Tips for Hiring and Managing Remote Employees

When it comes to hiring and managing remote employees, there are a few tips that can help you out. Hiring remote employees is a great way to get the skills your business needs without having to pay hefty relocation costs. For example, you’d need to find somebody that’s good with numbers and has a lot of experience with Excel sheets. You might not have these skills locally, and the person who has them would need some time to find an apartment, establish themselves in a new city, etc.

You probably already know that hiring and managing remote employees can be a challenge, but with these tips, you’ll have a better chance of success. Check out our list below to find out what they are.

1) Make sure your employees know your processes

It’s important to make sure that your employees have a good idea of what is expected when it comes to storing company data. For example, if you are using Office 365, your new hire should know how to access this and know the importance, as failure to use the correct platform can lead to loss of company data.

If you are reliant on a remote team, then you should also ensure your Office 365 backup is saved separately.

2) Know what you’re looking for

There are a lot of different ways to hire remote employees. You might need someone to be good with numbers and Excel sheets, while they might need someone to design websites, perform marketing research, or put together presentations. If you don’t know exactly what you’re looking for in an employee, it’s hard to find the right person.

3) Make your website easy to navigate

Keep your homepage on your website as simple as possible. A lot of people have trouble figuring out how to get on a company’s site, and the longer it takes them to do that, the higher the chance they’ll become frustrated and leave without applying for that job.

4) Give people a reason to apply

If you’re going to be hiring people for your business, you’ll need a way to get those people in contact with you. If the only thing on your website is a job posting and nothing else, it’s really easy for someone to get frustrated and leave without applying. You should have a way for them to contact you directly from your website if possible. If not, put a note on there that says something like, “If you’re interested in working with us, please give us a call at (XXX) XXX-XXXX.”

You can always ask applicants who do start the process of finding employment through your site what their experience was like when they applied.

5) Give applicants a chance

It’s human nature to be skeptical when you see increasing numbers of applicants. Make sure you’re decreasing your fears and giving people the chance to prove they belong in the position they’re applying for. If there are hundreds of applicants, do some quick screening on their profiles and then let them know whether or not you’d like to move forward with their applications.

6) Communicate effectively

When a remote employee is hired, it’s really important to be able to communicate effectively with that person without having to physically meet with them in person. If you’re going to be hiring remote employees, make sure you’re paying attention to how well they handle communicating the information from day one.

Paying attention to what the remote employee needs is going to help make sure the entire team feels comfortable working together. If you can make it easy for them to do their job from anywhere in the world, they’re going to work harder than someone who has to travel every few weeks or months.

7) Invest in employee time tracking 

Managing remote employees is more challenging if you also need to manually calculate total hours, track paid time off (PTO), and perform other related human resources (HR) tasks. Instead of focusing on your employees and customers, you spend much time on these administrative tasks. That’s when employee time tracking comes into play.

With time card apps, you can streamline your payroll and manage employee timesheets without manual calculation and hassle. In addition, you can increase remote employee accountability with time card apps. They can use the employee time tracking app to apply for PTO, track hours worked, and other payroll and HR concerns, even if they’re not tech-savvy.  

Managers can use the time card app to contact remote employees and support onboarding or new hires through private messaging or sending push notifications all at once without requiring email accounts. Hence, managers can improve remote team collaboration and provide better support and engagement. 

Conclusion

Hiring and managing remote employees involves careful planning and strategy execution with the help of technology. While no tip or strategy can fit all, considering the discussed topics above can help you seamlessly manage remote employees and ensure they’re aligned with your company culture and overall goals.