How to Streamline Your Recruiting Process as a Remote Company
Hiring Remote
Could your remote recruiting process flow use an upgrade? Learn how to streamline yours to boost efficiency and find top remote candidates sooner now:
What’s the best way to streamline your remote recruiting process?
Statistics tell us it takes an average of 42 days to hire someone once an on-site position opens. Unfortunately, some experts say remote work hiring could take several months to over a year.
Most organizations can’t wait this long to add the right employees to their teams. So it’s essential to learn how to make your recruiting process flow like a well-oiled, automated machine.
Follow the recruiting process steps in this post, and you’ll streamline your sourcing and connect with high-quality candidates sooner.
5 Ways to Streamline Your Recruiting Process as a Remote Company
Since more people want to work remotely these days, it’s no surprise your team’s taking longer to interview candidates and find its ideal match. But these strategies will help your remote company make recruiting much more efficient:
1. Create a Process for Recruiting
Think of your recruiting process like an assembly line in a factory. Every stage of production should have a goal or function, and you can’t move on to the next station without completing the previous step.
Your organization should have a standardized recruiting process in place and only make adjustments if something isn’t working.
With that in mind, your first step is to create that process. Don’t worry about getting this perfect on the first try; there are bound to be iterations until it’s just right for your organization.
To create your recruiting process flow, try to determine things like:
- Who will be on your hiring team
- What their roles and responsibilities will look like
- How you will recruit candidates
- What happens during the interview process (Is there one virtual interview? Two? What about a skills test?)
- How you will determine whether someone is a good fit
- What happens when you make an offer
- How you’ll deal with rejection notices
Determining these answers will help you form the basis of your hiring process, so it’s crucial not to skip this step.
As you go through these items, start documenting what’s working and any key details you find important along the way. These notes will become the framework for your standard operating procedure (SOP).
You should also include which recruiting metrics you plan to analyze and leave some room for position-specific notes.
You and your team will use your SOP anytime you hire someone. These clear guidelines take the guesswork out of the process and make it easy for someone to step in at any time and know exactly what to do next.
Less confusion means more forward progress.
2. Nail Down These Details Before You Need to Hire
Next, spend time fine-tuning your company’s core values, mission, and company culture. Think about why someone would want to work with you.
Rather than glossing over these tidbits or saving them for your virtual onboarding process, make them work in your company’s favor.
We talked about the importance of value alignment for remote companies, and these are the meaty details remote job candidates are looking for.
Sharing these specifics is how you’ll get applicants to apply for your jobs. And it boosts your chances of receiving candidates who are on the same page instead of drowning in less-than-perfect fits.
So be transparent, especially when it comes to your remote work style, company benefits, and communication preferences.
Having this written up before you actually post a job means all you have to do is copy and paste them when the time comes (hello, streamline success!).
Psst! If you really want to stand out as a remote company and save time, update your company profile on We Work Remotely with this intel.
3. Let these Tools Do the Heavy Lifting
The efficiency cloud-based tools offer is why so many remote companies are implementing a 4-day workweek. It’s all about working smarter, not harder, and letting tech take some tasks off your plate.
The best applicant tracking systems (ATS) for remote companies keep your whole process organized in one location.
Greenhouse Software, BambooHR, and Workable all help you find the best applicants out of a giant stack of resumes. Since you’re likely to see 100+ applicants per job post, ATS helps weed out candidates who don’t truly fit, saving you tons of time.
You’ll only see the best-fit candidates, which means you can read fewer resumes and find top candidates sooner.
You should also use a project manager like Trello, Asana, or Basecamp to keep track of each step in your recruiting and hiring process. You’ll be able to quickly see where your team stands on the positions you’re hiring for, where your top candidates are in the process, and any other relevant notes.
Communication tools like Slack can help your hiring team stay in touch and be on the same page.
Finally, consider adding Google Forms or Typeform to your arsenal. These help your team generate surveys or screening questionnaires.
Create them once, and you’ll be able to send them to every candidate who applies, which helps streamline your process further and save time. These are also helpful for weeding out candidates who may not fit what you’re looking for.
This toolkit will make your whole process more efficient and hold teammates accountable every step of the way. Then your top candidates won’t slip through the cracks or get scooped up by a competitor.
4. Understand The Characteristics of a Great Job Ad and Always Use a Template
Are you using a template to ensure you write remote job listings that sell?
Hot job ads not only gain a ton of ideal-fit candidates, but also prevent the wrong ones from wasting your time and theirs.
Write a boring or insensitive job ad, and your dream candidate may not feel compelled to hit the apply button. Then you’ll either be forced to drag out the sourcing process or hire someone you’re not 100% on board with.
When that happens, you may be right back at square one hiring for this position in a few months. That’s the very opposite of an efficient recruiting process.
Fortunately, you don’t have to be a pro copywriter to get this right.
Just use this remote job posting template as your foundation and follow the tips in our Remote Work Hiring Guide to excel here.
Doing so will allow you or anyone else on your team to quickly pump out compelling job ads that land with your target candidates.
5. Create a Roadmap for Each Position
Once you have all those pieces in place, you can move on to creating a template for each position. Consider using a Google form, spreadsheet, or even a table in a Word or Google doc.
On the left side, add all the questions you must answer before hiring someone, such as:
- What are the key characteristics a candidate in this position should have?
- What must-have skills, certifications, experience, etc., should they possess?
- What’s worked in the past?
- What hasn’t worked?
- What hours should this person expect to work?
- Do they need to complete a skills assessment?
This is just a basic list to get started with -- feel free to add your own questions based on your business.
The point is to come up with a set of standardized questions to use during your screening and interview process. It will help you evaluate candidates on a level playing field.
You’ll have a better idea of which candidates you want to move forward with and those you may keep in your candidate pipeline for future roles.
Time To Streamline Your Remote Recruiting Process Today
By turning your recruiting process into a well-oiled machine (just like your business), you’ll find it’s far easier to source and land high-quality candidates sooner.
Don’t waste your time posting job ads on traditional mega job boards if you’re specifically looking for remote candidates. Posting your jobs on a remote-specific site like We Work Remotely is the best way to guarantee applicants with legit remote work experience.
These remote job seekers will be faster to onboard, train, and seamlessly fit into your organization, saving loads of time and money during recruiting and post-hire.
Post a job ad on our remote job board now, and your position will be seen by top talent across the globe, slashing your time-to-hire to new lows.
← Back to Blog