Remote jobs are on the rise. Thankfully, remote hiring doesn’t require big changes to how hiring teams operate. Just a few tweaks.
Remote working is trending up. More and more companies are turning to remote hiring in response to the changing views and desires of modern workers. And while some companies have held off so far, virtually all companies now find themselves in need of remote hiring skills.
Your recruiting team doesn’t have to dramatically change how they do things to succeed at remote hiring. But your method matters. You need to tailor the job descriptions you write for remote jobs and add a couple of tweaks to your processes. These are simple tips, but they can make or break your remote hiring efforts.
1. Add a city and state, and ‘or remote’
All job descriptions─even for remote jobs─need a location, for two reasons. One, job seekers search by city and state. Two, job boards use the city and state candidates enter to find results. Candidates rarely find jobs that don’t have a location. In fact, jobs with a valid city and state appear in searches 10x more than ones without.
Include a city and state in the location field of the job no matter what. Add ‘or Remote’ after the city and state for remote positions. Adding ‘or Remote’ lets candidates know that the job is remote without messing with job board search engines.
Some applicant tracking systems (ATSs) enable hiring teams to write multiple job posts for a single requisition. If yours does, you can target candidates in different talent markets simply by putting different cities in the location field of each of your posts.
2. Discuss remote hiring in the job description
You’ve gone to the trouble of describing the job in detail, especially in the requirements section. If the end goal is for candidates to understand the job clearly, go ahead and discuss its remote nature as well. Tell them about it in the job description.
Tell prospective candidates:
If your remote culture is unique enough, you may want more space than you have on a job description to describe it. However, it’s best to keep the job description to only the copy you need to convey clarity about the job. For example, around 400 words for an entry-level position, around 700 for a senior role. But feel free to add copy to your company careers page, write a blog post, or bring up your remote working culture in interviews.
Something else to consider including (this one is up to you) is the steps candidates can expect in your hiring process. How long your hiring process typically takes, how many interviews they can expect, and whether you’ll ask them complete a project (also if you’ll pay them for the project). You can, of course, just put these on the careers page of your website rather than in the job post.
3. Use remote job boards
Not all sourcing platforms are great at finding remote candidates. If your chosen job board shows posts that have the word ‘remote’ in either the location field or anywhere in the body of the job description, you’re fine. Indeed works that way, and LinkedIn now has ‘remote’ search functionality.
But if your job board can’t do remote search, you may need to look elsewhere. There are lots of job boards like FlexJobs and We Work Remotely aimed specifically at candidates looking for remote work.
Another option is to target certain areas. If you can identify key talent markets for the types of skills you’re looking for, you can pick sourcing platforms or job boards that work well in those markets.
4. Track your results
Whatever approach your hiring team decides to take, it’s important to track your results. Keeping an eye on your talent pipeline helps you understand how well or poorly your new hiring efforts are doing.
This is particularly important if you’re transitioning a lot of jobs from onsite to remote positions. When you’re trying out new strategies, you need to know in real time which ones are working and which aren’t (e.g., different sourcing platforms). Are you getting more applications, more diverse candidates, more qualified candidates? How are your remote jobs doing overall? A data-driven approach will better inform your remote hiring efforts.
Simple, yet vital remote hiring tips
Remote jobs are on the rise, and even companies that were averse to telecommuting in the past are now getting in on the act. Thankfully, remote hiring efforts don’t require big changes to how hiring teams work. They just take a few simple tweaks.
One, include a city and state in the location field of your job postings. Two, talk about the remote nature of the position right in the job description. Three, use remote job boards, which are better at finding remote workers. And, four, measure your talent pipeline to understand what hiring efforts are working and which aren’t. Take those steps, and you’ll attract larger, more qualified, and more diverse candidate pools for your remote positions.
