Hiring Remote Tech Employees Made Easy

If you’re already here, you must be wondering if you should actually hire remote employees or go for “regular” candidates. So it’s important for you to understand more about hiring remote-based employees. Well, to be honest, the virtual workplace has almost replaced the conventional workplaces. Work-from-home or working while traveling has become an increasingly fashionable trend among the U.S. workforce, especially in the IT sector. It means that you can hire employees who would experience a more flexible work environment while being seated at home on their couch or while being able to travel and enjoy life in its simplicity. 

While it may sound beneficial for a few IT companies, few may not be completely open to this new culture. Hence, in order to be more open to a trending work policy, there are certain points that a tech recruiter should always consider. Today in this article, I will elaborate on the various aspects of hiring a remote tech employee. But first, let’s ponder on the advantages and disadvantages of hiring remote tech employees as it will help you decide better. 

Advantages and Disadvantages of Hiring Remote Tech Talent

 Advantages

You can hire foreign tech talent from a low cost of living areas which could save you an ample amount of money. Also, remote work culture is in itself a benefit, so you won’t have to think much about providing extra reimbursements and perks. Above that, you can save money from the overhead cost of each remote employee. So, if you are a budding start-up, you won’t even have to invest much in better workspaces. In short, you can have a digital office instead. 

Having remote workers is beneficial because you always get the work done within the deadline because of the probable difference between the time zones of the employer and the remote employee. Furthermore, in a schematic study, it has been observed that employees were more productive because they could save energy money and energy from daily commutation. The study suggests that the remote employees remain more satisfied with their jobs than office employees and that’s why the employee retention rate is quite high in their case.

Disadvantages

One of the primary disadvantages is the language and accent barriers because instructions may not be very clear to the remote employees although most tech employees are well versed in English. Even the employer sometimes may not be able to instruct the employee or understand the queries of the employee. The other major disadvantage is experiencing internet turbulences which can create havoc in the tech industry. If the remote employees are not able to understand, work or deliver results using unstable telecommuting connections, it will be a massive loss for the company. 

Remote employees often feel isolated, and go unnoticed during promotions and increments. Although, remote employees are expected to be free from distraction, but it is not the case with most remote employees. They are more at risk of being distracted by family and traveling. These are some of the major disadvantages of hiring a remote employee. 

Now let’s talk about the points which you should consider before hiring a remote employee.

Sourcing Remote Workers from Job Boards ✔️

The experienced remote employees often do not seek new jobs in the conventional job boards like LinkedIn, Indeed and other popular job boards. This is because they know that recruiters in these job boards won’t be open to remote-based employment. So, there are some specific job boards for remote employees where active candidates are in seeking new remote jobs. These sites are specifically for independent recruiters who own a stable digital office. Some popular remote job boards are:

WeWorkRemotely

One of the largest job portals for remote employers and remote employees, WeWorkRemotely offers thousands of job opportunities to candidates which is freely accessible.

FlexJobs

Along with thousands of remote work opportunities, the site offers its user a library consisting of skill tests and video tutorials for candidates as well as recruiters. FlexJobs charges a negligible fee for expert counseling and VIP service which could be availed for instance job offerings and opportunities. 

WorkingNomads

This site is for remote employees who are full-time travelers or spend much of their time traveling. Remote Recruiters often select employees from this site as they can make multiple contract-based propositions with the traveling remote employees. Job location and duration of the stay is a very important job determining factor in WorkingNomads.

Remote Co.

This site encourages companies, entrepreneurs and owners to opt for this flexible work style and source remote candidates. Remote Co. gives free counseling and support to companies that are wanting to enter this dynamic flexible work community.

Remote Workhub

This site offers memberships to job seekers and employers and the charge is quite negligible compared to the services they provide. Remote Workhub provides services such as job opening notifications, let’s you access your private community, provides you with online admissions, career coaching, resume evaluation, coworking spaces, and other facilities no other remote job site will offer. 

Screening remote employees ✔️

While screening resumes of your remote employee, make sure they have certain skill sets like 

excellent communication skills, 

remote yet powerful collaborative skills,

good organizational skills, 

excellent time management skills, and

discipline and accountability.

In order to test these skills and qualities, you can make them appear for some pre-employment tech assessment solutions, which will help you understand if they are apt for their remote job roles. You should interview them using various methods like emailing your candidates, and checking their response if it is detailed enough and how much time they took to respond. You should conduct telephonic interviews and check their clarity, accent and other verbal communication skills. Lastly, check the candidate’s compatibility with video chatting because often you may need to have a face-to-face discussion with your remote employees. This will enable you to judge if they know the tactics of all sorts of telecommuting and you will understand the strength of the internet connection they use.

A thorough background check is very important and you also need to check the relevancy of their skills. There are a lot of methods by which people can fake online interviews so, beware of these fake candidates who might contribute to your downfall. You can search for candidates by mentioning in job portals that you are looking for candidates with recent background verification, police clearance certificate, employment history verification, and academic verification. Some of the information can also be checked by surfing the socially available information of your potential tech talent. Most qualified tech candidates will have knowledge enough to be ready for these verification checks and it would be better if you ask for their verified certifications along with their resumes. It would significantly ease the process as well as save you time and effort. 

Legalities and Formalities ✔️

There are various legalities and formalities you need to be aware of as a recruiter which will enable you to take the necessary steps. You know very well about the issues but you may not know about the solutions. Thus, I will provide you with a list of things you can do to avoid any mistake in hiring a remote tech employee.

Instruct your remote employees to use a VPN for connection as it helps your employees keep their web browsing private from invaders in public wi-fi zones.

Using G-Suite and enabling the option of 2-factor authorization helps you in guarding your business information against cybercriminals.

Sensitive data should always be stored on external hard drives and to ensure further protection, instruct your remote employees to encrypt their hard drives.

Check with the remote candidate’s local payroll department and take instructions from the department regarding the regulations.

Take proper advice from the international migration department of your country/state as well as the candidate’s international migration and regulation department. This is important because even remote employees at times need to be Visa approved to meet you in-person during crisis situations.

That’s it for today. I really hope the article has been informative enough and it is able to ease your process of hiring a remote employee. Also, be more open to these new work styles cause that’s how you will reach a wider section of qualified tech talent. If you liked this article, 👍, share, comment and follow our blog. Adios!

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