When you operate a business in Indianapolis but need to hire someone who lives in Cincinnati, reviewing your company’s remote hiring process is critical to both parties having a good experience. However, you’re likely to still have a lot of questions, even with the remote hiring checklist in hand.
As a payroll company offering dozens of outsourced services to small businesses in Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, and Kentucky, we have answers to some of your top questions about the remote hiring process. From how to manage a virtual interview to creating an online job post to completing the onboarding process entirely online, ASAP Payroll is here to ensure that remote hiring goes smoothly for your organization.
What is Remote Work?
People who work entirely remotely never come into the office because they have a computer and everything else they need to complete their tasks from another location. Most remote workers choose to set up an office at home or join a local co-working group.
Employers sometimes divide remote positions into hybrid working arrangements, which means employees split their time between home and the office. The specific hybrid arrangement depends on department needs and requires management approval.
Should the Virtual Interview Process Be Faster Than Interviewing Candidates in Person?
One of the benefits of conducting interviews online is that the entire process from a candidate submitting a resume to interviewing, accepting the position, and onboarding should go faster in most situations. Below are three specific ways to ensure a faster remote hiring process.
- Use an applicant tracking system (ATS) to manage and rank people who apply for the open position.
- Complete the initial interview using a pre-recorded one-way interview to save time. Each person involved in the hiring decision can watch the recording at their convenience rather than having to schedule separate interviews with every candidate. You also save time by sending the questions via email to all first-round candidates rather than having to complete a phone screening for all.
- Go beyond looking at only local candidates to make the remote hiring process truly work for you.
Don’t be surprised if some candidates drop out of the interviewing process early because they don’t want to take the time to record a video of themselves. While you could feel disappointed initially, this approach helps shrink the applicant pool and ultimately saves time for everyone involved.
How Do Small Businesses Benefit from Allowing Employees to Work Remotely?
The ability to work from home gives employees more flexibility in their day to manage other responsibilities, while also eliminating commuting time. For some employees, remote work puts more than two hours back into their day because they’re not spending that time getting to and from the office. Thousands of people report that they feel more productive working from home because they don’t face the same distractions they had at work, such as people stopping by their desk to talk and constantly ringing phones.
From a business perspective, offering remote work can result in substantial savings because the employer doesn’t have the overhead costs of paying rent for an office building, paying for heating and cooling, and maintaining business equipment.
Just keep in mind that remote workers can feel lonely and like they aren’t as much a part of the team as in-house workers. Be sure to suggest virtual and in-person team-building events to keep feelings of loneliness from impacting on an employee’s job performance.
How Do We Set Up a Virtual Interview for the First Time?
The first thing you need to do is decide which type of software you would like to use for interviewing purposes. Zoom, Skype, and Google Hangouts are all popular, and each will send you a link with detailed instructions about setting up the camera, checking sound, and selecting your background. When you’re ready to get the interview underway, send the candidate a link via email to join you.
ASAP Payroll Can Help with the Remote Hiring and Onboarding Processes
Although we don’t do the interviews for you, we can help by providing an ATS and running background checks on each candidate. After you have chosen just the right person, you can trust us to take your new employee through the virtual onboarding process.
Please request a quote today to learn more about each of our outsourced hiring, onboarding, timekeeping, payroll, and human resources management services for small business owners in the Hoosier state and surrounding areas.
