Gauging the talents of in-person candidates requires skill and experience, but qualifying that same talent remotely poses particular challenges of its own.

Telecommuting has been on the rise since the early 2000s with SHRM reporting that 68 percent of companies now offer remote work options, up from 54 percent in 2014.

So, what do we know about the remote worker? The New York Times (NYT) helps us answer this question (though they themselves acknowledge the definition is somewhat nebulous)…

“The most complete definition is someone employed full time at a private, nonprofit or government organization, who works at least half the time at home.

“The typical telecommuter is a 49-year-old college graduate — man or woman — who earns about $58,000 a year and belongs to a company with more than 100 employees, according to numbers culled from the Census Bureau’s annual American Community Survey.“

Remote work/ telecommuting options can save companies money (the same NYT article found that the US federal government saved an estimated $32 million by asking their employees to work from home on snow days). And, numerous studies have shown remote workers are more productive and work longer hours.

With more and more companies seeing telecommuting as a viable option for their employees, it follows that remote interviewing will increase in popularity as well – from initial phone screens to online technical skills tests.

For many, the idea of remote interviewing can be daunting, as it’s common to rely on in-person meetings to get ‘a sense’ of a candidate. To surmount these initial growing pains, the following provides top tips for recruiters and hiring managers looking to win at remote interviewing.

1. Find the best ways to connect.

During an interview, so much is determined by body language, which isn’t something that always translates over a screen. A survey from Twin found that 50 percent of interviewers eliminate candidates based on the way they dressed, behaved, or expressed their body language.

That’s why it’s important to try to find communication solutions that will best replicate the benefits of in-person interactions (while also remembering judgments based on appearance and clothing could be biased so it’s good to eliminate that criterion from the application process). To do this, try using different communication tools for the various stages of the interview process, such as an audio tool for the preliminary screening and a video conferencing option during later rounds.

While there are plenty of business tools that perform one of these tasks well, implementing a unified communications system will ensure an organized approach when communicating between multiple candidates.

2. Prep the tech.

Delays caused by technical difficulties can completely disrupt a scheduled day of remote interviews, at times with costly consequences. Within the span of a year, a single employee can spend 91 hours, or over two work weeks, of their time fixing computer issues.

Technology snafus can make a company appear unprofessional and will ultimately decrease the time recruiters and hiring managers have to evaluate each candidate. Prepare in advance for a day of remote interviews by asking the following questions:

• Does this room have a strong internet connection/cellular reception?
• Is all of the necessary equipment plugged in and turned on?
• Does the candidate have the interview information, including time, date, and links?

3. Choose the team wisely.

A re:Work study found that having three interviewers in the room led to hiring the best talent 63 percent of the time, while a team of seven would increase hiring success to 72 percent.

Having multiple perspectives of a single candidate is typically a good thing, but when interviewing remote applicants, streamlining an interview team to a smaller group will help reduce interruptions and simplify communication.

Phone calls or video conferences should include only the core team necessary to make the decision.

If the team can’t be winnowed down, assign roles to each person, including which team members should be speaking and which are responsible for silently observing and notetaking.

4. Become an effective listener.

In-person interviews offer plenty of opportunities to demonstrate active listening, from securing eye contact to head nods. Since 93 percent of all communication is nonverbal, these tiny cues are essential for establishing an understanding between interviewer and interviewee.

During a remote interview, it may be difficult, or in the case of a phone call impossible, to represent any of the visual cues that show listening. Fortunately, there are other ways to show active listening…

• Looking into the camera as a way to replicate eye contact.
• Eliminating outside noises that may interfere with the interview.
• Waiting a few additional seconds for a response before speaking accommodates the time the interviewee needs to think of a response and compensates for any lag time or delays in the signal.

Don’t forget to share with your own remote interview hacks! #HiringSuccess

A growing number of businesses see flexible work options as a solution to the tight talent economy, this is how recruiters need to adapt.  

From a recruiting perspective, remote hiring is both a challenge and an opportunity. The ability to source globally means a larger talent pool, yet the prospect of finding a team member who can work effectively away from the office is daunting. However, ready or not, the reality of remote work as a common option approaches steadily, with Upwork’s “Future of Work Report” predicting at least 38% of full-time employees will work remotely within the next decade.

Accessible internet and the rise of workflow applications have made remote working an increasingly feasible option for companies looking to save money and/or build a global team. In spite of these positives, the challenge is clear: find a new worker who will be engaged, despite the distance… as employee engagement is a top concern, even with on-site staff.  

However, the success or failure of a remote work program has more to do with the company than the candidate. Assess an applicant all day, but if an organization doesn’t have effective communication or onboarding, the likelihood of growing a motivated remote team is slim to none.

Managing remote teams comes with a unique set of dynamics that can be quite different from managing in-house teams. Therefore, the processes for recruiting, onboarding and managing these teams must be designed to account for the distinct characteristics of the practice. As remote hiring becomes an important part of a company’s talent acquisition policy, businesses need to learn how to balance the potential downside of this approach with its obvious benefits.

Start Slow…

Working from home (WFH) gets a bad rap as another term for slacking off. Though studies have found that this isn’t the case at all, workers tend to be just as productive if not more so during home office days.

If your team is feeling nervous about the potential for lost productivity due to a remote team member, then start slow and build trust. Hire a candidate (or a few) on a freelance basis, and then offer a full-time position once the company knows they’ve found a new employee on which they can rely.

Process makes perfect…

Hiring remote workers often make companies examine the efficacy of their own processes. It’s easy to work around an ineffectual system when you can go down that hall and ask a coworker to help, but clunky technology or a bunk order-of-operations quickly becomes an impasse when a person works independently off-campus.

A quick list of questions to ask yourself…

• Is there a way to access team/company/HR resources online?
• Does the organization have an effective chat mechanism and a shared calendar?
• How will the candidate receive a virtual tour of the business?

Great expectations are great!…

Make expectations clear. Work assignments and project deadlines are a given, but also ask… are there certain hours staff should be online?… Or do you want video, not just sound, turned on during conferences? Take some time to think of the online-decorum the team expects, and codify it in an online resource.

Points you may include:

• Where/how to praise other team members
• Where/how to communicate negative feedback
• What is considered a “timely” response

Benefits benefit everyone…

Most offices offer benefits or perks for in-house workers that just make the day a little better. Things like free coffee or fresh fruit go a long way to show employees they are appreciated. Just because workers are remote, doesn’t mean they shouldn’t get any fun stuff. Great benefits also help recruiters build a strong employee value proposition to attract top talent! 

Consider monthly stipends for music or video streaming services. Health insurance can be hard to navigate if you have a global team, so a monthly wellness stipend could be another option.

***

 At the end of the day, it’s important to remember communication and training will always be a challenge for businesses, and neither must be perfect in order to begin remote working recruiting efforts. Rather, use this list to identify problem areas so both hiring managers and candidates can navigate them together, and begin laying down solutions that make sense for all employees.