Best Ways to Hire a Remote Workforce
The COVID-19 situation has led to most companies working remotely. Remote workforce has become the order of the day. While earlier, remote workers were a small fraction of the company’s workforce, today most employees are working remotely. This has affected the HR activities in companies since recruiters now need to hire remote employees.
The following explains how a company can recruit a remote workforce in a seamless way.
Define remote workforce characteristics
A person working from home is not a remote worker. A remote worker is one who would be able to work efficiently from a remote location in the absence of physical supervision. This calls for certain characteristics that need to be evaluated before hiring remote workforce. Companies need to identify those characteristics and define them formally before commencing recruitment.
Trustworthiness, ability to prioritize work, action-oriented nature, good writing skills, and availability of local support are some of the traits to look for.
Finding remote workforce applicants
There are different ways in which recruiters can find the best candidate to be part of a remote workforce.
- Using the company’s or the recruiter’s network is a good way to find candidates. These candidates come from reliable sources and can be more trustworthy.
- There are a number of meet up groups, both online and offline. These groups comprising professionals from different domains would be a good source for candidates.
- Recruiters have their own database. This would include people who sent in their application a long while back. Going back to the database can help identify suitable candidates.
- Using the website or blog of the company is a good way to find candidates. Similarly, social media platforms of the company are a good tool to use to find candidates.
- Current employees can be asked to help bring in new employees. This could be another reliable source.
- Job boards on different websites are a good source to find remote workforce candidates.
Hiring remote workforce
Once the candidates are identified, the next step is to start the hiring process. This would be different from the process of hiring regular staff and would envisage:
- The application process must be comprehensive. It must capture complete information about the candidate. It should get all the detailed needed to evaluate if the candidate is fit for remote work.
- Hiring tools can be used to make the hiring process smoother. An applicant tracking system is a part of HR software that can help manage the interview process better.
- Video interviews are needed to screen candidates. Once the screening is done, the next video interview can be to specifically identify if the candidate fits the job. It is important to test the communication skills of candidates. Tests and projects can help assess candidate skills better.
- Checking references of candidates is important before bringing them onboard.
Virtual HR Software
With hiring being virtual, it is no surprise that Virtual HR software tools have become popular. Virtual HR is a concept that focuses on connecting employees directly to the HR system without the need for any intermediary. HR staff being busy with routine activities may not have time to deal with activities like employee data updating. In this case, the use of virtual HR is necessary since employees dispersed in different geo-locations require software that’s available 24/7 .
Similarly, activities like training needs assessment need input from employees. Here again, the work load on the HR personnel can be reduces through virtual HR software. Employees can provide inputs to the system so that the training needs assessment is done virtually. The same holds true for the onboarding process. Using onboarding software helps HR personnel reduce time commitment on employee management, thus increasing overall productivity.
There are many other such routine HR tasks like providing information to employees, payroll, sending newsletters, etc. All these can be done through Virtual HR to make the HR system more effective.
About the Author
Ivan Widjaya A mobile entrepreneur who loves to work anytime, anywhere he wants. He runs several popular business blogs, make money online and live a geoarbitrage lifestyle. He typically works at home and travel with his family when he wants to, often without his business.
