As a fully-remote company, HOV has faced unique issues in recruiting or hiring new employees. Finding the right people to fill the much-needed roles is crucial to the business’s success and survival; imagine doing that entirely via your computer.

It is no secret that the corporate world has drastically changed over the past two years. Former companies with physical offices had been forced to operate remotely and from a technology point of view, these have advanced at an unprecedented rate and adopted new tools in a matter of a few weeks or months. This article is about the challenges of remote hiring from the perspective of a company that’s always been remote.

Huge Numbers

One of the most significant benefits for remote companies is increased access to talent. You don’t have to commute to a single place, so you don’t have to hire someone who lives near your office. This is great news for employers who now have access to talent around the world.

This increased talent pool is arguably positive, but it does pose some logistical challenges. One example is the significant increase in the number of applications that need to be processed before finding the ideal candidate. Remote jobs can attract hundreds or even thousands of applicants for a single role— all of this requires the attention of the recruitment manager.

Remote recruitment managers are strongly encouraged to create a streamlined recruitment process focused on excluding unqualified applicants. As with all positions, there are a large number of applicants who do not qualify for a certain position. Remote roles often attract people who are interested in a remote work lifestyle, regardless of position requirements. These are generally the easiest to work through, but may still be time-consuming.

Timezone

Remote work allows companies to utilize a global team which, for the most part, can be hugely beneficial. However, this, of course, comes with differing time zones which can sometimes be challenging to manage. In the day-to-day workflow, it’s relatively easy to overcome this by implementing asynchronous communication strategies, access to online resources, and scattered teammates, ensuring no one is working alone. Unfortunately, the act of hiring doesn’t always fit seamlessly into established processes, particularly if you only have one or two hiring managers.

Interviewers or recruiters have to learn how to manage time zones. Doing eight interviews a week of about an hour each plus note-taking, all at random times— it can be very emotionally and mentally draining. Learning how to manage your time like only opening up your calendar for interviews on three out of five days in the week, and only during specific times could come in handy.

Sharing the load with other recruiters also has the added benefit of speeding up the hiring process and having more input. You don’t always know what your own biases are so it’s always useful to communicate and get input from another recruiter within the company to get a second opinion.

Logistics

If you’re already a remote company, you’ll likely be set up for remote interviews. Technically it’s already similar to any regular meetings you already do. However, this may not be the case for the candidates. It can be a foreign language or foreign cultural experience to interview with a remote company.

Helping guide candidates through that process should be a top consideration. Reaching out to them ahead of time with instructions could save time and confusion later. Say you’ve scheduled an interview, a follow-up to let them know where to find the link and what technology platform to be using is going to be helpful.

While most people will say interviewing from the comfort of your own home is generally more appealing than traveling to an unknown location, there are still things candidates will need to do to prepare. In this case, they can’t just show up to a location, they’ll have to make sure to have the right programs installed, test microphones and speakers, and generally know their way around scheduling programs and video call software like Zoom. Having helpful instructions to guide through this process will help minimize any confusion.

Technology

Sometimes, no matter how much you prepare ahead of time, technology simply doesn’t work, and it’s important not to let these unavoidable mishaps cloud your judgment of the candidate. Imagine this: you’re talking through a microphone but your voice is muffled, so the candidate can’t hear clearly – or maybe their earphones aren’t working.

This can sometimes lead to questions being misunderstood or answered incorrectly, which skews the interview process. Sometimes, with all the other aspects of noise, interviewers have to infer what they’re trying to say because you can’t always hear every word. You kind of pick up the main words and try to string them together and hope that what you’re understanding is actually what they’re trying to say.

When this happens, it can be difficult not to let it influence how you thought the interview went. Sometimes candidates may misunderstand the question, does that mean they’re not listening carefully? Are they not understanding, or is it technology that’s not working out? This is where including multiple opportunities for communication comes in handy.

In Conclusion

Recruiters need to be creative in order to attract new talent and get back on track for growth. However, one thing is for sure — there has been an immense increase in virtual contacts with people even more present on social media, especially millennials. Social media recruitment campaigns on platforms such as Facebook are a successful strategy to attract the attention of job seekers and ultimately recruit new talent.

Recruiters are also operating in that ambiguous, fast-changing environment. But there are many tools available that empower hiring teams to find, evaluate, and hire candidates in the new world of work.