With the arrival of Covid, nearly all companies have had to adapt to a remote hiring process.
New team members not only go through the whole hiring process exclusively remotely, but also start working in a remote culture.
It seems clear that a good hiring process must now consider some areas or skills with more emphasis than before. It becomes even more important to look for people who do not only work well in a structured office environment, but also when fully remote.
So, which aspects should we keep an eye on?
Discipline
To be successful in your remote work, you need to be disciplined and take charge of your working hours. And this is not about merely having the intention to work and contribute; it’s also about scheduling your week, preparing a proper workspace environment, etc.
As obvious as this might sound, in a physical office all of this is already settled for you.
You have things such a physical desk or a lunch break. Even if you have loads of flexibility, it’s easier to stick in with similar working patterns that you see in your colleagues. By your own, however, all of this is completely up to you.
You can find out how disciplined a candidate is in a remote context by digging into how they organize their home working space or schedule.
Another good way to find out how truly disciplined someone is, is to ask them about areas in their life -outside of work- where they exhibit a great deal of commitment. A variety of situations can come up, such as participating in annual marathons, a hobby that requires a lot of commitment, etc.
Communication
Ok, being able to communicate efficiently has always been key, but now is even more essential.
It is very easy for a lot of relevant information to just evaporate if you’re not physically close to your team. Also, you want to find a way to reincorporate all those chats coming from corridor talks in the office.
And by being a great communicator we don’t only mean to excel your writing or oral skills or to ace a specific presentation.
It is equally important to consider how responsive a person is. Do they take ages in answering you? Can they stream video for meetings consistently?
A person’s communication style during a remote hiring process can tell you a lot about their actual remote work style.
Collaboration
Just because you’re not physically together it doesn’t mean there won’t be teamwork. Again, if you have a physical space to gather, it might make it more obvious, but in a remote context you must be willing to really collaborate.
Communication, as discussed in the previous point, plays a big role in how effective your collaboration is.
During your interview process, you want to find out how good a candidate works not only by their own, but within a (remote) team.
A good way to find out is to really dig and ask about what they value the most in their team members and the group synergy. Can she or he give a specific example of a past remote project that involved a lot of parties and collaboration?
Focus
Working from home can bring a lot of distractions that you wouldn’t encounter in an office, be it family members, pets, noise from your flat mates…
Decluttering your home workspace or using noise cancelling headphones are a great idea, but it doesn’t matter how much you prepare your environment if you’re easily distracted.
Although focus has also been important, you want to ensure that your new hires will be able to concentrate in this new, often more distracting, environment.
It will be a good sign if, during your interview, the candidate demonstrates to have a habit or hobby requiring their full attention, such as yoga, meditation, or painting.
The bottom line
All the previous are areas to keep an eye on in the context of remote hiring or working. As we can see, they are skills and a mindset that we were already looking for before Covid, but in which we should now focus even more to succeed in this new era.
Once you find your ideal candidate, be quick and bet on them! Here‘s why.
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