Hiring Remote Workers: 5 Challenges You’ll Face

There are many advantages to the in-person job interview. Not only do you get to see how your potential employees carry themselves, but you also have a face-to-face view of how they respond to various interview questions. You can see if they’re punctual where traffic and commute times are concerned, and you can get (or not get) that elusive “gut feeling” about whether or not they’d be an asset to your organization.

But hiring remote workers is a little bit different. Without having the job candidate directly in front of you, it can be challenging to figure out who is and who isn’t a good match for your company.

Fortunately, there are ways to get over those bumps in the job market and make successful remote hires.
Here are five challenges in hiring remote workers  — and how to address them:

1. The Hiring Process Can Take Longer

Hiring an employee is never an overnight deal, but you’ll need to make even more time when you’re hiring remotely.

“You have to invest a lot of time and energy into hiring well,” says Coby Chapple, product designer at GitHub, Inc. “Growth is hard, but it’s much easier to navigate change if you know you can trust the people you’re hiring. Without that trust as a foundation, everything else related to building a good company (let alone a distributed one) becomes infinitely more difficult.”

Even if you’re eager to hire a virtual worker, you have to take the time to ensure that this person is the right fit for your company.

2. Timing Is Everything

Hiring a remote worker means that you have your choice of top-tier talent from anywhere (and everywhere!) in the world.

Thing is, when you most of your workers live in the U.S. — and a smattering live in Slovenia — it can be tricky to stay on the same page, time-wise.

“Working cross-time zones can occasionally be tough with the development crew,” says Daniel Russell, founder and CEO of Attentiv. “Sometimes, if we have a problem on our end, we may have to wait until the dev team is actually awake to fix it.”

This is something to keep in mind when selecting potential remote talent, particularly if you do want to keep your team in the same time zone, more or less.

3. Remote Work Isn’t For Everyone

This is one of the biggest challenges in hiring a remote worker. Although many, if not all, remote job applicants will insist that they absolutely love working from home, the truth of the matter is that working remotely isn’t for everyone.

“If this is the first time someone has worked remotely, they may not anticipate that they may have feelings of isolation,” says Sara Russo, marketing manager of Automattic. “We pair people with a mentor in a similar time zone when they first join, so they have a designated person to chat with if they have questions about how we operate, or if they just want to chat.”

That’s why it’s super important to find out if your job candidates have worked remotely in the past — and more importantly, if they were successful at it and enjoyed it. It can make all the difference between having a happy, productive remote worker — or not.

4. You Might Have to Do Some Micromanaging 

You might discover that you’ll need to be a little more thorough while you interview candidates. A high level of attention to detail will help you, though, and possibly prevent you from hiring the wrong person and having to restart the recruiting process all over again.

“You’ll need to find an independent self-starter who is decisive and disciplined with time management skills,” says Kristin Thomas, director of employer engagement at FlexJobs.

You might not know right away if the person is self-motivated, and that’s when giving your final-round candidates mock assignments and/or deadlines to complete tasks can give you great insight as to whether a job candidate will work out for your company.

5. Communication Is Key

During the hiring process, communication is crucial to hiring the right remote worker. It ensures that your potential employee understands the ins and outs of the position, believes in your company’s mission, and can successfully perform the duties of the position.

“You have to be very deliberate about how you communicate,” says Leif Singer, dead of product at iDoneThis. “You have to communicate more and [more clearly]. That takes some getting used to, but in the end, I think [it] is a benefit for everyone because we learn how to be better communicators — and that’s helpful in so many more settings than just remote work.”

Although it might feel at times that you’re overcommunicating, taking the time to clarify any issues pre-hiring can ensure that you’ll bring the right employee into the company every time.

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There are definitely challenges when it comes to hiring remote workers, but by knowing some of the potential pitfalls ahead of time, you can make sure that you recruit the best remote worker possible for the position.

Readers, what challenges do you face when hiring remote workers? Tell us about it in the comments below!