remote recruitment – Talent500 Blog

Remote hiring 101: your complete guide to building a distributed team

Posted on September 27, 2022October 31, 2022 by shanthamurthy

We know today that the future of work is global and flexible. Businesses are engaging in global talent acquisition & management techniques to optimize their employment prospects, enhance remote hiring procedures, and speed up things so that they can find, evaluate, and hire people efficiently and effectively. The important question is, how?

Any global recruitment team must adopt a common recruiting process checklist. A to-do list keeps everyone on the team focused, moves the remote hiring process along, and enables decision-makers to identify inefficiencies in each stage of the remote hiring process.

Here’s a checklist for your international recruiting needs.

International recruitment checklist

Setting up a distributed team is no mean feat. Whenever it concerns rules, regulations, and best practices for recruiting, each location is distinct, and every nation presents entirely new risks and obstacles.

Let’s begin with critical factors to consider when remote hiring teams. By using this checklist, you can hire workers internationally and overcome expansion-related difficulties.

Identify your remote hiring needs

If you’re preparing to hire a global team, the first step is to understand your motivation for remote hiring . Hiring a remote team means you’ll be entering foreign markets and getting access to highly skilled talent for the role you desire.

Make a detailed list of everything you want in a prospective employee, and break that down into technical skills and soft skills. This way, there’s less room for approximations and guesstimates. Making a definitive list of needs will help you make sure you don’t need to take risks with employees.

Build a recruitment plan

Most countries have their statutory requirements, taxation laws, salary policies, and so on. Compliance is a must, so researching how everything is conducted is a good starting point.

Calculating the total cost of acquisition for each role will help you build the right estimates. When preparing to grow, it is important to take into account the following, sometimes unanticipated costs:

The salary range
Statutory benefits
Attractive benefits
Onboarding/upskilling costs (time/tools/staff)
Equipment costs (hardware/software/licenses/company car)
Mandated tax and contributions

Taking all these factors into consideration will help you build a foolproof plan of how you want to go about recruiting new employees. This can include everything from location to role, to salary, and more.

Write a concise and compelling job description

According to research, if your application procedure is excessively drawn-out, antiquated, or burdensome, many job searchers may just quit and look elsewhere.

Be succinct and specific. When recruiting across multiple geographies, it is a good idea to provide all relevant information. For instance, if a visa has to be taken into consideration, you should mention it in the job description.

Employers are trying a range of strategies to speed up the remote hiring process while improving the applicant experience, including doing away with cover letters, switching long applications for a series of fast online inquiries, improving their online application, and utilizing chatbots.

Advertise across the right channels

Advertising your global recruitment on your website is not enough. You can use remote-friendly job boards like Angellist, Flexjobs & WeWorkRemotely. To find local candidates, social media has evolved into a crucial instrument. As a result, you may utilize it to the benefit of your remote hiring experience. Here are a few methods you may use to do that:

Target specifics – For instance, some nations favor Facebook as their primary social media platform, while others choose Instagram, Twitter, or WeChat. It is advisable to take analytics into account when choosing your target demographics.
Develop your employer brand – Make sure you are seen by both domestic and foreign applicants as a desired employer. You could do this by expanding social media outreach and regularly working on a blog for your company, where you share details about company culture, perks, benefits, etc.

Review & screen applications

The key to assuring candidate/company fit, tenure durability, higher productivity, and hiring success is comprehensive screening and science-led evaluation. To choose the most suitable members for your global team, try to strike a balance between speed and accuracy. Remember, your competitors are proactive in their pursuit of the top candidates.

To make sure you are choosing the best applicants, it is essential to establish a well-defined interview process that ideally includes objective and comprehensive candidate analysis. To hire the best foreign workers, you must, however, act quickly. Make sure this procedure is in line with the principles of your employment brand and that it is benchmarked against your best employees.

