RWL 012 How to Optimize Remote Hiring and Enhance Your Company’s Reputation

Remote Work Hiring Best Practices

Speaker 1

0:00

Hey, it's Alex from Remote Work Life. I hope you're well. The Remote Work Life podcast is where remote professionals from around the world come to learn how to grow a remote career or business from those who know the world of remote work best. I'll share interviews from CEOs, leaders and entrepreneurs and talk to you about the benefits of remote work so you know what to expect and how to kickstart your remote work life. So you know what to expect and how to kickstart your remote work life. Welcome to you all.

Speaker 1

0:28

And today, something slightly different. I want to get something off my chest which has been bugging me for quite a long time, and I just haven't had the forum, I suppose, or I haven't really thought of how I should communicate this, but I thought the podcast would be a great medium to do that, and that thing that is bugging me is the whole aspect of hiring. So if you are either hiring now or planning to do so in the future, this is a podcast that you should listen to. Just a few thoughts from me. It's not going to be anything too long at all, but even if you're not hiring, if you are looking to be hired or at least to to get a job within a remote business, then I think you should listen as well, because this will give you some ideas to what to expect, or the very least what you should expect from somebody who is hiring. So I you know, I hear and see a lot of stories online of people really getting annoyed with the hiring process. So if you're a hiring manager or if you've hired in the past, then you really need to listen up, because lots of people can get annoyed with the hiring process for a number of reasons. Just a few thoughts to share with you here. One of the first thoughts is don't start before you're ready, because essentially what you're doing is, if you're opening up the floodgates and you get lots of questions, you get lots of extra work on your hands that you're not ready to deal with.

Speaker 1

1:50

If you imagine the hiring process as somebody setting up, if you imagine yourself as the hirer, what you're essentially doing is you're creating an invitation. It's almost like creating an invitation to your house and not putting any sort of details on the invitation. You don't put a date on it, you don't put any details about what's going to happen or where it's going to happen or who's going to be there. Obviously, the people who read the invitation are going to be a bit frustrated, and your invitation is something that you're going to be sharing with literally everybody in the world, especially if're posting it online. So the last thing you want is to frustrate people. And just going back a little bit actually, because when you're hiring, it's all about building a positive view of your brand and which will hopefully, in the long run, help you to save time and money in the future and make applicants feel at ease and welcome as well. That's another thing and that's where this whole invitation analogy came in from me.

Speaker 1

2:49

But, um, don't start before you're ready because, as I said, it opens up the floodgates and you're going to get lots of questions and lots of extra work on your hands. So be ready and make sure everybody else who's involved in your business uh, in your team is also ready as well, because you never know when a stray call may come their way, or you know, you never know when they may need to deal with something in your absence, so make sure everybody who needs to know is in the know. The next thought I had was be ready to answer questions. As I said, this is linked to don't start before you're ready, but be ready to answer questions. As I said, this is linked to don't start before you're ready, but be ready to answer questions and talk about the business. You need to be able to talk about the people. You need to be able to talk about the team, the role as well, and you know you need to be able to answer questions like I don't know. Tell me about your business. Has anyone worked in this role before? What are the? What your plans for the business for the future? What your plans for the team for the future? Why are you hiring now? These are all questions that you should be able to answer off the top of your head and quite easily, so that you just put people's mind at ease, reassure people who are applying to the job. So that's another thought for you there.

Speaker 1

4:07

Also, have a process in place to deal with responses and communicate with applicants so they know where they stand as well, and you ideally want to have a real person dealing with these responses. You want to designate somebody to you know. Be on the phone, for example, if people are ringing in or dealing with email or instant messenger applications, because I think that really gives a good impression of your business from the get-go. If somebody is, you know who is flesh and blood, who's in real life dealing with all these applications, then the business shows and you show a real human side and it really puts again people's minds at ease. When you put people's minds at ease and you begin to invest in your reputation and invest in making sure you do this, this kind of thing, in the right way, then what you find is people start to talk about you in a positive way. You may even get people starting to who start to talk about you in a positive way. You may even get people who start to follow you on your social platforms. They'll start to share things about your business and in that sense, you're multiplying the effect of the whole hiring process because you may get people sharing your information with people who might be appropriate for the role that you're hiring for. So, again, as I said, you're saving yourself time, you're saving yourself money, you're creating advocates for your business in the process.

