Best Practices when Hiring Remote Staff

The emergence of the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak not only created a public health issue of epic proportions, but also revamped the way we perform critical business tasks on a regular basis.

As a result, in-person meetings are now replaced by Zoom calls, while conferences are substituted by virtual events. Long commutes are now exchanged for work-from-home routines, while gruelling schedules are sacrificed in favour of flexible work hours.

If your business is riding this wave of change, you sould be set to reap the rewards of reduced costs and increased efficiency. But  it’s important that you manage your workforce well too. Here are a few best practices for hiring remote employees.  

If you want to learn how to brief and hire on Upwork, read this post.

Ensure Availability In Your Time Zone

When hiring remote employees, you have the benefit of broadening your horizons and going beyond your immediate geography. This allows you to tap into an expanded talent pool and add highly skilled people to your team.

But you need to make sure that your employees will be able to be online during business hours in your time zone. Unless you have a need for shift work, this makes communication easier and allows for greater efficiency. You can also get urgent tasks out of the way without waiting a few hours for staff to get to their desks.

Do Detailed Background Checks

Especially when you are hiring employees remotely, they are part of your business’ wider family. You need to ensure that they come from a reputable background and have a good work track record. Doing a background check for job postings can easily give you with the assurance you need. These background checks can ensure the candidate’s identity, criminal history, and credit history. It can also verify key details such as education records. This makes sure that the information you are filing in your employee history folder is factual and correct.  

Find a Suitable Schedule

Managing remote employees can still be tricky due to altered working methods. You still need to set policies that help you stay on track. Sticking to proper scheduling is one of these ground rules that ensure productivity is maintained.

Whether you want your employees to follow the same schedule as yourself or need them to cover different shifts, it’s important to establish these requirements from the start. By noting your employee schedule on an electronic dry erase board, you can also ensure to keep them updated on any last minute changes. We use the Teamwork app for timesheet and task management – it’s also good.

USe Proactive Communication

Communication is a big part of any business environment. It’s even more critical when you aren’t seeing your team face to face. By using purpose-built programs for professional communication, you can ensure that you are able to remain in touch with your workforce without any issues.

From Zoom to Slack, you can choose from an array of choices that fit your communication style. But whichever you end up choosing, make sure that it gives instant message delivery. This ensures that you don’t have to face delays in sharing crucial information.

Use Virtual Management Solutions

Apart from communication software, you can also use virtual workforce management programs that allow you to organise and mobilise your remote team in an easier way. These solutions let you handle your team’s responsibilities and delivery timelines through a virtual capacity, which prevents any problematic loopholes and unnecessary delays.

In addition to task management, these solutions can also cover aspects such as accounting, billing, sales, and support. Depending upon the nature of your work, you can choose software that fits your working style perfectly. In many ways, this is a virtual alternative to using a business planner.

Since these practices focus on efficiency while cutting costs, reviewing these tools lets you make the most out of your remote workforce.Take steps that are in line with your management style, so you can seamlessly adapt to the dynamics of remote work.