The economy is reopening and employers are starting to hire again. But how do you find the right employees for remote work during COVID-19? Whether your office is temporarily remote or permanently shuttering its brick-and-mortar locations, finding a remote employee is different. Here’s what you need to know.
Making Positions Attractive to Work-from-Home Employees
First: Most employees are already attracted to the idea of work-from-home. By providing remote work opportunities, you can pull from some of the most talented members of the workforce. But that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t have other benefits, too. Employees who work from home remotely still want to feel a connection to their team. Offering things like office upgrades, equipment, and team-building activities can make the premise of remote labor even more alluring.
Look for Employees With IT Skills
Employees who work remotely are going to need excellent IT skills — even if their job isn’t IT-related. Today, IT skills are a bit of a given — but it’s even more important when employees are going to be communicating actively through the Internet.
Expand Your Search Radius
One of the major benefits of hiring work-from-home employees is that they don’t necessarily need to be in the same city or even the same state. Look outside of your geographic location to pull from the largest talent pool; an agency can help. By expanding your search radius, you can find a great fit even faster.
Create New Processes to Manage Hiring
Many companies don’t have processes designed for hiring employees remotely. Since employees may not be able to come to an office for an interview, the company has to be set up to accommodate them. Either working with an employment agency or fine-tuning hiring processes can make it easier to get a sense of employees before they’re hired, even without an in-person, face-to-face meeting.
Take a Look at the Wait List
Does your company already maintain a waitlist? If you don’t want to start recruiting right now, consider calling back prospective employees that you had wait-listed before. You can avoid having to create a complete hiring campaign while still being able to pull from a pool of accomplished professionals.
COVID-19 has made a lot of hiring much more difficult; there are many employees out there and very few employers hiring. That means that you have your pick of the talent, but also that it may be harder to find the perfect person. If you want to learn more about hiring during this difficult time — and the strategies you can use to be better at it — contact the experts at 2Roads.