Remote Job Interview Process

The interviewers also found it was easier to take notes during the call without it being awkward. And the candidates seemed more comfortable taking part in the interview in spaces they were familiar with. In the last two blog posts, we talked about how we rethought our backend engineering challenge as a way of improving numbers for recruitment. In the same vein, this post talks about how we changed our hiring strategies to adapt to hiring remotely during COVID-19.

Most of the candidates who go through this don’t work out – and we have had some really great people who just didn’t work out for a variety of reasons. During this time we offer a lot of support, because most new team members want to do well—they just don’t always know how. So we work closely with them to carefully evaluate their abilities, but also give them the tools to be successful at our company. At the end of the 60 days, if we aren’t 100% sure it is the right fit, we will cancel their agreement. This has saved us an extremely large amount of time, as we avoid spending months integrating someone into the company, only to find out they were never really the right fit all along. The candidate speaks to HR first, who fully vets them as qualified, desirable potential team members before arranging a call with us, the owners.

Successfully Onboarding New Hires

Ryan Malone, founder and CEO at SmartBug Media, says that reluctance to use some of those tools is often a matter of confidence. So, he encourages supporting employees who feel less tech-savvy through mentorship, small videos, exercises and small wins where they can build momentum. Hope Weatherford, Head of Talent Attraction at InVision, shares some inside tips on how they run interviews at the final stages. As she explains, they’ve chosen to run brief interview sessions not only with team members the candidate will work directly with, but also cross-functional teams, from various levels. One-way video interviews are pre-recorded, so you can evaluate them at any time, at your own convenience. We believe that the collective sum of our life experiences, knowledge, inventiveness, innovation, self-expression, unique capabilities, and talent makes up the core of our company culture.

• This practice is one part of asynchronous working, and it’s a large reason Remote has been able to scale our global teams so quickly without compromising on talent or fit.
• Final-round candidates have the “Why You Don’t Want to Work Here” call.
• But you don’t feel as fulfilled as your friends in North America.
• A good idea would be to create a guide with useful tips on how candidates can prepare for a video interview.
• Unfortunately, during a remote interview, many of these non-verbal cues are not easily observable.
• Especially with virtual teams, people come from diverse locations and backgrounds.

This is one of the last stages in the recruitment process, and it’s a good chance for us to clarify our processes and for the applicant to ask us questions. This is a great way to break the ice and let candidates get a sense of our culture starting with the first time they meet our recruiter. Right off the bat, they can see it’s not your typical corporate background. Final-round candidates have the “Why You Don’t Want to Work Here” call. It’s not a “cheerleader” session; team members are honest and upfront about the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Should A Remote Time

Wearing your pajamas, or casual home clothing does not translate into a professional candidate. It is not the first impression you want to make on a future employer. One difference with a remote interview is that you can have a writing material nearby to make your own notes and record important information. In any remote scenario, clear communication is of utmost importance and you need to ensure that the details are given properly.

Every person who interviews with Goodway starts with a phone screen with our recruiter. Then we require Skype video interviews for all interviews with a hiring manager in a different location from the candidate. For all client-facing sales or executive positions, we fly candidates to meet in person with the hiring manager. The application process for remote workers occurs entirely online, and it concludes with a video interview. This is a bit different from the hiring process for on-site workers, as we conduct more extensive in-person interviews for these positions.

Start By Reviewing Your Current Interview Process

While in the former, the technical skills would be the most important, in the latter you’d want someone who is able to learn quickly. Towards the end, inform the candidate of the time the hiring process is likely to take and when they can hear from you next. Load your set questions into your async interview platform for all candidates. Jaclyn Westlake worked as an agency recruiter and an HR manager in the startup, tech, and finance space for nearly 10 years before branching out into resume writing, freelance recruiting, and career advising.

Your interview process is the first impression that potential hires get of your company. Taking these tips to heart will make your company competitive in a tight job market and adapt to the huge growth in remote work. In the past, we had all of a candidate’s interviews scheduled onsite for the same day at our SoundCloud office space. As we moved to a full remote work environment, we made all the interviews virtual. Virtual interviews made us more flexible, as we could spread the interviews across multiple days to better accommodate the availability of the candidates and interviewers. Just like with in-person interviews, develop a standardized system in which you rate each candidate’s qualifications for the position. Use this rating system to keep track of how each candidate performs during the virtual interview process.