Conduct an efficient remote interview

An interview is an opportunity to create the perfect first impression – not just for the candidate, but also for the employer. However, in absence of non verbal cues like body language, remote interviewers must work harder to extract the complete potential of a virtual interview. Start by reviewing your current interview process and making it remote-friendly, ensuring you have access to all the necessary tools. Brush up your video-call etiquette, and ensure that this interview is a two-way conversation where you introduce the candidate to your company’s culture.

Calculate compensation

When calculating compensation, it’s imperative to ensure a fair wage is being given while keeping everything within your pre-calculated budget. Managing both can sometimes be tricky, but compensation can be calculated in some easy steps. Here’s how:

Make an offer that includes the position’s pay, start date, and other details. Working with personnel regarding salary, benefits, and employment policy may be necessary for this.
The final offer should be signed by the candidate.

Make sure to also factor in the cost of the following subheads – include the following:

Various statutory inclusions like health and accidental insurance
Home-office setup
Misc. benefits
Pension and gratuity schemes

Extend the job offer

If everything is in order – extend the offer. Think about using the period between the acceptance of the offer and the start date to assist your new employee in starting smoothly (and avoid having them drown in paperwork on their first day). NDA, tax withholding, benefit election, wire transfer details, business card, and other required papers should be provided. Reserve office supplies for your new remote hire as well.

Onboard

Congratulations! You’ve completed the remote hiring process successfully and now have a new global team member. Employee onboarding, a distinct but equally significant procedure to engage and develop your new employee, is now in order. You can send your new employee a welcome kit and assign them a remote buddy so that they can feel comfortable and ready to start their new day. It also helps to make all documents and guidelines, especially your remote work policy, available to the new employee. This reduces the risk of confusion on both ends.

Check in regularly with them to see how everything is going, and you’re set!

Global hiring best practices

International recruitment is now simpler than ever. That is if you know where to look for, pick out, and employ competent overseas talent. You’ve thus made the decision to begin remote hiring. But where do you look for all those outstanding people from abroad?

Equip your team with the right tools and technology

Thankfully, modern technology makes it simpler than ever to communicate with individuals throughout the world. Collaboration among the interview crew is made possible despite being spread out around the globe, thanks to efficient ATS solutions.

Additionally, the right technology enables you to plan interviews with applicants while successfully communicating with them and taking into account their time zones. Utilize video conferencing software like Zoom or Google Meet to conduct virtual interviews. Ensure that your remote team has access to all the different tools and technology that they will require during their workday, may it be in the form of an additional monitor or a paid subscription.

Overall, investment in the necessary technology will pay off with a smoother, more open recruiting process for applicants and structured, efficient hiring of new employees for your business.

Embrace cultural differences

You may need to modify your diversity sourcing tactics to account for the fact that demographics vary considerably from area to region. Be mindful of the terms used, as you might need to refrain from using certain turns of phrase or slang terms that are common in your home country., but inappropriate in other regions. Be mindful that you may have to make allowances for accents, grammar, and fluency if you are used to recruiting in a nation where English is not the primary language.

In any remote team, different people with different backgrounds are going to collaborate on projects. This isn’t a downside, but it helps to understand how different people work and react to certain things. Embracing these differences and enabling people to be who they are while they work is best.

Prioritize data security

The most crucial guideline when it relates to privacy laws is to always comply, regardless of the nation. Each country will have its own set of laws regarding the collection, storage, and dissimilation of personal data. For example, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), a set of stringent rules for the acquisition and handling of personal data from people who live in the EU, must be kept in mind if you are remote hiring within the European Union (EU).

Put an emphasis on culture

Diversity may be a strength and a drawback for virtual teams, particularly those that are international. How teams handle diversity is key. A diverse working environment is essential for fostering innovation, decision-making, and problem-solving.

Teams with greater diversity generate better caliber, and their ideas are more original and creative. Teams with higher levels of diversity also fare better in terms of work quality.

As a result, although it is important to anticipate and handle any possible problems brought on by personal variety, contextual diversity is more likely to have positive effects.