Speaker 1

5:35

So, yeah, have a process in place to deal with responses and communicate with applicants so they know where they stand and, like I said, ideally have a real person doing that sort of thing for you. So the next thought I had was communicate your timeline so that the applicants know when the role opens, when the closing date is expected, when the interviews take place, when a decision will be made. Have all those things at least written down and communicate those things with the appropriate people on the appropriate places, because, again, that helps applicants to manage their own expectations, to manage their own processes, to manage their diary etc. And it just really gives a good impression that you know you're organized, you're managing everything, you're on top of everything and you know you'll get basically, you'll get fewer questions coming your way if people know what to expect. So that's another thought for you and my final thought.

Speaker 1

6:32

As I said, this is just a few thoughts for you. It's not necessarily everything, but it's just the basics, really the basics that people expect, I think, at the very least. And of course you know if you think of any more things, let me know. But, um, these are just a. This is just the last point of a list of basic things. So the last point I had on my list was communicate with people who have been unsuccessful, because that's another thing that you might perhaps not have considered is that people who are not successful, obviously they're going to have a they're going to feel, you know they're going to feel disgruntled, they're going to feel frustrated, they're going to feel rejected. There's nothing like being rejected, there's no worse feeling than being rejected.

Speaker 1

7:15

And certain people handle that rejection in different ways. Some people might rant about it. Some people might talk about it from a point of view of learning for them, about it, from a point of view of a learning learning for them. Others, as I said, might be just quite negative about the whole process or the whole experience, the whole candidate experience, I suppose you could call it. So if you can some some way, in some way sort of um, um, make that experience, make that experience of rejection a little bit easy for them to grasp, then again you'll be making your brand, your reputation, all the more attractive to them, even though they've been rejected.

Speaker 1

7:57

And again, on the point of view of time and money, it may be that the people that you've rejected are not suitable for this particular role, or the role that you're hiring right now are not suitable for this particular role, or you know the role that you're hiring right now. It may be that they are suitable for roles in the future. So if you don't provide feedback and rejection in the right way, then they're probably not going to want to apply or, you know, engage with you in the future when you're hiring the next time around. So you know, it does take time, it does take a lot of effort, but I think it saves you time if you, you know, reply to those people that are asking for feedback or at least, in a proactive way, provide feedback where you can, and if you've got a team to do that, all the better. If not, just take your time to do it yourself. And yeah, that's all I have for you for the time being.

Speaker 1

8:49

But, as I said, if you think of anything more, or if you've had a bad experience yourself where you've been through a process of applying for jobs, or interviews and jobs, that sort of thing, and it hasn't worked out how you've wanted, let us know in the comments how that, how that went for you.

Speaker 1

9:07

Like I said, if you are somebody who's listening, who is applying or in the process, at least, of applying for jobs or looking for a role, these are the things that, as I think, as a bare minimum, the companies that you're applying to should be doing, and if they're not doing these things, you should begin to really question them and question their ability to organize and their ability to create a good atmosphere and a good reputation, etc.

Speaker 1

9:37

Because it all sort of connects, it's all interconnecting, it all sort of connects, it's all interconnecting. So use these things in your process of doing your due diligence and really sort of understanding the companies that you're approaching. And if you're hiring, please I really ask you to make that experience for candidates better. Make it better, because if you can make the risk experience for them better, as I said, they'll talk about you in in good, in good terms, they'll share, they'll like, they'll comment, you know, and it will all add to a better reputation for you and saving you time and money in the future. So, yeah, if you've liked this podcast, please, uh, leave me a five star rating, leave me some comments below, as I said, to let me know your thoughts and let me know your questions as well, and look out for another episode of the remote work life podcast.