Remote hiring and working remotely for companies these days poses new obstacles for hiring great employees. You need to hire employees who will need to work from home independently without someone looking over their shoulders. Therefore, working remotely creates new problems for HR managers and companies. This articles shows you how to hire employees who are productive, self-starters to get projects done, dependable and will not watch TV or play with their cell phones while on the job. This article shows you how to hire employees who managers and HR department need to monitor from a distance.
Six steps help you remotely evaluate job candidates who will working remotely:
Using these steps makes your hiring process delightfully efficient.
Important = When you rate applicant positively on a step, you move ahead to the next step.
If you rate applicant negatively on any step, that is your signal to stop spending time on that applicant and find a better applicant.
1st Step = Examine Applicant’s Resume or Application for Clues
Collect their information and resume via email or your tracking system. Observe how the applicant handles getting the information to you and if it is in a timely manner. Next, see if the applicant has work experiences, training or education relevant to the job. Also, look at length of time applicant held each job. Look for steady employment, promotions, and staying long time in jobs.This helps you spot turnover risk and job hoppers.
If you like resume and the applicants information, move to 2nd Step.
2nd Step = Brief Initial Discussion: 10-15 MINUTE, FAST PHONE INTERVIEW
A brief telephone interview is next in your remote hiring process. Before you begin, list job-related experiences of your successful employees in the specific job. For example, these qualities might include (a) holding specific types of jobs for a certain length of time, (b) working certain hours, or (c) employment in certain work conditions. With this job-related info, hold 10-15 minute discussion on-phone with applicant. Ask brief questions to hear if applicant has similar job-related experiences. Applicant should to 90+% of talking, and interviewer 10% or less.
Reason = If interviewer talks more than 10%, then interviewer likely is telling applicant what company is looking for. So do not reveal such information.
Notice if applicant sounds like person who could succeed in your company. Observe voice tone and energy level. Do they match your company’s needs?
Did applicant work in high school? In my consulting to many companies, I found superstar employees almost always worked during high school.
Working during high school demonstrates work ethic. Briefly, ask what they liked or disliked in jobs. People with good work ethic focus on how they enjoyed jobs.
However people with crummy work ethic badmouth their jobs. If applicant seems to have job-related qualities and experiences similar to your successful employees in the job, then move to the next Step.
In other words if you give positive rating to 10-15 minute phone interview, then give applicant pre-employment tests.
3rd Step = Pre-Employment Tests
Give the applicant an online pre-employment test to take remotely and give them a time limit to complete it. For white-collar jobs, which are professional, office, sales and management positions, use two types of tests: (1) personality test and (2) intelligence or cognitive aptitude tests. For blue-collar jobs, which are laborer and lower-level positions, use two types of tests: (1) integrity or honesty test and (2) mental aptitude or brainpower tests. Applicants can take pre-hire tests online and you can score the tests immediately online.
Important = Before applicants take tests, have some of your best, superstar employees in each job take the tests. Your test scores of your best employees in each job become benchmark test scores for that job. Logically, you will prefer applicants who get same test scores as the job’s benchmark test scores.
If applicant gets same or similar scores as your best, benchmark employees, then do 4th Step. However, if applicant gets test scores different than your benchmark scores, then congratulations: You know not to
waste of 2-3 hours of valuable time doing time-consuming 4th Step.
4th Step = Remote In-Depth Job Interview
In-Depth Interview takes 2-3 hours (½ hour scheduling and greeting applicant + 1-2 hours interviewing + ½ hour post-interview evaluating applicant).
Only invest 2-3 hours of valuable management time in applicants who did well on the pre-employment tests and other factors listed above.
Before In-Depth Interview, make list of 6-9 important job talents you need in the employee you hire. Focus your job interview on asking open-ended questions to assess applicant on those 6-9 important job talents.
When you do a Zoom or other type of online job interview, observe if applicant shows up on-time, is appropriately dressed for the job and handles interruptions gracefully. After all this is likely to be their very best behavior you will observe. This behavior will also predict their future behavior. If you rate the applicant positively in In-Depth Interview, then do 5th Step. If you did not like applicant in job interview, then stop considering the candidate and find someone better.
5th Step = References, Drug Tests, Criminal Background Checks, & Work Samples
You can do any or all of these candidate assessment methods. References, Drug Tests and Background Checks are self-explanatory. How about Work Samples? If applicant MUST possess certain job-related knowledge or skill, then get Work Samples. Examples: For Office jobs, see if applicant possesses needed computer skills. For Sales Jobs, role-play sales discussion with applicant playing Sales Rep. For Laborer Job, schedule applicant to visit your facility to show their ability to do job-related tasks.
6th Step = Make Hire or Not-Hire Decision
Simple: If you rate applicant highly in 5th Step, then you confidently might offer the job. But if applicant’s 5th Step got only average or below-average ratings, then you need to find better applicant.
Summary:
Use these 6 steps to quickly and efficiently conduct remote hiring.
All or almost all of the assessments and pre-employment tests can be done without applicant coming into your office or facility.
Pre-employment tests in these 6 steps help you confidently decide which job candidates you should consider or not consider hiring.