Conclusion

Today, globally distributed teams are enabling business leaders to significantly recruit highly skilled talent without being constrained by geographical boundaries. Thanks to technology, employers now have access to a wide range of information, abilities, and distinctive personalities that the world has to offer. Using this information, we can create a revamped remote hiring process.

Whether you’re new to remote hiring or have multiple teams working remotely, it can get tricky to navigate global teams. At Talent500, we have been building global teams for Fortune500 companies. We have AI-powered tools and the top talent from all corners of the map to help you build globally distributed teams faster. Let’s discuss your requirement, set up a consultation today.

9 best practices for a comprehensive remote onboarding

Posted on September 26, 2022September 26, 2022 by naveen

While onboarding a remote employee is certainly different in some aspects than an in-person onboarding, the objectives of both are the same. To assist the employee in getting off to a quick start, forging connections, comprehending the culture, and identifying expectations.

A majority of managers are aware of how challenging it can be to onboard a new employee remotely, and many also understand the potential long-term effects that a bad onboarding process may have on their staff.

A negative onboarding experience doubles the chances of an employee to seek another opportunity, while a great onboarding experience ensures 69% of employees stick with a company for three years.

Building out a remote onboarding process for your distributed team? Read on.

9 tips for onboarding remote employees

Getting off to a good start will save your business time, money, and the expense of often attracting top talent.

Here are some tips to help you foster a feeling of belonging amongst your own remote employees, increase new hire happiness, and lower employee attrition.

Send a welcome-kit

A carefully designed set of goods and office equipment known as a “onboarding” or “welcome” kit aids in introducing new recruits to your company ‘s ethos and brand. The gear may be given to them as a nice surprise on their first day, or included in your pre-onboarding procedure.

Remember to include a company hand book, contact details of all relevant personnel, and any other such important information.

Simplify documentation

Studies show that the first hundred days of employment are crucial in establishing an employee’s relationship with their employer. Ensure a smooth onboarding experience by simplifying the process of document verification. It is a good idea to share a list of the different identification and qualification certificates that may be required by the company’s HR.

Similarly, any documentation shared with the candidate should be provided in a simplified manner so that it is easy to comprehend and apply in their work.

Appoint a buddy for the new employee

Often, new employees might hesitate in reaching out to their seniors or the HR for every small detail. Designate a person they can consult without hesitation with respect to general company policies, culture, or any other such details.

A new member of the team may be introduced to others by this person, who can also serve as a pleasant contact point for them. New recruits and their buddies can connect in a number of methods, including video conversations and check-ins on Slack.

Set up their workspace

First-day jitters may be reduced by offering every candidate a meeting with IT to demonstrate how the conferencing system, channels of communication, and other business technologies operate. By doing this, technological difficulties are reduced and new hires are better equipped to participate and feel at ease on their first day.

Some companies provide new hires with phones and laptops that have been configured with the appropriate business settings and security measures. This fosters a sense of belonging to the company and lessens fear among new hires.

Setting up their emails, slack and trello for them also gives them an easy headstart for their tasks.

Share your remote work policy

Setting clear expectations from day1 is always a good idea, especially for remote teams. Ensure that your remote work policy includes all important details about availability and work hours, the preferred channels of communication, security precautions and any other such relevant details. Many groups rely on natural channels of communicating important details.

Don’t leave new workers to make educated guesses about these matters; doing so can lead to uncertainty and tension. If all information is made available, there is less room for doubt or errors.

Create a memorable first day

Find a way to make a candidate feel welcome as soon as they accept the job offer. As mentioned above, you can send new hires’ houses a welcome package before the start day stuffed with company goods and a heartfelt statement relating the goods to the company’s goals.

You can also host a coffee break to introduce the hire to everyone and create a fun, all-round experience for them to see who and what everyone and everything is. This goes a long way in creating a feeling of community and building trust between employees.

Schedule on-the-job training sessions

More training for the workplace is sought after by 67% of remote workers. Give new employees the chance to take advantage of online learning resources after, or during onboarding and a reimbursement for professional or personal growth of their choice.

