Preparing To Hire A Virtual Employee? Here Is All You Need To Know

The world of work has changed drastically since 2020. As the global pandemic impacted businesses and economies, many companies were forced to re-frame their hiring strategies to embrace a distributed working environment. Most companies today either now have or are preparing to hire a virtual employee for the foreseeable future.

As the young generation has also started to graduate and enter the workforce, we’ve also seen a demand for more flexible working environments that give people a better work-life balance.

So what does this all mean for businesses today that are looking to scale or simply hire for short-term projects? From the first candidate touch-point to a new hire’s first day, employers and business owners now need to create and structure a seamless experience for everyone involved, particularly when it comes to hiring virtual employees.

Today we will discuss everything you need to know when you are preparing to hire virtual employees and help you build a productive and effective lean team.

What you must know when hiring and building a productive virtual team?

• Be intentional and clear when outlining your expectations 

  When preparing to make a hire, especially one that will be working remotely, you need to know exactly what you expect and what success is for that particular role. You can then go on to clearly outline what your expectations are as you outline the job description.

• Foster transparency from the start 

  Transparency is central to a successful remote work environment. It comes into play by how a leader passes on information, how employees talk about the company and how your teams communicate and collaborate. Be clear from the start about where you are as a team and where you want to go. By establishing trust right out of the gate, it fosters trust and gives your team confidence in the organization

• Test for the right skills by offering the right assignments 

  A major characteristic of great remote teams is having individuals that can adapt and think quickly on their feet. Before hiring a virtual employee consider offering a small assignment or project to test their skills. Testing for agility, creativity, and technical skills will ensure you make the right hire.

• Look for prior remote work experience 

  Hiring virtual employees who already have experience working from home is beneficial because they already understand the responsibilities required. This doesn’t mean that you completely rule out candidates without experience. During the recruitment process look for skills like great communication, the ability to work independently, a proactive mindset, integrity, and time management.

• Recruit widely and outside the ‘LinkedIn box’ 

  When preparing to hire remotely it’s important to remember that you have unlimited options when looking for the ideal candidates. We are not saying that you should avoid hiring from LinkedIn, Indeed, and other mainstream social media job boards. If you seek to diversify your workforce and build a remote team, it’s important to keep an open mind when hiring.

• Get the team involved 

  Once you’ve narrowed down your candidate pool it’s important to get the input of your team and start getting everyone’s opinion, especially from those with whom the candidate will have close working relationships. Team members get to start having an idea of who fits the culture well and how well they could collaborate.

• Make your process human 

  Now more than ever, It is important to consider how you are shaping your candidate experience. Reputation travels first, and with global hiring, it’s important to leave candidates with a good impression of your organization even if they don’t succeed with the interview. Try and make the interviews conversational and as human as possible, allowing your candidates to be comfortable enough to express themselves fully.

• Finally, set up a communication plan 

  Communication is key when it comes to remote working. How you communicate and delegate tasks, how feedback is given as well as progress updates have to be clearly defined as you prepare to hire a virtual employee. Consult with your team and find a method that not only works but ensures work is done in a timely and efficient manner.

Conclusion

All these processes done well will allow you and your business to scale adequately by always having access to a diverse pool of candidates that can really help you build a lean multicultural and multi-talented team.

You are also able to save on costs, and take advantage of all the technological advances over the last few years that have made remote working easy and more favourable.

All in all, hiring can be a time-consuming process, and you can often spend months creating a process and then trying to find the right candidates.

Are you preparing to hire a virtual employee?

SuperbHire takes the load off of your shoulders by handling all your hiring needs – from sourcing, interviewing, and payroll. Allowing you to focus on the core activities of your business!

Get in touch with us today.