Written by Chris West

The last 2 years have been a rollercoaster for a number of reasons in the world of recruitment, with things like the great resignation and COVID having huge impacts on day to day business activities. Covid allowed workers to experience working from home for the first time in their careers. Some love it, some hate it. But what we have seen, is businesses adopting remote working on a permanent basis as the benefits are just too good to overlook.

With this change in working environments, the usual formal face to face interview setup just doesn’t work for remote workers. Many companies have made the change without revising their recruitment process to accommodate the new way of working. It’s still extremely important to ensure candidates are qualified and experienced enough to do the job from home without constant monitoring.

In the bullet points below I have highlighted a few things to be aware of during the interview process when hiring remote workers. The main question here is how do you hire when everyone’s at home?

1. Great technology and preparation:

Companies running remote recruitment need to be on the top of their game. Candidates in this scenario can’t rely on meeting you in person or being able to see the office/workplace to form an opinion. This is why it’s so important the interviews run smoothly without any hitches. To of the most important pieces of the puzzle are technology and preparation. Make sure that you’ve got up to date video technology and test it before setting up an interview, it’s important that you look like you know what you’re doing. And secondly, make sure you prepare great questions and have a structure to the interview.

2. Environment:

First impressions count! You can guarantee that when you interview a candidate via video they will be looking at the background so make sure the room is tidy! You can have fun with this step by adding things that reflect your personality, this could be a bookshelf with your favourite books or ornaments that mean a lot to you. This will make you more personable and relatable.

3. Shirt or T-shirt?:

With people working from home quite often the dress code is more relaxed, so be bold with it. Wear a great shirt or T-shirt! It’s an easy way to break the ice and take the candidate off the edge. It’s still important to make sure your attire is appropriate for the setting and it’s always a great idea to inform the candidate of the dress code ahead of time to put them at ease.

4. Go faster:

With more and more interviews taking place remotely, it’s become a lot easier for candidates to have multiple interview processes on the go at once. If you can own a process and ensure it’s streamlined, it will help set you above the rest. You can evaluate the steps in your current process and only keep what is completely necessary to make an informed decision on the candidate.

5. Know exactly what you’re looking for:

Writing about who’d make an “ideal candidate” is important for any job, whether it’s for an onsite position or a remote one. But it plays a bigger role in remote hiring because it specifies the key remote working traits that candidates must have.