There could also be training sessions for new employees who aren’t acclimated to the work environment of your company. Training the employee with how everything works is a good way to get them quickly started on their responsibilities.

Encourage collaborative learning

During onboarding, when new hires must collaborate to finish a case or group project, relationships are formed and team members are introduced. However, this is also a chance to cross-train teams. To provide new sales representatives relationships in other departments, have them spend their orientation working with a recruiter and a member of the support staff.

Check-in often, and offer support

It’s a great idea to organize weekly one-on-one sessions to answer questions, discuss any difficulties, or concentrate on areas for improvement and trust-building. In addition to formal meetings, managers can hold casual coffee discussions when no work is mentioned with the intention of team building and helping the new employee feel welcome.

Virtual onboarding for remote employees can get hard for both the recruiter and employee, and this is one way of making them feel supported and comfortable in their role both personally and professionally.

Conclusion

Remote workers are now a significant portion of the workforce; since 2005, there has been a 159% growth in the number of persons who work remotely. Consequently, there has also been a change in how businesses onboard new employees.

One of the most crucial factors in employee success is virtual onboarding for new hires. Gaining momentum begins with a solid start. A bad start undermines the confidence of a new recruit and makes the hiring decision questionable for the company.

Your onboarding programme should just be the first step of a lifelong learning process that continues to improve your workers’ cultural fit, connections with others in the company, and job performance. With Talent500’s assistance, you can make your virtual onboarding process just that – successful. We provide unmatched AI-powered talent management and acquisition solutions tailored to your company.

7 techniques to conduct efficient remote interviews

Posted on September 26, 2022 by shanthamurthy

The remote workforce is a constant in the way we operate, and will work moving forward. The pandemic gave both employers and employees a taste of just how remote work works.

Organizations are now aware that having a remote team is not only feasible but also advantageous. Disconnecting work from location widens the talent pool available to businesses wishing to tap into global talent.

With an increasing number of organizations delving into virtual workspaces, the competition for a better, streamlined, and smooth interview process becomes mainstream.

Best practices for conducting remote interviews

There are a tonne of advice articles on the internet for job seekers looking to distinguish themselves from the pack, as businesses struggle to fill a historic high of remote job positions. This, coupled with the need for bias-free and objective interview practices means remote interviewing techniques are getting more complex and inclusive.

The employers at the opposite of the line, though, what about them?

Poor recruiting choices deplete morale and cost money. Employers must come up with new methods for determining whether an applicant is a good match without the information obtained in person, like body language, soft skills, and other non-verbal cues associated with an offline interview.

As the pandemic and its repercussions continue to change the contemporary workplace, remote interviewing is here to stay. Follow these best practices for conducting remote interviews and get the perfect hire!

Review your current remote interview process

As the first step, take an objective look at the different parts of your interview process to adapt it to remote recruitment. Familiarize yourself with the qualities of a good remote worker, and tweak your job descriptions accordingly.

You could also try to make your remote assessment more objective, direct, and remote-friendly. When you post openings on job boards, make sure you list out all things you need and require. Over-communication is important in this regard.

Get the right tools and tech

You’ll require a varied set of tools depending on the sort of remote interview you’re doing. Zoom or Google Hangouts should work for the majority of interviews. But occasionally, specialist technologies are required to accurately simulate the in-person experience.

A platform for collaborative coding that both the interviewer and the applicant may utilize at the same time is ideal for hiring engineers. A whiteboard application for front-end developers and/or UX/UI artists, so the applicant can sketch out ideas is also a good idea.

From conferencing software to interactive whiteboards, ensure that both you and the applicant are aware of what is being used, and more importantly, how to use it.

Share all necessary details beforehand

Many job candidates have never conducted a remote interview before, so you can make them feel more at ease by explaining how the process will work: how many sets of interviews you will have; the technologies that will be utilized; and how they will be assessed in each discussion or skills test.

