Adding a new employee is an exciting time. The addition of staff means that your business is growing. It can also be a stressful time if it’s 2020. Added to the responsibility of finding the right person is the decision of whether to hire an onsite employee or a remote employee.
Each option has its pros and cons and you should analyze them thoroughly before deciding on the new hire. If you’re a startup, you’ll be deciding how to compose your entire team. Will you have all onsite employees, all remote, or a hybrid? Do you need part-time, full-time, or contact help? How much are you willing to pay and will it be salary or hourly? If you hire remotely, you also need to decide which time zones you’ll consider. It’s easier if your employees are all in one time zone, but you can also set things up to facilitate for multiple time zones if it works for your company. All these questions must be answered before you start the true search for your new staff member.
With all the preliminaries out of the way, you’re ready to search for new talent. Before you go too far afield, check with your current employees; one of them may know someone from their network who fits the bill. A recent LinkedIn report shows that nearly 50% of businesses in the US get quality hires through employee referrals and other surveys have revealed that employee referrals are the most successful recruitment source.
To attract the best talent, make sure to “sell” your company as far as what you can offer to the new hire. Mention pertinent details of your benefits package, your company culture, and your company’s reputation in your field. Let them know that they’ll be doing interesting work that’s vital to the company’s success, not just “grunt work.”
Now that we’ve looked inward, let’s turn our sights outward to the best places to advertise for new employees. Social media is a great place to start. According to a 2017 LinkedIn report on recruiting trends, 95% of companies said they’ve successfully hired from LinkedIn, 24% have hired from Facebook and 16% from Twitter. Online job boards are also worth a shot, although you’ll probably find more people looking for remote work in general, not for the particular job you’re advertising. Still, there are gems to be found on any job search site.
If you don’t have enough resources in-house to handle the recruitment process, you may want to hire a recruiting firm. Agencies get paid to fill jobs, not book interviews. You’ll likely get fewer candidates, but each will be qualified. Another benefit of using an agency is if you are hiring for a job with which you don’t have much expertise. Say, you’re forming an IT department, but you know nothing about computers. The agency will know the kind of skills you need. In that same vein, don’t be afraid to tell the agency about soft skills or personality types you’re looking for in your new hire. In addition to the recruitment help, all agencies offer guarantee periods. If the hire doesn’t work out, you don’t pay and they start the search over, not you. With some agencies you can negotiate on fees, with others guarantee periods; with some both. It never hurts to ask.
Every job has its own set of required skills, but remote workers in general need to have the following skills:
You may be wondering if remote work experience is essential in your new remote hire. It’s not necessary if you hire the right type of person, who has discipline and self-management skills. If you do find someone with prior remote work experience, consider it a bonus.
At this point, you’ll start doing interviews. Some of the questions you should ask will sound familiar to you, since they align with the qualities you want in a remote worker. Here we go:
Of course, these aren’t all the questions you’ll ask, but these are pertinent to the remote work portion of the job.
Once you’ve found your perfect hire, a whole new set of challenges begin. If you’ve chosen wisely, you’re in for the start of a new relationship with a great co-worker and on the verge of accomplishing some great new successes for your business.