How Has The Influx of Companies Hiring Remote Employees Changed Hiring?

In recent years, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of companies that are hiring remote employees. This hiring model has proved very effective with benefits like reduced overhead costs and increased flexibility for both the employee and the employer. But how has this change in hiring practices affected the way that companies search for and hire new employees? This article will explore how hiring has changed in the post-Covid world.

The Onboarding Process

With the rise of remote workers, the process of hiring and onboarding new staff has changed dramatically. Previously, recruitment was a much more intimate process, often involving in-person interviews and meetings. Now, with the majority of recruitment happening online, the process is much more impersonal.

Companies now need to rely on a different set of tools to both hire and onboard remote employees. The classic vibe checks like face-to-face chats or referrals aren’t always possible. Now, businesses must rely on skill testing, personality tests, and online training programs to get the most out of their new workers.

The Candidate Pool

The candidate pool has also changed with the rise of remote work. Now, companies can hire employees from all over the world, not just from their local area. This gives companies a much more comprehensive range of talent to choose from. However, it also means that the competition for top candidates is fierce.

To stand out from the crowd, you’ll need to make sure that your job postings are clear and concise. You’ll also need to be prepared to offer competitive salaries and benefits packages. The good news is that there are a number of online tools that can help you with this, such as salary calculators and benefits comparison websites.

Skills Testing

When you hire remote staff, the task of testing their skills is very different from the traditional hiring process. In the past, skills testing was often done in person, with the candidate completing a task or taking a written test under the supervision of a hiring manager. Now, there are a number of online tools that can be used to test candidates’ skills and platforms like Cosmogence that take care of everything for you.

One popular option is to use online coding challenges. These challenges are great when you hire remote developers, as they can be completed entirely online. There are also a number of websites that offer pre-written tests for a variety of different positions.

Communication

Finally, it may seem obvious to say, that communication is perhaps the biggest way that the hiring process has changed. Impromptu calls or meetings just aren’t possible when you hire remote teams in the same way that it was pre-covid. Now you are dealing with time zone differences, cultural differences (things like holidays), intermediaries, and potentially even a language barrier.

This means that businesses need to make the decision to either rebuild their entire hiring infrastructure to be able to cope with these changes or outsource the process to a specialist recruitment agency who are used to dealing with these challenges.

Summary

Despite Covid clearly being in the rearview mirror, it’s become evident that remote work is here to stay. And that means a fundamental shift in how companies view and engage with the remote employee hiring process. Everything from the candidate pool to onboarding has changed, and businesses need to be prepared to adapt or risk being left behind.