Send updates at each level of the review process to make sure that the applicant experience is not negatively impacted. Regardless of the hiring outcome, this will provide them a sense of worth and appreciation and guarantee that they have a positive view of your employer brand.

Practice your video etiquette

Remember, you’re interviewing too! These days, the best prospects are likely to get many offers. The manner you, the recruiter, present yourself—including your appearance, what is visible in your backdrop, as well as your overall cadence, attitude, and selection of interview questions—will affect how potential workers see your business.

Therefore, even though advice on how to ace an interview today may be directed at the high number of applicants, those techniques are becoming more and more important for those making the offers.

Make it a two-way conversation

Today’s job seekers aren’t only interested in increasing their pay. Additionally, they are looking for workplace cultures that reflect their personal beliefs and sensitivities, as well as flexibility and well-being. These kinds of questions can help both parties learn critical insight about whether a potential employee would feel satisfied and motivated at a given company.

Ensure that you offer the candidate your full attention. Give them details that are pertinent to their role and responsibilities, and invite them to ask you any questions they might have.

Take time to introduce the company culture

Company culture is an integral part of the employee lifecycle, one that has a direct impact on retention. This remote interview is a great opportunity for you to introduce the candidate to what life at your company looks like, and why joining would be a good idea.

Remember to share information about the various aspects of your company’s employee value proposition – perks and benefits, core values, and the different aspects of being an employee.

Have a backup plan

Even today, connections aren’t stable. The candidate, or even you, can lose connection quickly. Whether it’s because of an unstable internet connection, electricity, or device-related issues, having a backup plan in case something goes wrong is always a good contingency.

Make sure you let the candidate know what to do in case a situation like this arises. You could reschedule the interview, connect on call or ask the candidate what they’d like to do. This way you can rest assured that all contingencies are covered.

Conclusion

74% of businesses anticipate a lasting shift toward remote employment to some extent. According to McKinsey data, between 20 and 25 percent of the workforce in industrialized nations may work remotely three to five days each week.

It might be scary to hire your first remote workers, especially those who reside outside of your nation. Costs, taxes, and legal compliance are all challenging issues that can seem daunting. Having a structured and thorough remote interview process can help alleviate the pressure.

At Talent500, we understand that the transition to location-independent working is a multi-layered process involving numerous stakeholders and factors. Our team of experts and network of highly skilled professionals are here to help you build your global team in over 50 countries. Ready to take the first step? Set up a consultation with our team here.

6 tips to transform your remote recruitment process

Posted on September 23, 2022 by shanthamurthy

Thanks to the pandemic, the need for remote employees has increased dramatically, with a growing percentage of businesses desiring to embrace the new normal even once Covid-19 has faded. Workers are no longer bound to the business-as-usual approach. Research says that 76% of people prefer working remotely in the foreseeable future.

With 90% of workers saying they’re more productive, 44% saying they’re ready to leave their current jobs for a remote one & 93% saying remote work is better for their organization, there is no dispute over the fact that remote working is truly the future of employment.

With remote employment becoming the best way forward, companies of all sizes are scrambling to find the best remote hiring process. Read on to see how you can smoothen out your remote hiring experience.

Considerations when hiring remote workers

Various countries have varied taxation, safety, and health systems, as well as different regulations for employment contracts, payrolls, and legal compliance. Knowing best practices for remote hiring is imperative. So what should be considered?

Management of payroll & taxation

Your remote employees will be subject to their home country’s tax regulations, so it is important to be well aware of all employer tax obligations in a new country. Similarly, many countries require the existence of a local bank account for the payment of salaries.

Calculating compensation

Every country has a certain set of statutory benefits, social insurance rules, and other regulations that must be complied with. For example, Indian employment law mandates an employer contribution towards the pension fund of an employee. When calculating compensation, employers must also factor in the cost of providing these statutory benefits.

Knowing this ahead of time can help you prevent confusion and ensure that the employee receives fair compensation.

