Even before the global pandemic compelled enterprises to convert to working from home, remote job options were steadily growing. According to research from Ergotron, remote workers are more productive than in-office employees. A few other variables also contribute to an increase in the number of organizations recruiting beyond their headquarters in different regions of the nation and worldwide.
Talent knows no bounds. It has surpassed the shadows imposed by traditional employment practices to become multicultural, multilingual, multifunctional, and pervasive. A significant portion of the transition is attributable to how work is performed in the present day.
With a reliable internet connection, a functional phone, and a laptop equipped with the essential tools and software, remote employees perform the same amount of work (or perhaps more) as in the office.
Recently, there has been an upsurge in the popularity of remote work. However, the limitations of remote recruiting prohibit hiring managers from maximizing the numerous advantages of remote hiring.
Top 6 challenges of remote recruitment
Research states that more than 4.3 million workers in the United States are employed remotely (Global Workplace Analytics). Remote work has several advantages over traditional office work. Globally, 16 % of firms are now entirely remote. However, challenges to remote employment continue (Owl Labs).
85% of hiring managers believe that remote recruiting will be prevalent in the future of their organizations (Gartner). Despite these numbers, hiring managers indicate that remote hiring is complex and daunting. The following are the typical hiring challenges managers face while recruiting remote personnel.
- Examining innumerable application forms
Due to fierce competition in the job market, hiring managers must filter through hundreds of resumes to identify the most qualified candidates. Choosing qualified applicants for remote employment becomes laborious. Consequently, recruiting managers must be transparent about their expectations to facilitate the selection. Well-written and comprehensive job specifications help remove candidates who need to meet the qualifications for a particular remote role.
With so many generic job description templates online, understanding and communicating your primary needs is crucial. First, choose a job description that fits the employment profile.
Since the entire recruiting process is online, informing candidates what you want saves time and minimize confusion. Many job boards and recruitment tools offer job description templates to aid hiring managers. You can personalize these hiring templates.
You no longer write requirements from scratch. Choose the best one, make some tweaks, and advertise your job.
Use applicant tracking software
An applicant tracking system (ATS) is a tool that aids businesses in streamlining their hiring processes by monitoring the entire hiring process from start to finish. With an ATS
applicant tracking system, managers enhance the remote hiring process. It also provides data and analytics to help you comprehend what’s taking place during your employment process and directs you toward the improvements you may make.
- Time zone differences
After screening applications, arrange an interview. The remote job requires internet hiring. Interviewing in one sitting is tricky. When recruiting remotely, poor internet connection, various time zones, and candidate misquoting are common concerns.
A worldwide talent pool enables hiring managers to identify applicants from distant locations. This geographical independence, however, leads to time zone discrepancies. The inconvenience is caused by time zone variations while arranging interviews and performing real-time evaluations.Consequently, recruiters must maximize time zone overlaps for live interviews and real-time evaluation. Additionally, interviewers utilize automated scheduling technologies to accommodate the interviewee’s time zone. These technologies allow applicants to select a convenient time for the interviewers and the organization. These measures assist hiring managers in minimizing the productivity gaps created by time zone variations.
- Evaluation of skillset and vetting
Regardless of the role, hiring managers always pick individuals with the necessary job-related abilities. A comprehensive review of competence, experience, and knowledge is required when recruiting a remote worker. However, reliable talent evaluations and assessments are challenging to execute in remote locations. 33.1 % of recruiting managers stated that locating the best candidates in a remote workplace is challenging (Workable).
Employers and recruiting managers collaborate to improve evaluation processes that need more clarity. For instance, construct specialized test tasks for employing remote applicants and create evaluations of their skill sets.
Tailored one-on-one meetings
Managers can ask detailed questions to applicants and offer feedback via a one-on-one meeting — things they can’t do in a public setting or at a team meeting. It’s the most underutilized yet effective management tool.
- Problems with onboarding
Remote onboarding of new staff is challenging. Most new employees feel overwhelmed during the first few days on the job. Consequently, hiring managers notice decreasing output as new hires experience difficulty learning the workflow.According to research, the productivity of newly recruited staff is roughly 25 % in their first month following training.
As the recruiting manager, you possess the key to increasing this figure. To improve workers’ learning curve, exert additional effort to design a streamlined onboarding process. As a prerequisite, recruiting managers organize and lead orientation meetings with new employees. Introductions assist new employees in comprehending the workflow and procedures. These workshops also contribute to developing a healthy and transparent corporate culture.
