6 Tips to Find the Best Talent When Hiring Remotely
This year has pushed most people out of their comfort zones while keeping them confined to their homes. With many companies being forced to take the plunge and embrace remote work, recruiters have had to figure out the nuances of hiring talent remotely.
Remote hiring comes with its own set of challenges and benefits. On the plus side, recruiters have an abundance of talent to choose from because remote work means they can hire the best talent from anywhere in the world. On the flip side, most recruiters are struggling with sourcing and recruiting quality talent in a fully virtual process. In this article, we discuss both traditional and unconventional methods you can implement to help you find the best candidates when hiring remotely.
1. Use Industry-Specific Job Boards
To source talent effectively, you need to be in every place where your potential candidates are likely to be. Job boards like LinkedIn, Indeed, and Monster offer vast pools of applicants, but they are also used by nearly every other company hiring, which means you’re competing with corporate heavyweights for talent. Instead, why not try your luck with niche job sites ? Some of them are industry-specific (e.g., targeted at designers or coders), while others are for people united by a common concern, like remote work opportunities. On these niche websites, you can more easily find seasoned employees well versed in remote work.
2. Mine Your Social Networks
Use social channels like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter to your advantage by advertising your job openings there. Chances are that some of your best prospects might already follow you or your team and will be interested in your openings. Furthermore, social media offers a great opportunity to attract potential hires by showcasing your company culture and life at your company. Maintain a good profile on review websites like Glassdoor so that candidates know how good your company is and how good you are at managing remote work.
3. Be an Active Participant in Relevant Communities
There are many communities dedicated to remote work on Reddit, Slack, and other places where you can post your queries and learn from the experiences of others. Want to hire a customer service rep? Do not just blindly post the opening to Indeed or LinkedIn. Instead, post the job opening on the communities that support representatives are most likely to frequent, such as SupportOps or SupportDriven.
4. Hire Through Referrals
Getting a clear understanding of someone during a job interview is tough, even more so today, when we have to rely on video interviews. Why depend only on what you can glean from remote interviews? Ask your team members to refer the best people they’ve worked with to your organization. That way, you can leverage the judgment of your top performers to help you decide whom to hire. Answering soft-skill questions like “Are they a go-getter?” will also be easier when you have someone who knows the candidate and can validate your conclusions.
5. If Your Ideal Candidate Works for Someone Else, Try Hiring Them Anyway
Sometimes, the candidate you like best is the one who never applied for the job in the first place. That does not mean you should give in and settle for less. Build a relationship with the person so that when they do think about leaving their current position, you will be at the top of their mind for their next opportunity. Connect and engage with your prospects on LinkedIn or another professional platform. Learn about their interests and skill sets. When they are open to a new job, initiate a conversation with them once again.
6. Have the Right Tools in Your Hiring Arsenal
Make a great first impression on your candidates by investing in the right hiring tools. How are you going to manage and screen the multitude of resumes that come in? What tool will you use to conduct video interviews with candidates? How will you keep the conversation flowing with candidates and keep them updated throughout the hiring process? Is there an ATS system that can take care of it all? How will you remotely onboard new hires and make them feel at home? How will you manage hiring documents, time off, and employee data? Consider all these questions before investing in your hiring tools.
Freshteam by Freshworks is smart HR software that offers all the tools and features necessary to make remote hiring effortless from the moment you open a job requisition to the moment your employee retires. It helps recruiters remotely source, screen, interview, and hire the best talent with ease, and it has helped transform how numerous businesses recruit. You can check it out for free here.
This article by Freshteam is built on the original article that first appeared on the Freshteam blog.
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