Intellectual property & data protection

International remote employees can raise the danger of cybercrime and hacking for your company if they are linked to unprotected networks. Before appointing remote employees abroad, you would want to assess your security procedures to determine if they can effectively prevent such threats. Certain countries like those within the European Union follow a stricter standard of data protection (GDPR), non-compliance with which can result in strict legal measures against the company.

Strict regulations that outline how to utilize VPNs, intranets, and data encryption should be in place for businesses that wish to move toward a remote workforce.

Misclassification of employees as contractors

Incorrectly and unlawfully classifying employees as independent contractors when they are employees is misclassification. Employee misclassification refers to a government determination that the employees of the organization have been given the wrong legal category.

The legal protections generally provided to employees, such as hourly wage regulations, workers’ insurance, and severance compensation, are not afforded to employees who are misclassified as contract workers. Additionally, misclassification of employees can result in heavy legal penalties.

Building the perfect remote recruitment process

Companies that previously provided little or no remote job choices will need to change their stance to attract and keep top personnel. Additionally, 2 out of 3 firms stated that their employees perform better while working remotely.

Below are a few tips to help you build your global team.

Build a strong employer brand online

Employer branding has long been seen as a crucial element of workplace performance since it contributes to the retention of employees and productivity improvement. The ability to recruit and keep a competent remote workforce is quickly becoming a key component of successful human resource (HR) strategies.

You should define a well-built EVP (employee value proposition) and cultivate your company culture so that employees feel a connection to your way of working. This way, you are well set for remote recruitment even before starting! In the age of digital presence, your company website and careers page play a huge role in painting a favorable image in the minds of potential candidates.

Posting across the right job boards

Before beginning the process, be mindful of who will view your job ad and also what perks and compensation they would anticipate. You need a precise job description, a strong grasp of how the position will be carried out remotely, and a list of the skills and abilities that candidates must possess. Ensure that you post across remote-friendly job boards like Angellist, Flexjob & Jobspresso to attract remote employees.

Use your digital presence

Integrating content into your remote hiring process is a highly impactful practice. You can do this through your social media. Think about including an introduction video in your job description or sending it to applicants after they have been scheduled for an interview. Use your pages on Instagram, LinkedIn, and blogs to advertise yourself and your company better.

Here is your chance to make a strong initial impression, which is especially crucial given that you won’t be conducting a face-to-face interview.

Use an AI-powered recruitment software

AI for recruitment offers a chance for recruiters to spend less time on tedious, repetitive chores like optimizing the filtering of applications, starting evaluations automatically, or setting up interviews with applicants.

AI-powered tools can look at many profiles, saving users time and allowing them to concentrate on more crucial things. Processes and groupware may be analyzed by AI to create more simplified and effective procedures.

AI can also aid in reducing hiring prejudice, which is essential to rules and regulations related to inclusion and diversity. The use of a candidate fit score guarantees that applicants are evaluated based on their experience and skill set rather than a biased demographic.

Build a structured & objective interview process

Make sure the interview is direct & to the point. Ask questions that will help you gauge the interviewee in minimal time. For this, you’ll have to organize your interview process in advance, including the technologies you’ll employ.

Create a list of questions that will help you gauge whether your prospect would be a good match for working remotely. Ensure that you give due weightage to soft skills along with technical qualifications. The goal is to determine if they possess the communication abilities necessary for remote collaboration as well as the time management, organization, and self-discipline skills needed for working from home.

Think about it:

What characteristics make a candidate an excellent fit?
Which abilities should they possess? (Skills that can and cannot be negotiated)
What character attributes do you value most?
What benefits can this applicant provide the business?

Plan ahead of time!

Remote onboarding process

As employers, we must build an onboarding process that is not restricted by time zones and boundaries. This entails putting in place a strong training program and dealing with the documentation required by employing an employee. Employing a buddy system is also helpful.

The employee would have a one-to-one “friend” that they could go to with any of their queries and thoughts, leading to quicker and clearer communication. Also, sending a welcome kit with a few goodies along with important documents also goes a long way in making the employee feel ready to go from day one.

