While there are many conveniences to working remotely, there is one aspect that is particularly tricky: hiring new employees. Without non-verbal cues and in-person interactions, how can you be sure whether the person you are hiring is truly the right fit? And how do you onboard those new employees into the company culture through a video chat?
These are new questions that have emerged for companies with the rise of remote working. If you are responsible for assembling a staff of telecommuters, here are 5 key things to keep in mind.
Hire the right talent: Ideally, you want to build a team that’s motivated by more than just their paycheck. To find the right employees, learn what your potential employees are passionate about. Ask them about what goals and dreams they have for the future and why they want to work with you. This will help you locate the people with the right mentality for your business. It’s also good to remember that you don’t need to hire locally. External remote workers can be just as effective, and the fact that your talent pool isn’t limited to a geographic area means you have more talent to choose from.
Set expectations before hiring: If you want new employees to deliver quality work, you need to make it clear what you expect from the start. Flexible schedules are becoming very common in the remote workforce, but it’s still important to provide outline guidelines. When expectations are crystal clear from the start, it will save you and your applicant loads of time.
KPIs are key: Implementing a KPI (key performance indicator) system can help you monitor and confirm the progress of your employees. Ideally, you should have KPIs in place that aligns with your quarterly and yearly goals to track the progress for each role in your company. With KPIs, you can keep your remote workforce running in unison.
Communication is vital: Without good communication, no company operates well. In an office environment, people can just walk down the hall and knock on each other’s doors. In today’s world, those conditions have frequently been replaced by digital tools. They can be just effective if utilized correctly. Set expectations for how quickly one should respond to a message, and find applications that help you communicate best. These days, applications like Slack and Zoom have become popular because they allow companies to easily instant messages, schedule appointments, run video conferences, and share files.
Create a central hub: It’s easy to lose track of what needs to be done when everything is in the online space. Since you have no office to centralize your workers, you need to create a central hub online where tasks and information are easily findable. Fortunately, there are powerful platforms to assist you with this, including Trello, Asana, and Monday.
The Optimist Daily has been forced to work remotely, so we know the pains that come with working solely online. But we hope these tips will help you build a remote team that will allow your company to flourish online.
