How to Conduct a Remote Interview: 12 Proven Best Practices

During the remote hiring process, be specific about your goals and what you want from the role. Rather than pushing on working hours, ask your candidates their usual methodologies and tools. Focussing on the quality of deliveries and due dates, rather than counting every minute, is a better strategy to help your team members manage time and avoid distractions. When you start with your remote hiring process, you need to make sure that the job ad you’re writing explains clearly what the position is about and what are the skills required. Also, explain shortly what your company does and believes (without making an entire testament). This way, you’ll avoid candidates that don’t have what it takes to apply or candidates that don’t align with your company.

If a job offers remote work, many employers will assume that you know this and find it attractive. Now that we’ve gotten some basic remote interview setup out of the way, let’s talk about how to truly stand out and impress in your remote interview. As a way to keep the interview flowing, try to maintain a structured conversation with the remote interview meaning candidate, just as you would with a standard interview. Make sure that you not only have the candidate’s resume in front of you but that you also have a list of pre-determined questions ready to ask. Being clear and upfront about your core mission will screen out non-cultural fit candidates likely to lose interest soon or over time.

The Remote Hiring Process

This is not always the case, even as more organizations list hybrid and remote job opportunities; in fact, the process may include phone calls, video interviews, and online assessment tests. Even for people who are familiar with technology, video interviews can be a bit intimidating if they’re used to being in an office setting. That’s why getting them comfortable https://remotemode.net/ with the remote hiring process is essential. Prior to a remote interview, hiring managers should inform candidates of every person who will be attending the interview, their roles within the team, and the specifics of what they’ll be addressing. A good idea would be to create a guide with useful tips on how candidates can prepare for a video interview.

• And it’s more essential in a remote interview, simply because so many candidates apply, and many do so only to secure remote work.
• A hiring freeze – whether it’s due to a global crisis like COVID-19 or internal company processes – is an uncomfortable situation.
• Ryan Malone, founder and CEO at SmartBug Media, says that reluctance to use some of those tools is often a matter of confidence.

By now, you’ve likely discovered the advantages of conducting a remote interview. “I’d prefer to have the option of an office a few times a week so that I have some human connection,” she says. When Cat, 30, was offered a fully remote role last year, she didn’t think twice about accepting. By then, Cat, who lives in London and works in environmental services, had already been working mostly remotely for some time as a result of the pandemic. To see how our one-way interview software can improve your screening interview process, request a free demo of Hireflix today. That’s why you want to evaluate both hard and soft skills during every step of the interview process.

Focus and listen actively

If multiple people are online in a house at the same time, this can occasionally cause delays with video conferencing tools. To address such issues, you can opt to disable the video function on the application you’re using during the interview. This way you’ll still be able to maintain a conversation with the candidate, albeit without the visuals. Alternatively, you can reschedule the remote interview at a time when fewer people are online. While you may think it’s easier to be interviewed over the phone, there are still some challenges to prepare for. For instance, the absence of body language and facial expressions during a phone interview makes it tougher to let the hiring manager know you’re actively engaged in the conversation.

While someone who fits your company culture can increase productivity and enthusiasm, bad hires are expensive, drain energies, kill productivity, and, in the long run,  drag the company down. Before starting your remote interview process, always evaluate the reasons why you want to hire someone. This will help you establish the exact position and role the new person will have, and it will be easier to look for skills when making the hiring decision.

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Managing your time, collaborating from a distance, and troubleshooting technical difficulties are valuable skills. Nicola Hemmings is a workplace scientist at mental healthcare provider Koa Health. She says that the lack of human connection that Cat has struggled with is a common complaint. She points out that the pandemic sparked a “rapidly growing mental health crisis”, and that even those who have fully embraced a move to remote work might not be exempt.