The benefit of an EOR

When hiring across borders, the management of payments, tax, and regulatory documentation on your own can be extremely time-consuming and capital-intensive. Unless your company is a global firm with legal entities throughout every nation in the globe, it is incredibly simple to violate international payroll laws and tax duties, and the consequences can be severe.

At this stage, you must have a partnership with a company that can assist you in handling these aspects of your global hiring process. Making the right choice for your partner requires careful consideration; for example, you must choose one that you could rely on with the payment of salaries and management of taxes. This is why an EOR (Employer-of-Record) is ideal in this situation.

An Employer of Record is a third-party company that manages every element of the labor in a foreign nation. The EOR is responsible for managing all parts of the workforce, including hiring, payroll, taxes, benefits for employees, and legal compliance.

Conclusion

The excitement for, and various advantages of implementing remote work into a corporate strategy might overwhelm worries about employing a company’s first remote worker. Before the onboarding procedure starts, however, company executives should address the intricacies of remote work, such as staff objectives, level of experience, and availability.

Even though no hiring process is flawless, especially when introducing new workplace standards, keeping these six factors in mind will result in a smoother hiring and onboarding process for businesses, HR professionals, supervisors, and remote work candidates. It may also be the initial step in establishing a company’s image as a remote-enabled organization and broadening its rules on remote work to cover more distributed team members.

If you’re looking for a different but meticulous remote hiring experience, look no further than Talent500. We offer pre-vetted professionals with on-field experience & personalized AI algorithms to design tailored talent acquisition and management solutions for you. Want to know more? Sign up here.

7 key remote working skills & how to interview for them

Posted on April 5, 2022April 5, 2022 by satya

When interviewing potential team members, we often depend on a number of verbal and non-verbal cues to judge whether the candidate would be a good fit. We look at their body language and facial expressions, and ask questions to judge their analytical and decision making skills.

However, in the absence of a face to face interaction, you might have to redesign the interview experience so as to extract the maximum potential of that remote interview. More importantly, picking the right member for your distributed team requires you to dive deeper and look for certain qualities that are essential for the success of all remote teams, like effective communication and collaboration.

In this article, we discuss what these qualities are, and what are the most effective ways to interview for them. Read on, as moving forward, these qualities will determine the overall productivity of your team.

Self motivation

An effective remote worker is adept at working independently, without the need for constant check-ins. Candidates who are highly motivated and self-starters work wonders within remote teams. We recommend looking for signs of self discipline, motivation, and planning. A good way to do this is by asking the candidate about their daily work routine, and how they approach a new project.

Some questions that can help you check their level of motivation are:

What goals, including career goals, have you set for the next 5 years?
What techniques have you learned or discovered that make your job easier, or make you more productive?
Tell me about a time where you went above and beyond your role and expectations. Why did you do this? What exactly did you do?

Digital literacy

Consider this: you find a person who is an expert in your required field, but is unable to use the team’s shared tools for collaboration and knowledge sharing. In the age of virtual workspaces, digital literacy is a non-negotiable basic skill. Every member of your distributed team will be required to use multiple tools for communication, collaboration, and project management, among others on a daily basis. General awareness of how technology functions enables team members to work efficiently throughout the day, and makes it easier for them to adopt new tools and products. Whether you’re hiring for a DevOps role, or for the role of a copywriter, it is imperative that the person you hire is comfortable with the tools and technology used by your team.

While the tools and technology used by every team will be different, here are a few questions that work universally:

Are you comfortable using everyday communication tools like Slack, Zoom, GoogleMeet, and MS Teams?
What social media websites have you used in a professional setting?
Tell me about a time you had to figure out a computer-related issue

Effective communication skills

While effective communication is an important skill for every employee, its importance cannot be over-emphasized when it comes to working remotely. A remote worker must be direct, clear, and professional in their communication. They must be able to understand the difference between synchronous and asynchronous communication, and the right usage of both. They must be comfortable asking for help when they are unsure of how to proceed with work. In customer facing roles, it is often your team member’s communication skills that play a huge role in the success of your company. The goal is to check for how they deal with challenging situations and stressful conversations, and whether they are able to put their point across without being aggressive.

