When hiring remote employees, the goal should always be to create a talent destination at your organization. In the world of recruiting, talent destinations are those companies known for their ability to attract and retain top candidates. 

Best practices for hiring remote employees are intimately bound to your ability to provide good candidate experiences when hiring. According to Recruiting.com: “The candidate experience is the series of interactions that a job seeker has with your company throughout the recruiting process. These interactions include any communication that a candidate receives from your brand messaging, software systems and/or employees.” 

To create a talent destination at your organization, here are the best practices for hiring remote employees: 

Implement an applicant tracking system (ATS)  

Applicant tracking system (ATS) software is a great tool for keeping tabs on open jobs and candidate submissions. With an ATS, your hiring managers can quickly check the status of any open job. They can also see where candidates are in the hiring pipeline, while also reading notes from recruiters about interactions with these applicants. Having this critical information on hand through an ATS will lead to better communication with remote candidates. 

Choose online work tools  

Since remote employees work 100% on the Internet, it's a good idea to consider which online tools you will be implementing. In turn, you should keep these tools at the front of your mind when deciding on qualifications for the job. For example, you might want to consider if you will use Google Workspace or Microsoft Teams, or whether you will communicate with email messages or Slack. 

Develop an interview pipeline   

The next best practice for hiring remote employees is to develop a hiring pipeline. This begins with deciding on a hiring manager who will oversee interviewing efforts for each role. Next, plan out each step of the interview process - including phone calls, video meetings, skill assessments, and more. When it comes time to start recruiting, candidates will be impressed by the speed, efficiency, and smoothness of your business. 

Help with interview preparation  

The best way to get a good look at a candidate’s skills and personality in an interview is to help them prepare. When candidates are surprised or unprepared, they tend to get more stressed out about the process than the actual interview. That being said, giving remote candidates an outline of what to expect when interviewing can go a long way toward creating positive experiences and making better hires.

Hire a recruiter   

Working with a recruiting agency like Magic Pace will benefit your remote hiring practices in several ways. Not only do recruiters have access to passive candidates not active on job boards but they also specialize in specific industries and skill sets. For example, since CommerceSquad specializes in Web Merchandisers and Operations Assistants, we will greatly reduce the amount of time it takes to hire for these roles. 

Check references 

Before you extend an offer to a remote employee, always be sure to do a thorough reference check. Since you will likely never meet a remote worker in person, it's essential to verify their background to ensure they are who they claim to be. Especially for eCommerce jobs or other roles where employees deal with sensitive information, a criminal background check is also highly recommended. 

Give feedback      

When you have concluded the hiring process, give feedback to every candidate you have interviewed. Even if they didn’t get the job, giving tips for improvement can go a long way toward improving the candidate experience at your organization. When you take the time to talk with everyone, it creates a positive reputation for your business on important platforms like Glassdoor. In turn, future candidates will be drawn to your organization as a talent destination.