Remote work has been steadily rising in popularity even before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Small, medium, and even enterprise-level businesses have started adopting more and more of their traditional office-based roles to remote work positions. This means that there is a big demand for remote-based talents and it is increasingly becoming a challenge for businesses to find the right remote candidate because of the competition.

Virtually Recruit New Employee

Adapting Your Recruiting Process for Remote Work

According to a study by Jobsite, a staggering 84 percent of companies included in the survey revealed that they were adapting their recruitment process for remote-work roles and positions. Companies are resorting to new recruitment channels like social media. 

Companies are also changing the way they attract new talent by highlight company culture instead of just focusing on the salary package they highlight the company culture. Remote work recruitment is challenging but can be done when you have the right process

1. Build Your Recruitment Process

The first step in your recruiting process is to identify the open roles and positions that are slated for remote work. Not all roles are suited for remote work but the recent outbreak of COVID-19 has forced businesses to adopt this role to adapt for a remote based-role. 

There are several things to consider when building your recruitment processes like your company industry, the size of your business, and more. You must consider the challenges and hurdles that are faced by the business.

2. Acquire the Necessary Tools for Recruitment

The next step in adapting your process for remote work recruitment is to find tools that you can use for your recruitment process. You need to acquire tools that will help support your recruitment processes like video conferencing tools, collaboration tools, file sharing tools, project management software, and more.

Most business software you will use is mostly cloud-based tools and come in the form of software-as-a-service (SaaS). The advantage of using SaaS is their flexible pricing model and the ability to pay only what you are using for. SaaS software can also be rapidly be implemented to your business and can be quickly integrated with other tools and legacy systems without requiring expensive hardware or expensive implementation costs.

3. Build a Job Description that Highlights Your Company Culture

For most candidates applying for remote work, the job posting can be the first thing a candidate sees about your company. More and more applicants are looking for a company that offers more than just a good salary package but a company that also offers diversity and company culture. So highlighting the companies values and culture is a definite plus if you’re looking for talent for your remote work position.

4. Use Social Media to Help Get the Word Out

Social media is becoming a very important factor in attracting talent to businesses especially for start-ups and companies looking for remote talent. Social media is not only a great channel to engage with customers, it is also a great way to engage with potential remote talents for your job openings.

5.  Start the Interview with a Conversation

The job interview has surprisingly evolved from the usual interviews 5-years ago. Video conferencing has changed the way how a job interview is done. Instead of the monologues and one-way interaction between the interviewer and the interviewee, the modern evolution of the job interview is that it has evolved into a two-way conversation where the interviewer and the interviewee get to know each other.

6. The Job Offer

Once you have conducted your interviews and have generated a short-list of candidates, the next step is the job offer. The Job Offer is not yet final until the candidate signs the contract. Today’s job hunters have more options than before, so it comes as no surprise that most candidates won’t sign the job offer immediately. Even after you have successfully completed the initial and final interview, you are still in competition with other companies to attract the candidate to sign.

7. The Onboarding Process

The next step in your recruitment process in the new hire on-boarding. Introducing a new-hire virtually or a remote-work position is challenging because new candidates can easily be overwhelmed y a deluge of information on their first week. The challenge is to create a balanced onboarding process that takes into account the challenges faced by the candidates.

One of the challenges faced when onboarding virtual candidates are helping them build a relationship and foster teamwork with the rest of the team. It can be difficult for new employees to confidently assert their presence in the video conference so providing an opportunity for newcomers to build professional relationships with their teammates should be a top priority.

8. Continually Build the Team

One of the best keys to building and managing a remote workforce is by providing an open and conversation office culture. Providing everyone the chance to speak out and be heard helps foster teamwork. Giving everyone a platform to share their ideas help solve potential problems that result from remote work before they affect output. A team that is able to easily communicate and share ideas fosters teamwork and boosts morale that can positively affect the output of all team members.