The Top 10 Remote Hiring Best Practices
Hiring Remote
Want to attract top talent you’re actually excited about? Use these remote hiring best practices to forge your dream team!
The workplace is undergoing a seismic shift, and remote work is rapidly becoming the norm. But with a global talent pool at your fingertips, competition for the best and brightest is fierce. Here's where remote hiring best practices come in.
These strategies are the secret sauce for attracting top talent and landing the perfect candidates who will excel in their roles long-term. They ensure a positive candidate experience, making your organization, jobs, and job offers more attractive.
Leverage them for success, and these insider tips will help streamline your hiring process, add more qualified applicants to your candidate pool, increase retention, and more. So, let’s dive in!
10 Remote Hiring Best Practices To Build Your Dream Team
A smooth and efficient hiring process is the key to attracting and converting top candidates, building thriving remote teams, and achieving your hiring goals. Follow this checklist to ace your hiring strategy:
1. Make Your Company’s Remote Work Policies Transparent 📝
Does your organization have an official remote work policy?
A remote work policy outlines exactly how your organization operates in the virtual workspace. Since every company works differently, adding your official manifesto to your Careers page allows candidates to self-select and ensure a good fit for both parties.
So always be transparent and upfront about your:
- Remote workplace practices
- Employee and company expectations
- Communication guidelines
- Scheduling and time off policies
- Remote work culture
- DEIB initiatives
- Promotions and advancement policies
- Compensation metrics
- Work-life balance and mental health support
- Employee benefits
- Company equipment policies
👉 Give candidates realistic expectations about how your company works by adding all this intel to your We Work Remotely Company Profile!
2. Sharpen Your Employer Brand: From Meh to Magnetic 🧲
Think of your brand reputation as your company’s dating profile for potential hires.
A bland website littered with cheesy stock images won’t attract many high-quality matches. Conversely, a compelling employer brand will attract loads of high-caliber candidates from around the world.
To position your organization as a magnet for talent seeking a thriving remote work environment:
- Become a remote work champion. Top remote companies actively cultivate a strong employer brand by participating in online forums, hosting webinars on remote work best practices, and contributing to publications dedicated to working remotely.
- Flaunt your company culture. Build a strong remote work culture to show candidates what your organization values, stands for, and believes in. Share your mission, volunteering efforts, and short- and long-term goals.
- Highlight how your company invests in employees. Whether it’s through career development opportunities or an employee recognition and rewards program, prove to candidates that they’ll be valued team members.
- Spotlight virtual team building activities. Remote work doesn’t have to be lonely and isolating. Assure candidates that you prioritize coworker connection via online social events, bi-annual retreats to exotic locales, and other initiatives that encourage team bonding. These help foster connections and a sense of belonging.
Make your company stand out, and your candidate pipeline will always overflow.
3. Leverage the Power of Social Media (+ FOMO) 🤳
A well-curated social media game attracts top talent seeking that culture and work environment. It also fosters pride and engagement within your existing remote team.
So share insightful blog posts, industry news, and employee achievements/wins to promote your company’s thought leadership.
Then add a few visual social post ideas to your content strategy, such as:
- Behind-the-scenes glimpses at what teams are working on
- Employee workspace setups
- Inspirational office views from your digital nomads
- Employee pets at work
- Employee experiences/testimonials/remote work success stories
There’s no better endorsement than a genuine employee raving about their remote work experience. So you may even want to include a “Why We Love Working Here” section on your Careers page.
Respond promptly to comments and questions — don’t ghost followers and potential candidates. Establish a routine posting schedule to stay actively engaged with your audience too.
You’ll build a following of potential applicants and future collaborators in no time with these tips, the right keywords, and on-brand hashtags.
💁 Need a social media guru to handle your digital channels? We can help with that!
4. Embrace a Global Mindset Focused On DEIB 🌎
The best remote companies don’t shy away from time zone differences. They continually seek to attract and hire diverse perspectives from around the world.
- Broaden their sourcing channels
- Utilize inclusive language in job descriptions
- Follow hiring for diversity best practices
- Offer unconscious bias training for hiring managers and employees
- Set up inclusive workplace practices
- Foster a sense of belonging
Always use a standardized interview process. This ensures fairness and consistency for all candidates and allows you to effectively compare skillsets. It should include the same core interview questions and have an objective rubric for evaluation.
Gather a diverse team of employees for interviews to get as many perspectives as possible (and reduce the risk of unconscious bias in the hiring process).
5. Craft Your Ideal Candidate Profile, But Don’t Get Locked In ✨
Prioritize candidates with the skills and mindset to thrive in a remote environment. Must-have skills for remote work include:
- Communication. They can articulate clearly, both written and verbally.
