By Steve Strauss
BOA | August 24, 2020

These days, not only are regular employees working from home, but there is a good chance your new hires will work remotely as well. Here are the six steps to hiring the right remote employee:

1. Know what to look for

Not all remote employees are created equal. The ones who work out best have some combination of the following traits:

• • Independent problem solver
  • Great communication skills
  • A strong work ethic
  • Self-motivated self-starter
  • Responsive and coachable
  • Technologically savvy

2. Write a clear job description

Both the job candidate and the eventual new employee will need to know, exactly, what the job will entail, what is expected, what the deliverables will be, how projects will be handled and coordinated, and what sort of check-ins and communication will be required.

3. Cast a wide net

You need to post your job listing on whatever sites and boards work for you, whether that be industry sites, Indeed.com, Monster, Craigslist, wherever.

And yet, while you do want to cast a wide net and attract the best people, with remote workers you also need to keep location and work conditions in mind. Are they in your time zone? Do they have reliable internet service? Do they have a dedicated space from which to work? Will you want them to come into the office at all for in-person check-ins periodically, and are they able to?

4. Conduct a video interview

One of the biggest obstacles to successful online recruitment is technology, specifically, people needing to cancel or reschedule interviews because of computer issue. To avoid this, let your candidates know well in advance what communication tools they will need, be it a laptop, a Skype account or something else.

The e-interview itself will serve the dual purpose of getting to know applicants, and seeing whether they are up to the technological challenge of working and communicating remotely.

5. Administer an aptitude test

It might be a good idea to give the top candidates some sort of test. A couple of examples would be to ask a sales candidate to write you a couple of cold sales pitch emails or have an accounting candidate calculate a simple expense exercise.

6. Hire, but with a caveat

Hiring on a probationary basis may make sense, as it is simply more challenging to judge applicants via video. Agreeing on a probationary period allows you and the new employee to see if working this way together actually works.

To read the entire article, visit Bank of America Small Business Resources.