Generate subtitles during video chats
Applicants for remote jobs speak several languages during the live video chat. To increase communication or remove communication barriers, employ a transcriber program that automatically generates subtitles, making meetings more efficient, less time-consuming, and simpler for distant workers to grasp. Use referral programs and business culture to find reliable people.
Employee referral programs provide the most trustworthy leads. Ask team members to share job openings with recognized candidates. After a successful hire, give rewards.
- Contractual legalities
Every remote employer establishes legal contracts for their remote workers. Consequently, recruiting managers and employers view contract law as a tiresome chore.
To ensure compliance, however, all small businesses extensively investigate the labor regulations of each country. Employers also use standard contract templates to expedite the contracting process. In addition, employing legal and compliance specialists aids in refining the contract’s particulars.
Mentioning your company’s culture and amenities assists you in hiring. Applicants that fit your culture will apply, saving you time.
- Communicate your job norms and ethics
- Ask candidates to follow your time management system
- Set work policies and standards
- Highlight your competitive edge
- Salary disbursement
For staff retention and work happiness, correct compensation distribution is crucial. Sadly, sending pay to remote personnel is a challenging offshore task. Tax regulations of countries, foreign money transfers, proper wage computations, and invoicing result in significant compliance and hiring challenges. These factors affect the process of compensation distribution for any small firm.
Providers of remote payroll and compliance services resolve these issues. These payroll systems significantly alleviate the HR department’s obligation to manage contracts and wage profiles.
Advantages of remote employment
It’s not as though remote employment is a recent phenomenon in the business world; it’s been around for a while, and many organizations have had strong networks of telecommuters for years. However, with millennials now comprising the majority of the global workforce, many businesses increasingly see that remote employment is the future of work and that implementing it yields several benefits. Let’s examine some of the advantages.
- Increased productivity
Remote employees are removed from the office’s distractions. Cancellation of a 30-minute trip to the office or the requirement to go to work while unwell decreases stress and enhance overall health. It leads to enhanced mental and physical health and improved productivity.
- Immense talent
The more intelligent the workers, the more efficient they are, increasing the profitability of any firm. Recruiters access larger talent pools through remote recruiting, from which they cherry-pick applicants that meet their requirements.
- Work for all
Living expenses have skyrocketed in recent years and will continue to rise in the following decades. This puts the older generation on the cusp of retirement in jeopardy since their savings are insufficient to combat inflation. Therefore, they want to extend their service while putting health first. Remote employment affords veterans the chance to do so.
- More working hours
With staff in various time zones around the country and the globe, you have extra daylight to work without paying overtime. Even while your headquarters in India closes at 8 p.m., your remote employees in Los Angeles continue to work throughout the day.
- Saving costs
Remote employment provides several financial advantages, including reducing expenditures such as power, office space, food, beverages, office supplies, internet connection, equipment, etc. Individually, these appear insignificant, but they result in substantial expenses when added together. Another critical advantage would have cost savings connected with conventional recruiting techniques.
- Onboarding
When onboarding is conducted traditionally, i.e., in-person at the workplace, it consumes time and human resources, resulting in higher costs for the firm. Businesses choose e-onboarding solutions from a hiring agency to minimize this expenditure. Their approach to onboarding requires no human interaction. A new employee uploads papers automatically checked by artificial intelligence using any mobile app. If everything is in order, the candidate receives an offer letter via the app, with the option to accept or refuse. The applicant agrees with the position and is trained by a specialized account manager.
Overcome the problems of remote hiring
Employing and supervising remote personnel requires caution. It results in enormous losses, disrupts operations, and annihilates productivity if not applied properly.
Remote recruiting presents several obstacles. However, with the appropriate remote hiring strategy, every remote organization overcomes these obstacles.
Application tracking systems driven by AI expedite the screening of distant personnel. Interviews are conducted with fewer timezone discrepancies when automated meeting schedulers are used. Test projects and individualized skill evaluations improve skillset evaluation and screening efficiency.
Introduction sessions that are well organized facilitate a seamless onboarding process. Following conventional standards avoid contractual misinterpretations, while remote payroll service providers assure timely and accurate wage distribution. Adhering to these best practices allows hiring managers to overcome remote hiring issues easily.
BIO
Fatema Aliasgar is an experienced B2B and SaaS content writer based in Mumbai, India. She is a Master’s in Business Management and has been writing B2B content for seven years. She likes to read non-fiction and play board games with her kids during her free time.