Tools And Resources For Hiring Remotely

While the ease of clicking a link to join a meeting seems like it should be a quick transition, it’s always worth giving yourself at least a 20-minute buffer between calls. This short break will allow time for run-overs, meeting prep, a quick appearance check, or the opportunity to refill your water bottle. We hire all over the world, with hundreds of employees in dozens of countries. We have seen the benefits of a people-first, action-oriented approach to recruiting for ourselves, and we encourage other organizations to see for themselves how valuable a more thoughtful strategy can be. A candidate is always welcome to ask for a time more suitable to their time zone. Work internally to see who in your team has the closest availability if you have no overlap with the candidate’s time zone. Don’t encourage the candidate to schedule in the middle of their night; this won’t be a good experience for them or you.

Keep your candidates fully informed at every stage of the hiring process, and when in doubt, over-communicate. There is usually one hiring manager who leads the process and does all/most of the CV reviews and screening calls. We spend time on both culture and values click as well as professional ability. We make sure shortlisted people get more face time with other team members, especially the co-founders. We have role descriptions and interview plans for what we want to test built ahead, and team members share notes with each other after the rounds. We typically set up a room we use for the entire day so the candidate only has to remember/navigate to one place.

Present Yourself Well Through Your Attire And Background

It will ultimately showcase a person’s communication skills and ability to think on the spot. Whilst effective speaking is only one form of professional communication, it also allows new hires to develop strong relationships with their co-workers and establish themselves as valued members of your team. Based on the remote position that you’re hiring for, you can start by compiling a list of skills and traits that a new employee should possess.

To get involved in the conversation on Glassdoor and start managing and promoting your employer brand reputation, unlock your Free Employer Profile today. DO conduct a technology check 10 minutes prior to the start remote interview process of the remote interview to ensure the webcam is functioning properly and test the microphone sound. The final interview is the last step candidates experience before we ask for references and make an offer.

Filtering Candidates The Right Way

Before your interview, put some thought into your attire and setting. It might feel a bit ridiculous to show up to a Zoom interview from your living room in a suit jacket, but it’s still important to convey professionalism in your interview attire while remote. No matter what, stay calm and composed — remember, you’ll need to manage these types of instances on a semi-regular basis in a fully remote role anyway. You should be able to reschedule the interview for a different time without too much hassle if the tech just won’t cooperate. The research we mention at the beginning showed how bad hires impact companies’ incomes. The worst part of all is that a bad hire not only affects your budget but also it’s a waste of time and energy for you and your team.

They have a history of hiring effective engineers, experience running interviews, and technical depth in multiple areas. Out of the five aforementioned interview types, the latter three types were the simplest to make work in a remote setup because they mostly consist of a verbal dialogue.

Give The Interviewee Time To Answer

This metric is important to identify the loopholes in your remote hiring process and targets areas of improvement. Before you send out your first calendar invitation, determine whether the interview will be a video or a phone call. Though it might seem counterintuitive, not every interview needs to be a video https://remotemode.net/ chat. Allowing yourself and your candidate to connect across different mediums will help you diversify your understanding of their fit for the role. When you partner with Horizons, we accelerate the hiring process by identifying and matching your organization to the world’s most talented remote professionals.

It’s never an easy shift moving from in-person operations to remote recruiting. You can eliminate much of the confusion and errors that come from this transition by using reliable tools. It’s important to give your candidates time to prepare for the virtual interview rather than scheduling a meeting for the same day. Giving candidates the opportunity to prepare ensures they are confident and at their best when you do hold the interview. This is also a professional courtesy and demonstrates your professionalism and thoughtfulness in terms of the interview process.

Tip #1: Keep Your Interview Process Structured

You need to give the candidate some space before and after they speak. So, when you have asked a question, do not expect them to start answering right away. Similarly, when they have finished an answer, or you think they have finished it, don’t start talking immediately. One, you will give the candidate enough space to start and finish a sentence. Second, it allows for the lag to be removed and get you both synced together instead of cutting each other off mid-interview. The steps you take while taking an interview are a mix of preparatory aspects and some impromptu topics. While you can prepare yourself to start asking the relevant questions, the further you move in an interview, the scope of being digressed increases.

We work with hundreds of companies who have been leaning into all-remote interviews long before 2020, such as InVision, Webflow, Mozilla, Elastic and GitLab. Greenhouse empowers teams of all sizes to hire great talent, no matter where you and your candidates are located. After the conclusion of your remote interview, ensure that you explain to candidates the next step in the process. Ask the candidate if they have any final questions and thank them for their time.When it comes to providing feedback, never leave candidates waiting for weeks – or indefinitely – with no answer. Video conferencing technologyenables hiring managers to ascertain more important details by viewing their interviews directly, as opposed to traditional phone interviews.