- Collaboration. They excel at working asynchronously, utilizing online tools to stay connected and on track.
- Time management. They understand deadlines, prioritize effectively, and can juggle multiple tasks without dropping the ball (or their coffee).
- Self-motivation. They’re proactive, take ownership, and can maintain focus without constant supervision.
- Tech and data literacy. They’re comfortable using various project management, communication, and collaboration tools. They know how to secure company data.
- Adaptability. They can adjust to new situations, embrace change, and thrive in a dynamic remote work environment with coworkers from all over the globe.
- Emotional intelligence. They’re self-aware, empathetic, active listeners, and can build rapport with coworkers virtually.
Focus on transferrable skills and a growth mindset too! Junior candidates and those eager to learn can blossom into remote superstars with the right attitude and learning opportunities. Don’t discount them just because they lack all your criteria or remote work experience.
6. Ditch the Boring Job Ads 😎
Snoozefest job ads are the equivalent of participation trophies: they get you nowhere and impress no one. If you want to get applicants to apply to your remote jobs, you need to wow them.
Job ads are not job descriptions. Like an ad, they sell candidates on why they should apply for your role. What’s in it for them? Job ads that score the most talented candidates:
- Use active voice and strong, motivating verbs
- Highlight the perks of working at your company
- Tell a story about your company culture, values, and mission
- Share the impact of the role
- Show off what makes your org stand out from other remote companies
🪄 Turn on the SEO magic! Always optimize your job ads for relevant keywords that remote job seekers are searching for. Swap the “Data Yoda” job title for “Senior Data Analyst,” and you’ll ensure your prime candidates find your job in the vast sea of open roles.
🤑 Psst! Use our guide on How To Write a Remote Job Listing that Sells for more tips!
7. Try New Ways To Unearth Hidden Gems 💎
Conducting virtual interviews lets you assess communication skills, gauge culture fit, and learn more about each candidate. But there are other ways to see whether candidates are a good vibe match for your team.
Embrace the async advantage. Consider asynchronous interviews with pre-recorded questions and video responses. This allows candidates to showcase their best selves, workspaces, pets, and more on their schedule. It’s especially helpful for candidates in different time zones and those who don’t perform well on the spot.
Design a multi-stage interview gauntlet. Structure your interview process to assess different skills at each level. Include a “culture fit” round where candidates can chat with potential coworkers.
Leverage remote work assessment tools and techniques. Online, AI-powered assessments can help you evaluate a candidate’s skills and identify top performers. You can also try the “Remote Pairing” technique — it involves pairing a remote candidate with a current team member.
After they code, problem-solve, or attend a collaboration session together, the team will better understand the candidate’s technical abilities, communication/collaboration style, and other comparison points.
8. Communicate, Communicate, Communicate 💬
Don’t ghost candidates and leave a bad impression. A positive candidate experience makes applicants more likely to apply again in the future and refer others to do so.
So add hiring timelines to your job ads — such as when the job posting will close, when applicants should start hearing back, when the role will be filled, etc. Communicate clearly throughout the interview process, even if you’re not moving forward with the candidate, so they’re always kept in the loop.
9. Craft Enticing Job Offers that Seal the Deal 🤝
You’ve found your perfect candidate — now it’s time to make an offer they can’t refuse.
Never lowball them. Be competitive with the market rate, especially when attracting in-demand talent. Keep compensation packages in line with industry standards and the value of the role, regardless of the candidate's physical location.
Personalize your employee benefits package. Even the best employee benefits packages won’t impress top candidates. But personalized perks tailored to a candidate’s needs and interests? That certainly shows how much your organization values the unique skills and experience they bring to the table.
10. Set Up New Hires for Success 🙌
Your quest doesn’t end with that signed and accepted job offer on your virtual desk.
In the remote world, onboarding sets the tone for your new hire’s work experience. A smooth transition can help them feel like a valued member of your team from day one and lower first-year turnover rates.
Use these effective remote onboarding techniques to welcome your new hires. Then, regularly check in with them to gauge their satisfaction, identify potential roadblocks, and address any concerns they may have every few weeks.
Stop Settling & Start Using these Remote Hiring Best Practices 🚀
Adding these tips to your remote hiring strategy will elevate your recruiting and empower you to attract the best remote talent the world has to offer. It’s how the top companies are hiring remotely in 2024 and beyond.
However, the most successful remote organizations are also constantly innovating and refining their strategies. So, stay curious, experiment, and monitor your recruiting metricsandhiring metrics to continue dominating your competition.
🌟 We saved the best remote hiring tip for last: Always post your remote jobs on We Work Remotely! WWR has been the number one destination to find and list incredible remote jobs for over a decade. We’re home to the largest remote work community on the planet — with 4.5M visitors.
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