How to Hire a Successful Remote Team

In order for businesses to remain attractive in the post-pandemic period, it’s important that employees are offered flexibility where possible in their working practises. Often this is in the form of full-time or part-time remote working

However, evaluating candidates for fully remote vacancies can be challenging, as there is a little-to-no chance for face-to-face interaction to see how candidates might work with other team members and colleagues.

During in-person interview processes, candidates are able to understand the culture and feel of the business. Meanwhile, interviewers are able to see if the candidate gels with the company culture.

Although it is more challenging to do this over a video call, it’s not impossible.

What skills do you need from candidates in order to successfully operate remotely?

• Strong communication skills
• Ability to be self-motivated
• Strong problem-solving
• Team working skills.

Employees who spend their time working away from the office and on their own need to have the ability to think efficiently to problem-solve when issues arise. It’s also important that they feel comfortable collaborating with others, despite being in different locations or working in different working patterns.

What questions do you need to ask candidates?

Making sure you ask the right questions related to remote working is important. This is not to “catch candidates out”, but it’s about making sure that candidates understand that remote working is definitely for them. This could cover:

• What they like most about remote working.
• What the biggest challenges of remote working are, and how do they compensate for them.
• What type of management, supervision and leadership styles and processes work best for them?
• What is their home office environment like?
• Do they have a specific working-hour structure that they are hoping to be able to follow with remote working, or are they happy to work typical office hours?

Keeping the remote workforce connected

Ideally, newly hired employees should go through a two-to-four-week probationary period. This helps you to judge reliability, understand how well they are managing remote work and how they fit within the company culture.

This is a good opportunity to gage whether this candidate is a good fit for the remote working environment or not.

Team-building days can also be a great way to get employees out of their remote environments and engage face-to-face. This can lead to better communication, improved team morale, motivation, and increased productivity. This is important as long-term remote working can lead to isolation, a lack of work-life balance due to blurred boundaries, and reduced activity. Team-building days can be a great way to combat this.

How can we help? 

At T2M Resourcing, we partner with our clients to attract, recruit and retain the best talent available to help their companies and workforce to grow.

We strive to ensure that we provide great opportunities for candidates to advance their careers with organisations that can provide the right environment for everyone to succeed, whether that’s full-time, part-time, office, remote, hybrid or flexible working.

Whatever your business requirements, contact Managing Director, Steve to discuss your recruitment needs: 

Steve Randall, Managing Director at T2M Resourcing
07412 786686
Steve@ T2Mresourcing.com