Top Tips - Remote Hiring

Guesses are that if you or your business is looking to hire currently you are likely to be doing so in unfamiliar circumstances. In fact, it is highly likely that you will be hiring remotely via Zoom or Teams for at least the next 6months and potentially forever!!

With this in mind, we wanted to highlight some simple tips to consider when remotely assessing someone for your next crucial role.

1. Focus on individuals career logic.

Make sure you explore the candidates career logic to date to ensure that your opportunity fits with their logical next step. Consider whether your role offers stretch for that individual and how long they would be happy in that role.

Nothing is worse than selecting an awesome candidate to join your business and having them pull out just before their start date because a better opportunity came along. Or having a candidate join, pass their probationary period with flying colours and then decide to leave for a bigger, better opportunity.

So, tip number one — be clear on the job opportunity you are hiring for and make sure you consider whether this role is the right logical step for each candidate that you assess. Try putting yourself in the candidate’s shoes to consider how this role would benefit their career.

2. Asses against job description but remember to consider future potential

Make sure you know what skills & prior experience is essential before you start interviewing and make this a must have for potential candidates. If you keep this in mind before arranging interviews it will save you and the relevant candidates a lot of time.

When assessing these specific skills do so with specific questions on the candidates experience in these areas, strong candidates will give you confidence as they detail a relevant specific example. Do not be afraid to vary some of the techniques for assessing these key skills as not everyone performs as well as they should during an interview process, including a written task or online test provides a more holistic approach.

Remember that individuals with the essential skills required who do not tick every box on the job description have room to develop and grow into the full role increasing the chances of their longevity in the role. It is also likely that this type of candidate will be aware of their development areas and will be committed to work on them.

3. Culture add

In an ideal world you would only make hires that fit your values and bring something positive to the culture. How do you possibly assess remotely if an individual is going to work collaboratively with their peers and be confident enough to bring their own character to the business?

Well, this is certainly a tricky one, but I would encourage as much time as possible spent across different teams that the hire would be expected to work with. One good technique is to get the candidate to work on a project across different departments such as finance, marketing and tech.

Not only does this enable everyone to test “the fit” but it also changes the dynamic from an interview to a specific work project.

Written by Andrew Waters| Zanda Co-Founder