How to Create a Foolproof Remote Hiring Process

Remote hiring is now the norm but is your organisation doing it effectively? Here’s how to create a foolproof remote hiring process.

While some aspects of hiring have been happening online for years, it’s only since the Covid-19 pandemic that a fully remote hiring process has become the norm. Today, organisations around the world have realised that remote hiring can save both time and money and provide access to a wider pool of great candidates.

Yet, this doesn’t mean that remote hiring is easy. Hiring remotely brings its own unique challenges:

• It’s difficult to get a sense of a candidate’s personality and how they would fit in the company culture through only online interviews.
• From the candidate’s perspective, it’s harder to get to know the organisation and whether it’s a good fit for them.
• By making the job accessible to a wider geographic area, you can receive more candidates and therefore it takes more time to sort through them.

It can take a lot of effort to figure out the perfect remote hiring process that can overcome these challenges. Fortunately, these tips will help you create the ultimate remote hiring process to take your recruitment efforts to the next level.

Create a great job description

Much like in-person hiring, writing a great job description is paramount. Making sure your job description is as descriptive and detailed as possible is the best place to start with your remote hiring process. Always include the job title, summary, and qualifications necessary. Then, you can publish the job advert on all relevant job boards and social media accounts to get the word out.

Use a realistic job preview

When hiring remotely, it can be harder for recruiters and hiring managers to get a sense of a candidate’s personality and how well they will fit into the company culture. Simultaneously, it’s tricky for the candidate to evaluate whether the workplace culture and demands of the role will be a good fit for them. Usually, this is settled using in-person interviews and office tours. So, how can you ensure that the employee and organisation are a good fit?

One of the best ways to do this in a remote hiring process is by using a realistic job preview (RJP). This is a tool designed to give candidates a clear and detailed idea of what working in the role would be like. In contrast to your recruitment marketing efforts where you want to convince all potential candidates that working for your organisation will be amazing, the RJP is totally unfiltered. This doesn’t mean it has to be unflattering; it just means that it has to be as clear as possible about what working in the role would be like. This includes the duties, expectations, company culture, and work environment.

Consisting of text, audio, video, and questions to determine the candidate’s suitability, the realistic job preview is an effective way to filter candidates before they even apply. With the RJP, you can ensure that the only candidates who apply are serious and clued up about the role, helping you save time and resources throughout the recruitment process. Moreover, candidates who would not be a great culture fit are less likely to apply after engaging with the RJP, ensuring that your remaining applicants are more likely to fit into the organisation’s culture.

Maintain good communication with candidates

With an online hiring process, communication is key. It’s not just about making sure they know how to use the online interview software or can access the skills tests they’ve been assigned; candidates need high levels of communication for a great candidate experience that makes them more likely to accept the job offer.

According to a survey by Indeed in 2021, 75% of job seekers have been ghosted by an organisation after applying, while 28% said they had ghosted an employer. And, of course, ghosting is a lot easier when neither party has met in person.

To prevent ghosting on both sides, good communication is needed throughout the remote hiring process. It’s a good idea to send frequent updates on the status of a candidate’s application and to be clear and transparent with feedback if they are unsuccessful.

Use online skills assessments

Online skills assessments make the hiring process a breeze by instantly allowing you to identify the top performing candidates and check that nobody has lied about their skills on their CV. Whether you ask candidates to complete skills tests that are specific to the role such as health and safety tests or typing speed tests, or more general assessments such as verbal or numerical reasoning tests, these tests are a quick and easy way to find out who is suitable for the role.

Furthermore, you can create bespoke skills tests that relate to the specific duties and responsibilities of the job. For example, you can create a unique situational judgement test to evaluate how a candidate would react to certain situations. This allows you to quickly get a sense of the way their mind works and can even provide a prompt for interview questions later in the hiring process.

Nail your remote interview process

Remote interviews are always a little bit more awkward than in-person ones. Technical difficulties and unexpected interruptions have the potential to turn an otherwise promising interview into a flop. That’s why it’s important to perfect your remote interview process.

Communication is key when arranging remote interviews. In advance of the interview, candidates need to know the data and time, which platform will be used, who the interview is with, and whether it will use audio or video. Make sure to send them the link to the interview when you first arrange the interview and then send it again an hour before the scheduled time to ensure they can find it immediately.

Final thoughts

Although remote hiring comes with its unique challenges, these tips can help your team transform the hiring process and recruit top talent.

Considering using a realistic job preview or skills tests to enhance your online hiring process? Skillsarena provides bespoke and out-of-the-box skills tests, personality assessments, and custom realistic job previews. No matter your industry or hiring needs, they can help you hire more successfully.

Claire James

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