Remote-first recruiting practices: How we do it at Remote

With the ability to hire employees from different parts of the world, location is no longer a barrier to global employment. Remote work has a significant impact on various aspects of recruitment, such as job postings, hiring processes, and interview procedures. So what does that mean for the people finding, hiring, and onboarding those remote teams? Let's take a look at how to establish scalable recruitment practices to consistently attract and hire standout candidates.

How to successfully recruit remote employees

The process of recruiting remote employees is not the same as hiring traditional in-office employees. This is because the differences in working conditions, salary expectations, and level of independence required. 

To recruit remote employees, consider creating a remote-first experience, prioritizing documentation and transparency, and using an applicant tracking system.

1. Create a remote-first recruiting experience

One of the best ways to ensure that your remote recruitment process is as seamless as possible is to create a remote-first experience. Consider doing this through job postings, flexibility, and remote-first interviews.

Job postings 

The first impression a potential remote worker has with your company is through your job posting. That’s why it’s so important to make sure the posting is remote-friendly. Be mindful of where you post your job advertisement but also the information you include in the post.

Some things you can focus on job postings include the following: 

• Clearly state the position is fully remote: Make this fact clear in the job listing title. You will attract candidates who are specifically looking for this kind of work. 

• Ask for experience and results rather than location: When describing the job responsibilities, focus on the qualifications required rather than the geographical location. 

• State that interviews will be conducted via video: Highlighting that candidates are not required to physically attend a job interview will increase your chances of reaching remote workers from around the world rather than just people in your local area.

Flexibility  

From your very first interaction with a remote candidate, be mindful of their schedule, time zone, and availability. 

Showing a high level of flexibility in your remote recruitment process can help instill a level of trust in candidates that you’re a company that supports and values its remote workers. 

Here are some tips on how to achieve this: 

• Offer flexible interview times: Give candidates the option to schedule interviews at times that are convenient for them instead of appointing set times.

• Be open to alternative work arrangements: Be receptive to alternative work arrangements. This can increase the number of candidates you attract and help you stand out from competitor companies.

Interviews

Applying for a job is stressful and often frustrating for applicants. In most cases, the balance of power is strongly skewed towards the employer. 

This means people interviewing are typically not the best representation of themselves. Success in interviewing doesn’t necessarily predict success on the job.

To remedy the issue, recruitment teams, HR leaders, hiring managers, and individual interviewers should develop specific remote-first recruitment practices to create a fair and comfortable experience for your candidates. 

Doing so helps to create a stronger connection between the interviewer and the interviewee. When you make interviews more comfortable, you are better able to sustain and scale recruitment of the highest quality candidates from all around the world.

You can optimize your interview process for remote recruitment by doing the following: 

• Preparing a list of specific questions in advance: Ask strategic questions that can help you determine whether a potential employee is an appropriate candidate for remote work. For instance, ask if they have access to high-speed internet or a distraction-free workspace. 

• Using a free video-conferencing tool: Using a free video-conferencing tool, like Zoom or Google Meet, can help ensure that your remote recruitment candidate has easy access to the tools they need to attend an interview. Using a platform that doesn’t require a sign-up fee means you can make the interview process more accessible to a wider range of candidates. 

• Providing a clear outline of the job expectations: Remote employees are expected to manage their time and workload without a manager present. Therefore, it’s crucial to communicate your job expectations, such as set work hours or meeting times, from the beginning.

2. Prioritize documentation and transparency 

Remote-first organizations thrive on documentation. 

Without publicly accessible communications, people in different time zones cannot work together effectively. 

This practice is one part of asynchronous working, and it’s a large reason Remote has been able to scale our global teams so quickly without compromising on talent or fit.

Transparency demands that every conversation that does not contain sensitive data be available to every person within the organization. 

Why the focus on documentation and transparency?

Because without that vigilance, critical information gets lost in private DMs. It’s like hallway conversations at companies with offices. 

The participants may know the information, but no one else does, and that information is rarely disseminated properly. Insisting on documentation allows our recruiting team to scale a fair and transparent hiring process in countries all over the world.

3. Use an applicant tracking system to scale global recruitment 

An application tracking system (ATS) is a powerful tool that can help you streamline your business’s recruitment process by effectively managing and organizing candidate resumes and applications. 

An application tracking system can be used to: 

• Open and post roles 

• Keep track of the hiring process by scheduling interviews, submitting scorecards, and adding private notes for candidates.

• Capture communication with candidates and between interviewers (for example, by tagging a user in the notes/private notes sections).

• Extend offers and start the onboarding process.

For example, Remote uses Greenhouse, the world’s leading applicant tracking system (ATS), to simplify compliance with international employment regulations and data protection legislation.

