10 tips for hiring and onboarding remotely

BY: Sheila Cassidy and Asad Zaman

1. When you’re looking for talent, rethink your ideal candidate profile

We know the qualities that we typically look for in a hire from high DNA, a strong background, metrics to support it, the list goes on.

But also think about the people on your team that are thriving working from home. They are likely the ones that are calling you often to tell you about what is going on, asking questions when they are stuck, are agile and can adapt to new sets of circumstances seamlessly and they are without a doubt resourceful. 

So beyond thinking about the things you typically look for in a hire, consider what this candidate is going to need to be successful in this new normal that we are operating in. Check to see that they are excited to jump on video calls, that they are following up with you throughout the process, that they aren’t hesitating to ask for clarification when you reach the assignment stage. Ultimately you want to determine as best you can that this person has the ingredients to thrive remotely. 

2. When you’re interviewing, make up for lost intimacy

Interviews via video conferencing make perfect sense. We live in a day in age where we are fortunate to have so many tools that allow us to do our jobs remotely.

However, from your candidate’s perspective, they are missing out on the intimacy that they would typically get by meeting you in person. Your candidate won’t get the opportunity to sit in your lobby where they will inevitably try and get a sense of the office culture or informally meet your team during the interview process. These moments for your candidate help shape not just if there’s a fit professionally, but from a culture perspective as well. 

So we suggest that you humanize your interview as much as possible and provide intimacy in a different way. While on videoconferencing, give them a tour of your house, introduce them to your pets, your spouse or your kids. Give them a behind the scenes look to achieve the human connection that may seem watered down if you’re overly relying on technology to do it for you. You can’t give them a deeper look into your company, so give them a little more of your personal life to make up for it.

3. When you reach the assignment/role play stage, allow the candidate to guide the process

How we interact with clients have changed too, so evaluate whether your candidate can control a meeting virtually. When you’ve given them an assignment to present or a roleplay to prepare for, let them guide how they’d like to facilitate it, the same way you’d expect them to with your clients. When evaluating salespeople, one of the ways that we evaluate someone’s acumen is by asking them the simple question of: how did you prepare for this interview? What better way to assess the answer to that question than by seeing it for yourself. Were they thoughtful about their delivery? Did they send clear instructions on how to join the meeting? Were they prepared throughout? Did they have a contingency plan for the technology that they were using? Your best sales reps would ace this, so shouldn’t your potential hire? 

4. When you reach the offer stage, be prepared to answer questions about the health of your business

COVID-19 has impacted the economy on a global scale, so candidates that are exploring new opportunities will naturally be curious about the health of your business. Ultimately your new potential hire is trying to hedge his/her bets that they won’t be out of a job the second that they sign on. Making a career move is a huge decision, and one that will have a major impact on the person you are interviewing, so our advice is to stray away from overembilishing and to be as transparent as possible. Lastly, as you speak to the state of your business today and into the future, speak to what you are hiring for and why those hires are important for the company’s growth.

5. When you’ve made your new hire, engage them with your team

Beyond regular morning meetings, host a meet and greet so that the team can meet your new hire in a creative way. There are so many innovative apps out there, from jackbox.tv to house party, that allow for a social vibe that will allow people to get to know each other in the same vein as grabbing drinks after work. One of the other great ideas that we heard was a remote team lunch, where the company buys Uber Eats for the team and you lunch via video conferencing. You should plan to organize this during your new hire’s first week so that they can meet their team members and start feeling like they are part of a larger collective. 

6. When you’re getting ready for their first stay, overplan

You can have all the good intentions in the world to ensure that your new hire has a good experience, but without a good, solid plan put in place you are setting the both of you for failure. The first thing you’ll want to do is make sure that you have an onboarding lead whose job is to ensure that things are executed properly. You will likely have a lot of people involved in the onboarding process, but one person should be responsible for the overall communication and quality control to ensure accountability and avoid confusion. 

Before your new hire starts:

1. Prepare a schedule (template available here) that clearly maps out what their first week will look like 
2. Ensure that everyone who is involved in the onboarding process is aware of your new hire’s schedule and knows what they are responsible for 
3. Set the expectation to the onboarding facilitators that all training should be done via video conferencing 
4. Send calendar invites that clearly outline what will be covered, how to prepare for the session as well as conference call details and 
5. Consider investing in onboarding and enablement solutions so that the process runs smoothly, feels professional, is engaging and is scalable (more on that below).

7. When your new hire is learning, touchbase often

Working in an office affords the luxury of casually checking in with your team’s progress throughout the day, which affords a luxury we simply do not have right now. Moreover, micromanaging is something leaders tend to avoid so saying something along the lines of “my door is always open, let me know if you need any help” to your team may be your approach. Our advice is to fight that instinct and schedule regular daily touch points. Conversations should revolve around what goals that person has for the day and should be beyond a simple KPI metric. If you’re looking to make 30 calls, what exactly do you want to get out of those 30 calls? It may seem like overkill, but we can assure you that it is not. These touchpoints will help on so many levels.

8. When you’re evaluating the process, don’t forget to ask your main stakeholder for feedback

When you’re building your new online framework, there are going to be big picture goals and small details that will inevitably consume the process, but don’t forget to ask for honest feedback from your new hire on how their experience was. As a team, you’ll also have this simple question: did this work? Consider administering a quiz to your new hire at the end of onboarding to see how they digested all the information that you shared with them (online tools to help below). This can be a great validating tool as well to show that in spite of not being in the office, they’ve come a long way in learning the ropes.

9. When you’re scaling out the process, explore technologies to help you

In speaking with business leaders, there have been many technologies that have helped them interview, onboard and stay engaged with their employees. Our recommendation is to pick a couple that will help you immediately instead of investing in technology for the sake of investing in technology. 

10. All throughout, remember that this is a new normal and we are all just looking for the light switch in the dark 

Do your best to plan as much as possible and then forgive yourself (and your team) for the inevitable oversights and mistakes that you make. We are all learning this together and we will get better each and every time. Approach remote hiring and onboarding with thoughtfulness, execute well and with strong communication, reflect on how it could be better throughout and make small adjustments quickly. Learn from your teammates, connect with your network, and let us know if you ever want to bounce some ideas, we’re happy to help.