How To Build Remote Teams

Hiring people to work with is about finding people with similar psychology.

There isn’t one way to do this. Here are some ideas to help you as you go about developing and refining your hiring process.

Try them out for yourself.

A. Scorecard

A scorecard is not a job description (I’m going to assume your job description is…. bad), a scorecard is your written criteria. Almost like a set of features that you are seeking in this hire.

After you write a job description you should be able to create a scorecard and write interview questions that help to assess a candidate and their level of skill in an area.

No more than 10 things go on your scorecard. Less is more. The team at Zapier gives a good visual of a scorecard in this post.

B. Source

Where you look for people is important. But it really depends on your scorecard.

There are job boards, professional networks, sites like Hacker news and Quora, and even in person meetup groups. More than finding out where technical people hangout online you have to go a step further,

“Where do the people with similar personalities, traits, or details hangout?”

Your scorecard can serve as a compass to help you find your way to the source. Find the right fish by fishing in the right ponds.

C. Select

Once you determine your scorecard and source for finding candidates, you must begin talking to them and select a few. Your scorecard helps you make decisions based on the role you are looking to fill.

Don’t discard people because they don’t fit what you’re looking for today.

Add them to your network. People can grow and change, they might be someone you want to work with later on.

D. Sell

People ask, “how do you sell a job to someone?”

It’s not complicated. Interviews give you the opportunity to ask the right questions and listen carefully to their responses. Quality interview questions are designed to assess a candidate’s skills. But they can also be used to identify their experience gaps, interests, and needs.

Use gaps and interests as starting points for the sell stage of the process. You should easily be able to show how the role aligns with their interests and needs.

If you cannot see alignment, there is not a match.

People think recruiting is only about a getting a candidate a new title or more money. Effective recruiting is about the little things and making sure they line up. (click to tweet)

Time is not the most important thing.

E. Hire For Excellence

When you first hire remote workers you must hire for excellence. You need people that are great at working remotely. People that deliver.

In time maybe you can hire someone to mentor and develop. This is not the case early on, you must hire for excellence not potential.

F. Trust

What good is finding a skilled person for a job if you can’t trust them?

If you want to hire someone to second guess and micromanage, do you really need the smartest person in the World?

G. Agree On Communication Channels

Clarity is key in remote situations. A few ground rules go a long way in preventing situations caused by a failure to communicate.

H. Hire Writers

The best remote workers are skilled writers. Who are thoughtful and concise in their communications. This makes them effective at getting things done right the first time.

They also know when and how to ask for help.

I. Clearly Define Your Values And Culture

Few companies practice the values that hang on an office wall.

If you are working to create an awesome remote company you have to be clear about what you value and the culture you want to create. Then communicate them. These strong beliefs train you to always make a hire based on culture fit.

J. Hire People Who Are Self Motivated

Workers who require someone to motivate them daily will struggle in a remote setting. Instead, hire people who are self motivated.

Look for people with experience freelancing, starting a business, or who have worked as a consultant. Ask questions about how they stay organized, what systems they use, and what their daily work process is like.

What routines do you follow?

K. Commit

Working remote and managing people remotely requires buy in and commitment from everyone. Commit to managing remote people and be willing to travel as often as necessary to bridge the gaps.

L. Communicate

Communication is crucial in remote work..

More importantly what you communicate. Your people need to know that you trust them to do the role they were hired for.

M. Crafting Experience Is A Major Key

Not everyone sees hiring or recruiting the same way. For many it’s just a thing you do to get a seat filled. If you made it this far you agree ,”I’m not one of those people”.

Hiring is crucial and it’s important to focus on crafting the entire experience. Not just candidate experience but the entire experience.

Companies that build products with amazing experiences always outperform the competition.

N. Onboard Effectively

Finding and hiring the right person to work remote gets you to 80% of your goal.

The final piece is effectively onboarding this person. Make sure they receive their equipment and all of their logins without issue. Create a process to pair them with a partner or team member to fully integrate them as a member of the team.

A checklist is not onboarding.