7 best practices for more effective remote hiring

Remote work offers many benefits to employees, such as more flexibility and autonomy over their time. The National Bureau of Economic Research found that working remotely saves employees 72 minutes per day on activities such as preparing to go to work and commuting.

The freedom to work from home (or another location of an employee’s choice) boosts work-life balance and job satisfaction for employees. However, employers enjoy many advantages from remote work as well. 

By removing geographic constraints, employers can tap into diverse talent pools and collaborate with skilled individuals across the globe. They also enjoy the cost savings of reduced overhead (such as rent, utilities, and office supplies), as well as lower workforce recruitment and retention costs.

With the benefits of remote work flowing to both employees and employers, it is no surprise that remote work is increasingly popular, with 27% of employers fully remote in 2023.

However, the transition to remote hiring also poses challenges for employers — from adopting new technology to ensuring good candidate experience digitally. Here are seven best practices employers should consider in order to build a rock-solid remote hiring process.

#1: Don’t settle for cookie-cutter job ads

 

Remote hiring vastly increases opportunities for employers and candidates to connect. However, the tradeoff is that it can be difficult to stand out among a sea of other options.

 

​​When was the last time you were excited by the content of a job ad? The job itself might be exciting, groundbreaking, and a great opportunity — but an ad that reads like a list of hard skills and expectations is unlikely to catch a candidate’s attention.

 

Being generic is no longer enough. When remote hiring, selling your opportunity and distilling down the essence of why a candidate should invest in your vision and team is critical.

 

Some points to highlight include well-known investors or clients, the opportunity to work with trendy new technologies such as machine learning or blockchain, or mission-driven industries such as green energy or health tech.

 

#2: Take advantage of tech tools

 

Software recruiting solutions are more advanced than ever and can handle increasingly complex tasks. As talent teams struggle to do more with less in uncertain economic times, tech tools can help automate important parts of the remote hiring process.

 

Rather than emailing back and forth with candidates, providing a calendar link allows candidates to schedule at a time convenient for them. Recruiters and hiring managers can also set up reminders in their Applicant Tracking System (ATS) to ensure candidates receive quick feedback from interviews.

 

These technologies, once considered avant-garde, are now an essential part of the recruiting toolbox. Over 98% of Fortune 500 companies use recruiting software, and 94% of recruiting professionals say it has positively impacted their hiring practices.

One hot recruiting trend in 2023 is the use of AI. Sourcers and recruiters are leveraging the advanced chatbox ChatGPT to create interview questions, draft emails on their behalf, post on social media, and more. Free browser extensions can help recruiters automatically personalize their messages to candidates, freeing up time and bandwidth.

#3: Good communication and streamlined processes are vital to remote hiring

 

Soft skills are key in both in-person and remote hiring. However, remote hiring poses additional challenges such as different time zones, technical difficulties, and building rapport over a video call.

 

That’s why it is even more important to be intentional about communicating effectively and setting candidates up for success in your remote hiring process. Hiring teams should prepare candidates for assessments and communicate the next steps.

 

To minimize talented candidates dropping out of your pipeline, streamlining assessments is also a must. As a result of the Great Resignation and the continued strength of the labour market, in-demand talent is increasingly less willing to tolerate bloated and bureaucratic hiring processes.

 

Candidates are much more enthusiastic about assessments when the hiring team takes the time to communicate the goal setting and intention of the assessment and how it is tailored to the skills required by the job.

 

#4: Build rock-solid coordination behind the scenes

 

Ensuring that recruiters and hiring managers are in lockstep will ensure a better candidate experience, reduce wasted time, and speed up time-to-hire.

 

One tip is to align early on expectations, when it comes to the requirements of the role, must-have versus nice-to-have qualifications, and expectations for candidate review time and feedback. Those involved in the hiring process should meet regularly to stay accountable for these expectations and share updates.

 

Another way to improve candidate experience is to preemptively block off time on the hiring team’s calendar for anticipated interviews. That way, candidates will be able to schedule quickly and move through the interview process.

 

#5: Highlight remote company culture

 

As office environments move online and technology and automation become indispensable to modern work, it is more important than ever to create a human connection while hiring.

 

82% of employees say it’s important for their organization to see them as a person and not just an employee, found Gartner. Yet only 45% of employees believe their organization sees them this way. 

 

Companies with a positive remote work environment emphasizing trust, inclusivity, and work-life balance will have a strong edge while recruiting the many employees who feel disconnected at their current workplace. 

 

Some great ways to communicate a strong culture include a careers page highlighting pictures of team-building events, testimonials from current employees, and good reviews of your company on social media and career websites. 

 

Interviewers can also be prepared to discuss how your company intentionally creates space for online socialization. 

 

#6: Make diversity a priority

 

The tech workforce is currently only 7% Black, 8% Hispanic and Latino, and 27% women, according to Zippia. 

However, the shift to remote work offers employers an opportunity to make some meaningful progress in remedying this crisis.

Remote work allows employers to proactively reach out to diverse talent pools from anywhere across the country, from Miami to Detroit to San Antonio.

Besides boosting cross-cultural collaboration, the flexibility and accessibility of remote work offers is also particularly valuable to diverse employees. A recent survey by Slack’s Future Forum found that underrepresented groups prefer remote work at higher rates than white employees.

Some ways to build the diversity of your candidate pipeline include requiring diverse candidate slates and scanning your job postings and branding materials to find and eliminate biased language.

#7: Build a strong remote onboarding process

 

Building a smooth transition from candidate to employee will maximize the chances of an amazing hire staying at your company in the long run. 

 

Providing digital resources to refer back to is a great way to support new employees. This can include online training videos, digital employee handbooks, and cheat sheets summarizing company software, resources, and tools and how to access them.

 

Companies should also make it a priority to build personal connections through introductions, virtual welcome meetings, and team activities. Fun activities as simple as a social call or as creative as online chocolate tasting or a virtual escape room can help a new employee culturally and socially integrate into your remote team.

 

Establishing clear and regular check-ins with managers, mentors and “buddies” is also beneficial to help gauge how an employee is settling in, address any concerns or confusion, and offer support. 

 

Wrapping up:

 

As employees and employers take advantage of remote work to boost autonomy, productivity, and career satisfaction, recruiting practices must evolve as well. We hope you find these tips helpful in updating your remote hiring processes to create a great candidate experience and increase your recruiting ROI.

Learn more about recruitment, the tech workforce, and tech hiring trends at celential.ai/blog