Thankfully, you no longer have to depend on the regular “tell me about yourself” to gain an insight into an interviewee’s communication skills. These questions can help you gauge whether the candidate has effective communication skills:

1) Describe a time when you faced conflict and how you addressed it.

2) Why are you a good fit for this position?

3) How would your co-workers describe your personality?

Collaboration

Ever wondered how important collaboration as a skill really is? 97% of employees and executives believe that the lack of alignment within a team impacts the outcome of a task or project.

While many interviewers often club communication and collaboration together, the two are fairly distinct skills. How well a person might be able to collaborate depends on their ability to deal with conflict, and understand another person’s point of view. Being a team player requires being sensitive to the needs of other people in the team, without being overbearing. The need for collaboration becomes all the more important in a remote work environment, as team members do not have the opportunity to co-exist physically.

Here are some questions to help you check the collaboration skills of a potential team member:

How do you provide feedback to a colleague who is struggling or performing poorly?
Describe a situation where you had to work with a colleague you didn’t get along with. How did you solve this problem?
Tell us about a situation where you created a productive relationship with someone on another team/department.

Problem solving

Does this person view a challenge as an opportunity or a barrier? All remote workers are required to exercise their discretion multiple times during the day, and take autonomy over their projects. This requires a considerable amount of problem solving and prioritisation, skills that interviewers must check for. Asking hypothetical situation-based questions is a great way to check for problem solving and analytical skills.

Even better, by asking the candidate to solve a problem that occurs regularly as a part of the role, you get an insight into their problem solving skills, as well as their actual experience.

Here are a few questions that can help you gauge a candidate’s problem solving skills:

1) Describe a time when you used a creative solution to tackle a job-related problem.

2)What are the steps you take while making a crucial decision?

3) Describe the biggest work-related problem you have faced. How did you deal with it?

Time Management

When you can’t physically keep track of the progress that your team members are making, how do you ensure that they stick to timelines? Time management is an essential skill for every employee, as it has a direct impact on the success of projects. Asking the right questions can also give you valuable insights into the candidate’s work ethic and planning process. More importantly, it helps you understand how they will prioritise their goals in times of conflict between deadlines.

Here are some questions that can help:

1) Describe a time when you recognized you weren’t going to be able to meet multiple deadlines. What did you do about it? What was the outcome?

2) You’ve been on leave for a week and find your email swamped with work mails. Which ones do you respond to first, and why?

3) Multiple people in the organisation approach you with different tasks and overlapping deadlines. How do you prioritise which one to take up first?

Empathy and emotional intelligence

The productivity of every team is closely linked to the amount of trust and comfort that its members experience with each other. Members in distributed teams are often more successful at bonding with each other as they make a conscious effort to do so, instead of merely relying on situational triggers. However, this calls for a certain level of emotional intelligence and empathy. When recruiting for remote positions, it is always a good idea to look for signs of social intelligence and empathy. Tailor your questions to scenarios that they will face as a part of their role.
Here are a few questions to help you choose the right culture fit for your team:

1) Tell me about a time you had a conflict with your supervisor. How did you resolve it?

2) Tell me about a time when you had to neutralize a stressful situation in a professional environment.

3) What’s something you’ve achieved that you’re most proud of and why?

Research predicts that 73% of all departments will have remote workers by 2028. Today, more than ever, the war for talent has made it imperative for hiring to be efficient. As recruiters and employers, one of the best ways to ensure successful recruitment is by asking the right questions.

Recruiting for multiple remote roles? Take the first step towards building your distributed workforce with Talent500. Our team of experts and network of highly skilled professionals help you build your global team in over 50 countries. Ready to take the first step? Set up a consultation with our team here.