The outbreak of the COVID-19 has the world locked down for months and it is still uncertain when we can go back to better normal. The prolonging lockdown period has a perilous effect on the global economy. Most of the businesses are struggling to retain their employees while many have shut down. As a result, unemployment is in the surge.

Meanwhile, few businesses have had the privilege to expand amid the chaos. Most of the offices have urged their staffs to work from home and are adapting to a new environment as the spread of corona virus augments.

With people working from home, companies have changed the way to hire new employees. Many questions arise; are there any different criteria to look for in remote hiring? What can be the major challenge in the remote hiring process in comparison to onsite hiring? If thoughtful considerations are given in each stage of hiring, even remote hiring can be made effective and efficient.

Here’s a quick guide to finding and hiring employees remotely:

1. Finding the right candidate:

   Searching for an ideal candidate can be a daunting process when many people are on the verge of unemployment. Choosing a potential candidate from piles of job applications can be unnerving. So, to highlight specific requirements while posting the job vacancy could be a good idea to prevent any unyielding resumes. For this, the HR team has to understand the roles and responsibilities of the required position. Suitability for remote work and your organizational culture can also be some requirements this time.

   Clear and concise description of the vacant position will help to attract the right candidates. Sometimes, restrictions based upon the qualification, experience, and scope of interest can be added to prevent receiving unrelenting resumes. Likewise, while posting the vacancy on online job portals, few relevant questions can be added to get some insights into the candidate’s ability.

   Many organizations base upon online job platforms such as MeroJob, JobsNepal, Kumarijob, etc in Nepal for the vacancy announcements. The company’s website and social media pages can also be used for posting the job vacancy.

2. Shortlisting and Initial Phone Interview:

   Once applications are received, filter through the applications for shortlisting candidates. Checking if the candidate meets the specific requirements is the best way to shortlist candidates. It would be better to share the information about shortlisted candidates to the management team to keep them in a loop throughout the hiring process. The process can be made effective by sharing the information in a common hiring channel; one of the options might be creating a closed group in a cloud-based platform like Slack.

   After shortlisting, it would be a good idea to conduct a short phone interview. During the phone interview, you can check if the candidates match their profile, qualification, experience, skills, salary expectation, notice period, and most importantly the requirements for the video interview. This will also help whether the candidates meet the requirement for working remotely. Some of the important attributes of an ideal candidate can be technical savvy (as we are hiring software developers), initiative, good communication skills, problem-solving skills, collaboration, etc.

3. Interviews:

   The lockdown has changed the interviewing culture where having the physical presence of the candidate and interviewing panel in an office together is neither a possibility nor a preference at the moment. Now that interviews turn virtual, taking place over a video conference; it becomes a duty of the facilitator to set up the meeting over the internet.

   The facilitator has to send the invitation link and id via email to the interviewing team and the interviewee. It would be better to send guidelines along with the email to avoid any confusion and run the interview smoothly.

   While conducting the online interview, it might be a good idea to get feedback from the candidates and the interviewing team to make further improvements in upcoming virtual interviews.

4. Assessment Tests:

   After an interview, assigning a short aptitude test to the potential candidate can help the hiring team to access the knowledge and ability of the candidate.The task could be assigned along with the submission deadline. Once the task is received, the technical team will have to examine and give feedback to decide on the further hiring process.

5. Offering the Job and Onboarding process:

   Once the management decides to move forward to hire an ideal candidate, it is now time to offer the job to the candidate. The management team has to be clear with the candidate regarding duties and responsibilities, salary, benefits, hours of work, which must be mentioned clearly on the contract. Once a contract is signed by both parties, the company should assign the necessary equipment to the new employee and conduct the induction process which is likely to be held online as well.

Many companies are hiring digitally as people start working from home during the pandemic and have realized hiring remotely can be both time and cost efficient. Do you think companies will continue acquiring human resources virtually even after the pandemic? Are these suggestions helpful in making remote hiring efficient? Let us know your thoughts.