A Step-By-Step Guide For All Of Your Company's Remote Hiring Needs

Working remotely is the norm in today's world and so it is no surprise that hiring too has gone remote. Though certain aspects of recruitment like sourcing and the first level of screening have been digital, the subsequent technical screening rounds and interviews have always been "human'.

But things have changed drastically now and a lot of businesses that are actively hiring are looking for technology as an enabler to hire and manage a workforce that is no longer confined to a brick and mortar office. Tech assessment platforms and remote interviewing tools can help you evaluate a candidate's skills and help you facilitate bias-free hiring from the comfort of your homes.

So how exactly can these tools help you?

• Developer assessment tools - These help recruiters create online coding tests for a wide range of pre-defined tech roles and programming skills. You can customize these tests based on difficulty levels, duration, cut off scores and much more. These tests can also be run anonymously to completely eliminate bias based on pedigree, gender, background and other factors.

Another great benefit of using these assessments is that you can do away with resumes completely. Most times, resumes just paint a picture of what a candidate has done in the past but are never a clear indication of what he/ she is capable of doing in the future. Hence skill-based assessments like these help you filter candidates on their coding competencies and nothing else.

• Video interview tools - Once you are done with screening candidates, you can use a video interview platform to interview them further. Generally, we see tech companies conducting at least 5 to 6 interviews in a single day. When you conduct a face to face interview, you can evaluate skills through a white board approach or pair programming with future team members but it is nearly impossible to do this on a simple video call.

Hence it is important you invest in a tool that comes close to the actual experience. Most tech video interview tools provide a holistic interview experience with an option to code in real-time. They also have in-built dashboards that let you view a candidate's rating and feedback at any point in time. Lastly, they eliminate inconsistencies in interviews especially if you are interviewing a lot of candidates. You can opt for what coding questions you would want to have in the interview, view how the candidate codes and collect feedback all in one place.

Apart from investing in some good hiring tools, here are some things that you can keep in mind while conducting your next remote tech interview -

1. This may sound kind of obvious but always turn on your video for the interview. Tech folks generally don't like using video during a call, but for interviews you must. Make sure that the candidate does the same. See who the candidate is, and let them see who you are. It makes the interview process more personal.
2. Don't jump right away into a technical task but start by asking candidates questions that they can answer naturally, like the project they are working on currently. You can also begin by telling them a little about yourself. This helps candidates get warmed up before the real interview starts.
3. Don't expect the candidate to explain code by talking or by writing code in a Google doc. Use a technical video interviewing solution so that the candidate feels comfortable writing code in an IDE-like experience.
4. Don't schedule all interviews on the same day. It's a lot easier to conduct 4 rounds of interviews when candidates visit your office, as different interviews are conducted in different rooms and breaks are allotted with a designated buddy. Doing the same remotely can be exhausting. Split your tech interviews over 2 days so that the candidate gets a break in between.
5. Don't get stuck on code. If the candidate gets stuck at some point, be comfortable to pause coding for some time, maximize the video, and just have a conversation with the candidate.

Change can sometimes be difficult, but when it is inevitable, companies need to quickly prepare themselves especially since remote could be the new norm in a post COVID-19 world. Using technology as an enabler in the hiring process can help you hire and manage a workforce even in the most trying of times. You are only as good as your team so make sure you hire a great one!