found an incredibly motivated worker. Employers can also set clear goals for their remote workers to help them thrive.

• Adaptable and Flexible
  Your remote employees need to be able to roll with the punches, take criticism with a grain of salt, and learn on the fly. In other words, your candidates must adapt to new tech, methods, and processes quickly.

How to Attract, Hire, and Onboard the Right Remote Talent

Finding the best remote employees isn’t a numbers game; it’s about creating a deliberate acquisition strategy. 

Here’s how you can find the right remote employees for your business.

Step 1 - Build a Strong Employer Brand

Local candidates are easier to reach. They've probably heard about your brand and company, and they may even know your employees and interviewing process. 

But your remote candidates won’t know a thing about you, which means they’ll rely on your online/digital presence. 

For this reason, your brand should illustrate that you’re trustworthy, transparent, flexible, and accommodating. 

To do this, put the following information on your career pages:

How and When You Work

Remote employees prefer to make their own schedule, but if they have specific obligations (meetings) where they must appear at a certain time, describe them in detail. Give your employees a glimpse of a typical workday.

Employee Testimonials

Unless your employees are working directly with the CEO, they aren’t going to care how their employer feels about the company. Ask your other remote employees to make a testimonial instead, as it feels more authentic. Also, it can be a vital asset for your recruitment marketing efforts. 

It’s vital to be open about your company culture, but you also have to live it. If you promote diversity, but your content only shows pictures of white men, they aren’t going to believe you. Promote your culture everywhere at all times.

In-Person Meetings

If your company has in-person meetings for local or international staff members, show them off. Be clear that off-site trips aren’t mandatory (if they aren’t), or you could add off-site all-expenses-paid trips as one of the perks of the job.

Creating a great employer brand is the hardest part of talent acquisition, but it’s unlikely that offers will roll in based on your company culture alone. You’ll still need to advertise.

We already gave you a few great sites like RemoteOK.io, but there are several others you can try. FlexJobs, We Work Remotely, and Working Nomads are also great sites. For social media, try Work From and Nomad List on Slack or Digital Nomad Jobs on Facebook.

Step 2 - Offer Fair Compensation and Benefits

By offering fair compensation and benefits, you won’t just attract employees; you’ll also retain them. Remember that fair compensation is dependent on a person’s location, so if your remote worker lives in an area with a high cost of living, it’s only fair to offer them more money.

Benefits like professional development, vacation plans, health and life insurance, and memberships to coworking spaces are universally loved by remote workers. Perks, like a home office stipend, are often sought after by employees who have recently switched to remote work.

Step 3 - Seek Experience, Soft Skills, and Recorded Videos

If you’re using ATS software (and you should, because remote positions receive more applications), you may be tempted to focus only on experience and employment length. 

While experience is crucial, soft skills are often a better indicator of performance because your candidates may work on a contract basis. Freelancers are used to hopping around a lot, and it isn’t an indicator of poor work ethic. But how can you assess soft skills at the applicant stage?

Employers can ask for a recorded video that includes a short introduction and a few other details. Not only will the video show off soft skills like organisation (messy vs organised workstation) and communication, but it also highlights the serious applicants.

Step 4 - Ask For Referrals (Especially for Portfolio Applicants)

Remember that your remote employees often work freelance, so you need to judge your applicants based on quality, not quantity. Ask for referrals from your applicant’s previous clients. If they enjoyed working with your candidates, that’s a good sign they’re quality workers.

Step 5 - Host a Virtual Interview With Small Talk

When hiring remote employees, video and phone interviews will be your primary communication channels. It’s also important to use assessment tools, like Imocha and HackerRank, to evaluate the candidates’ skills. These tests will help you make more objective hiring decisions.

You should use interview and culture fit tools during this process, but the actual interview should take place on video conferencing software in real time. Platforms like Zoom allow you to assess tone, body language, and eye contact without needing to be in the same room, city, or country.

Step 6 - Hire and Train Employees in Groups

One of the most efficient ways to hire and train employees is in groups. A group hire can add healthy competition, cross-training opportunities, and reduced costs. If you’re only hiring one remote employee at the moment, consider waiting for another hire to save time and money.

Step 7 - Set Clear Guidelines and Policies for Remote Work

A common mistake employers make is not setting clear expectations for their remote workers. Your new employees may understand what their deadlines are, but if they aren’t sure how to deliver their work or what “complete work” looks like to you, they won’t give you what you want. 

Even if you made an outline of the scope of their employment (work hours, process, response time, culture, etc.) during the acquiring and interviewing process, they’d need a refresher. Your candidate has likely been through a series of interviews and tests, and they may mix you up.

Step 8 - Build a Long-Lasting Work Relationship

The in-person element is completely removed from a remote work environment, which may make it challenging for you to build a long-lasting work relationship with your employees. With communication tools like Slack, you can still develop solid relationships with your colleagues.

Future Trends in Remote Recruitment

Indeed remote recruitment is revolutionising every single day, and several future trends will change the remote recruitment field. 

Here are some of the key trends one can expect in the near future. 

1. Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR)

VR and AR will offer immersive experiences to candidates and transform remote recruitment. 

Organisations can provide simulations to work scenarios, and official virtual tours and evaluate candidates’ skills in remote mode. 

As a result, it will enhance candidate engagement, give a more realistic evaluation and helps applicants to see visualise themselves as a part of the company. 

2. Continuous remote onboarding

Companies will concentrate more on conducting smooth onboarding online as remote work becomes more prevalent. 

Hence, remote onboarding tools will be utilised more to offer new hires with necessary training, resources, and support to integrate smoothly into an online work environment.  

3. AI in candidate sourcing and searching

Nowadays, AI is playing a key role in automating industries, and the recruitment landscape is no exception. AI algorithms can analyse candidate resumes and applications to find qualified applicants. 

AI-based screening and sourcing tools will streamline the hiring workflow in the initial stages and save time for recruiters and HRs. 

4. More data-driven hiring decisions

The usage of data insights and recruitment analytics in remote hiring will increase, which will allow organisations to make data-driven recruitment decisions. 

Essential recruitment KPIs data, including applicant performance metrics, evaluation, and interview feedback, will be analysed to detect patterns, predict success, and enhance the overall recruitment process.

5. Virtual career fairs and hiring events

Organising and conducting job fairs and recruitment events online will become a new norm that allows hiring managers and employers to connect with a wider talent pool of applicants from anywhere.

Such online events give opportunities for promoting a healthy work environment and building a strong network. 

Also, organisations can showcase the company culture while advertising open positions in such virtual events.  

Final Thought on Remote Recruitment

It is true that remote talent acquisition can be challenging and confusing, but you can make sense of it by using tools, the right platforms, and a branding strategy. 

This guide will help you do all of that and more.