This allows recruitment professionals and hiring managers to protect candidates’ privacy and align with GDPR and other country-specific legislation. 

Tactics to improve interviews in a remote environment

Documentation is critical to the recruitment team’s success, but how do you make an interview better in practice?

Here are a few tips.

1. Add preparation time to your calendar 

Add 10 minutes to your calendar before the interview to make sure you are organized, composed, and prepared.

Check the resume, check other people’s notes, and focus on what you need to achieve in the interview.

Double-check the call link for your meeting and make sure the candidate has access. If not, your 10-minute buffer provides enough time to email the candidate directly with updated call details.

And make sure you are logged into your meeting software!

2. Add feedback time to your calendar 

Add 10 minutes to your calendar after your interviews to give you time to fill out a scorecard or write notes about the interview. 

Submit your feedback as soon as possible. 

If you don’t have back-to-back meetings, you should be able to handle this task within the hour. Even if you need to wait a bit, set a minimum agreement internally that feedback is documented on the same day as the interview.

Greenhouse automatically saves your notes if you take them live. You can enter notes directly into the platform during the interview, but try to mute yourself as you type to minimize distraction for the interviewee.

3. Make the interviewer accountable  

Bookending the interview with preparation and feedback time is a helpful start. 

To successfully scale recruitment in a globally-distributed environment, take this one step further by clarifying a company-wide expectation as part of your recruitment process. 

Assign ownership of all aspects of the interview process to the interviewer (not the recruiter).

The interviewer should assume full responsibility and document feedback and next steps as soon as possible. The onus shouldn’t be on the recruiter to chase the interviewer (or the hiring manager if other interviewers are involved). 

Everyone involved as an interviewer must be proactive and help the team move forward quickly by providing timely feedback.

You can’t afford to miss out on a superstar candidate because you neglected one step of your recruitment process. Without in-person interaction, documentation can be the difference between snagging your desired candidate or losing someone to a competitor.

How to develop a stronger remote-first hiring process

Developing a remote-first hiring process is the key to ensuring that you attract the right candidate for the job and optimize your recruitment efforts. 

This is what you want to do:

1. Explain the role upfront and get clarity around leadership involvement.

Define the hiring process upfront to external candidates and internal teams. Always ask department heads to determine their desired level of involvement.

Candidates should know what the process looks like from beginning to end.

2. Proactively seek a more diverse pool of candidates.

This is also the moment to ask for references/referrals. 

Seek out any channels, tactics, or opportunities to expand the search for more diverse candidates. Never close a position until you have sourced a sufficiently diverse pool of applicants.

3. Use a global workforce platform  

If you’re looking to take your remote recruitment to the next level, using a global workplace platform is the best solution. 

Remote is the ultimate tool for helping businesses expand and across borders. It makes the process of hiring and managing a remote team simple. 

Remote does this by offering the following: 

• Comprehensive information on local compliance laws

• Personalized service from knowledgeable HR and legal experts 

• A fully automated onboarding process 

4. Facilitate belonging, inclusion, diversity, and equity (BIDE) 

Not only does hiring workers from all walks of life ensure that your workplace is inclusive, but it can also lead to a stronger company.

Employees with different life experiences, knowledge, inventiveness, innovation, self-expression, unique capabilities, and talent make up the core of a company’s culture.

Fully embracing employees’ differences helps a company improve its workforce’s innovation, creativity, and problem-solving capabilities. 

Some areas of BIDE include the following: 

• Age

• National origin or ancestry

• Race 

• Sex

• Gender identity

• Sexual orientation

• Disability status

• Medical condition

• Religion

• Marital or domestic partner status

Facilitating BIDE can lead to a stronger company, but it is important to note that such gains do not happen automatically. 

Leaders cannot treat diversity as a set-and-forget metric and expect to see financial gains, increased innovation, or a boost in employee retention through passive improvements.

Instead, businesses must acknowledge that the benefits of BIDE arise when the company rethinks the core of its hiring philosophy. 

It’s not enough to add more diverse voices to the mix: companies must empower those individuals to have a say in the company’s direction. That means hiring with BIDE in mind for every role, including the most senior positions.

Recruiting mindfully to build a stronger business

Remote helps businesses hire employees from all over the world.

We have seen the benefits of a people-first, action-oriented approach to recruiting for ourselves, and we encourage other organizations to see for themselves how valuable a more thoughtful strategy can be.

One of the easiest ways to get started with remote recruitment is with Remote. This platform helps you with every step of your HR processes, from hiring and managing your teams to paying them. It makes global HR simple. 

Find out how Remote can help your business today.