Remote employment is no longer an alternative option. Teams are becoming more aware of how flexibility and a healthier work-life balance can really help in business growth.

The pandemic has also helped many businesses discover that staff productivity is unaffected by remote employment. However, despite the surge in remote employment, employers are still likely to hire remote workers incorrectly. So you must keep a check on the mistakes to avoid while hiring remotely.

Remote employees are meant to streamline daily tasks and increase output. However, ignoring the preparation phase can set them up for the opposite result. It is also not right to believe that your company need not go through the formalities involved in onboarding traditional, full-time employees when hiring remote workers.

Here are ten common mistakes to avoid while hiring your remote team:

1. Neglecting company culture

Maintaining corporate culture involves continuing to hire applicants that embody your fundamental principles. This helps your present staff understand the kind of culture you’re attempting to create. Your present staff will doubt your sincerity if you hire someone who doesn’t meet these requirements. Remote employees might use this strategy as well.

Various corporate cultures are more centered on solitary tasks and entail continual communication. Some corporate settings take their work more seriously, while others do better in a more laid-back setting. Additionally, especially for remote employment, all job descriptions should include a statement of your fundamental values.

Unfortunately, personality variations make people less receptive to interpersonal communication. Therefore, when hiring for remote employment, make sure all applicants are familiar with your company’s culture and can recognize whether they would succeed there.

2. Recruiting the same ways

It could be necessary to use new recruiting techniques to find applicants for remote roles. People continue to peruse the major job boards and websites, adding “remote” or “hybrid” to their search. This results in more job opportunities than before.

This implies that if you publish a remote position, you’ll probably get more applications than before. But that doesn’t guarantee that the correct people will apply for our openings, which only makes it harder to locate a decent employee.

Continue posting to your successful employment sites. Then you might want to try a job site designed specifically for remote employment.

3. Hiring the cheapest remote workers and hoping for the best

As a startup founder, you will grab every chance you can get to save money, and that is just how it is. The problem with this approach is that going cheap usually leads to hiring low-quality talent or temporary contractors. Yes, lower rates are financially beneficial to your company, but skills and expertise-wise, it is not worth the risk.

You would be better off spending a bit more on finding and hiring the right talent and reaping its rewards than paying less and suffering the consequences. When it comes to remote hiring, it is better to look past the financial cost and focus on quality because the magnitude of its impact will continue to benefit your business for years to come.

4. Not having an organized interview process

It can be too difficult to determine whether a candidate is a good fit for your role and your company culture when employing remote workers. Unfortunately, a lot of employers don’t give the hiring process enough thought.

To overcome this common challenge, make sure to:

Create a virtual interviewing procedure with at least two rounds. This might include both one-way (asynchronous) and two-way (live) interviews. To help potential employees better grasp your company culture, think about doing at least one team interview.
Include your team members and educate them on interviewing procedures and appropriate questions to ask to conduct a thorough and unbiased evaluation.
Determine the best time to schedule interviews and the platform to use for them.
Select a method for gathering and compiling feedback.

5. Not using screening tests

You can evaluate candidates for various abilities through screening tests, job simulations, or pre-employment exams and compare their performance to that of other candidates in that category. You may encounter significant difficulties if you don’t use employment tests in your hiring procedure.

For instance, you might find yourself managing hundreds or even thousands of job applications if pre-employment screenings are not set up for remote recruitment. Screening tests can quickly find stronger candidates and shortlist them into a more manageable list rather than having to go through an extensive one.

Without job simulators, it becomes challenging to fairly assess each applicant. In the first stages of the hiring process, relying entirely on resumes and cover letters can be deceiving. Platforms like Testlify helps optimize your initial screening process by 75% and has one of the most candidate-friendly tool to assess various skills.

Want to know how our AI-powered assessment technology works? Click here.

6. Not fully integrating remote workers as part of your team

Make your remote workers feel like a part of the company if you want to maximize the benefits of distributed teams and remote work. This incorrect viewpoint may even alienate various team members and lower morale.

Integrating remote employees fully with your company is the best approach to inspire them. It’s not difficult to establish a remote work culture, and when done right, it may encourage employee ownership and improved cooperation and communication. Here are some suggestions to get you going:

Make the new hires feel welcome by introducing them to everyone.
Assign a coworker with whom they can socialize.
Plan regular team meetings while taking into account timezone variances.
Set up virtual catch-up sessions with a strict no-work-talk policy so your staff members may get to know one another better.

These actions can seem insignificant, but they will go a long way toward motivating good job quality and fostering loyalty.

7. Not assessing remote communication & collaboration skills

Your organization will expand if your team has effective communication and collaboration abilities. Your company will benefit from improved team coordination, a positive organizational culture, and an environment that fosters creativity when you employ an objective hiring process to bring in good technical talent with strong communication skills.

However, when these abilities are lacking, an individual working in an office setting can manage, receive support, and receive training from scratch, but for a remote applicant, it may become difficult to learn or teach these competencies. Hence, assessing candidates for good communication and collaboration skills becomes a primary focus when hiring remotely.

8. Not taking measures to check unconscious bias

Unconscious biases are prejudicial tendencies that develop spontaneously in our brains when we make snap decisions based on stereotypes, social conventions, or erroneous beliefs. Such biases are also highly likely to occur in distant hiring. For instance, you might favor a candidate who attended a local or foreign university that you are familiar with.

Such biases impact remote hiring and raise the dangers of passing on top prospects.

Want to learn more about the various unconscious biases in the hiring process and how to overcome it? Click here.

9. Not making training an on-going event

The process of training never ends. To keep your remote employee engaged, hold regular video meetings and quarterly or annual team training sessions.

Cutting corners with training risks alienating your remote workers. One of the main difficulties in leading a remote team is that once they’ve secluded themselves, it’s challenging to refocus them.

10. Failing to properly onboard remote employees

The hiring process must include proper onboarding because it will aid remote employees in developing their independence. Giving people access to the equipment and software they require to complete their tasks is the most effective approach to achieve this.

After demonstrating to them how you want things done, develop manuals and processes they can use. The primary goal of the onboarding process is to prepare remote workers for their work, assist them in becoming autonomous and productive right away, and build communication channels so they can communicate with team members efficiently from a distance.

For instance, if you’ve hired a social media manager, apart from giving them access to all channels, provide them with guidance with post examples, hashtags, creatives, and more.

A well-planned onboarding procedure can be quite helpful. Make sure you have one in place because it will aid in helping you expand and advance your company.

Final thoughts

Any organization may find hiring remote workers to be an attractive alternative.

It’s critical to establish clear expectations for employees, conduct efficient interviews, and select the best candidates. To make remote a success, don’t forget to consider candidates’ soft talents in addition to their technical ones.

To avoid making remote hires feel excluded, be sure you offer virtual onboarding and training for them and treat them similarly to your on-site employees. Your remote workers will flourish and produce fantastic outcomes for your business if you hire the greatest remote talent and give them the best training.