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Challenges of Remote Working / Hiring the Right People

Challenges of Remote Working / Hiring the Right People
Challenges of Remote Working / Hiring the Right People

Last week we looked at how distributed teams are the future of how we work today in the face of globalization and agility. This is part 2 in this 5 part series on the challenges of distributed teams. One of the biggest challenges to overcome is being able to learn and understand how to hire the right people for your company.

Credit http://www.takacslearningcenter.com/stephen-r-covey/
Credit http://www.takacslearningcenter.com/stephen-r-covey/

"If you can hire people whose passion intersects with the job, they won't require any supervision at all. They will manage themselves better than anyone could ever manage them. Their fire comes from within, not from without. Their motivation is internal, not external." - Stephen Covey, author of The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People

Challenges:

  1. Hard to tell character and work ethic through a series of video interviews, phone interviews and skills tests.
  2. Hiring becomes a longer process.
  3. Hard to monitor productivity when a new hire is so far away from you.

Not a problem!

The best way to learn how to hire the right people for your company is to rush the process and actually end up hiring the wrong people for your company. It sucks as you quickly learn when someone is not a good fit and you eventually have to let them go. So hopefully this helps you save yourself the time and heartache of hiring the wrong people. Yes, it's tough to judge someone's character and work ethic through a series of interviews and skills tests where they might excel and really look great on paper, but when it comes to actually getting the job done and working well with the team…whatever show was put on during the interview and whatever was said on that piece of paper - aka the CV/Resume - can be very misleading.*

Credit http://www.webberandgrinnell.com/whats-new/archive/hire-your-way-to-a-safer-workplace
Credit http://www.webberandgrinnell.com/whats-new/archive/hire-your-way-to-a-safer-workplace

*But here are a few good resume examples.

The suggestion is to not rush the process, take the time to see that this person can fulfil the required level of experience and expectations of that role, and to never feel pressured you have to choose a candidate from your initial pool of applicants. Have more than just one interview to engage more with the candidate and get a feel for that "click", where you can say "Absolutely, yes!" to the question "Could I see myself working with this person or getting stuck with them at an airport for eight hours?". So let's say they pass all of that with flying colors and you decide to bring them on, the next step is to initiate a probationary period where they are working hands-on with the company and team. This is where you can really tell if it is a good match or not. I go with 3 months, but you can usually already tell within the first couple of weeks.

Credit http://www.tonygareri.com/hiring-good-people-is-easy-hiring-great-people-is-tough/
Credit http://www.tonygareri.com/hiring-good-people-is-easy-hiring-great-people-is-tough/

Hiring shouldn't be a rushed process. It should be systemized and especially for early on when hiring team members to a startup, it is even more critical to take the time to pick the right people at this early stage. It's a matter of making or breaking your business. However, I'd suggest working with a recruiting partner or a service or even utilizing recruitment software. A few that Mailbird has worked with is Geek Hunter and Livit.

Credit Georgi Georgiev from coupofy.com
Credit Georgi Georgiev from coupofy.com

We've got more on the way, all the way up to the final part on the challenge of monitoring productivity when your team members are on the other end of the world…continue reading for how we make it happen at Mailbird in the next 3 parts of The Challenges of Remote Working.

BONUS!

Want to know more about this remote work phenomenon? Read "Distributed Teams, Systems & Culture: Finding success with a distributed workforce"