Are you a manager of the company? Do you give that liberty for your employees working remotely? Telecommuting or work from home is eventually growing that benefits businesses and workers. Many successful companies all over the world are reaping the advantage of the telecommuting boom. Even you should try too.

Imagine a happy man in professional attire and working with laptop on the seashore. Ah! how cool to look. In today’s ultra-tech world, millions of workers working remotely on every single day. You find these workers to be productive, happier, cost-effective and loyal than a 9 to 5 robot. What? You didn’t offer that flexibility, freedom and independence till now? Don’t delay it, now the time is on. Go ahead and do it.

Wait, before leaping further and kicking everyone from office and going virtual. You need to realize that not everyone in the thread is a remote worker. They are a few traits to look down when you are hiring remote employees. An employee needs to possess certain specific characteristics that allow them to work remotely. During the process of hiring, identify these character traits in your job candidates.

Communicate

As a remote worker, communicate directly, quickly and on topic. Nobody prefers to waste time. These challenges need to be amended rightly. A poor communicator could hamper the efficiency and productivity of the job. Don’t look for the person who wastes your valuable time and takes a longer time to deliver a simple work. It’s not like knocking down with a feather but 56% of employers go for opting out for an effective communicator. Also, a study by McKinsey revealed that by implementing social technologies facilitates beautiful communication and raises productivity by 20-25%.
When conducting interviews ask the job candidates and see how they are answering the below questions

• How to address a particular issue
• How to handle challenging problems or situations
• What to expect from managers as far as communication is concerned
• Other relevant questions to test the ability of communication

Test project

It is hard to believe and judge what it looks like working with a remote employee unless you start managing them. Ask your candidates to write a sample assignment with a firm deadline. You’ll understand

• How they are efficient in working with your present team
• Are they punctual in working
• Will they work in pressure and meet the deadlines.
• Whether their work is appealing or not

Employer insights

One of the key ideas that are essential is to know how productive an employee is. Kudos to those who get the things completed on time. Yes, this leads to the death of 9to 5 robot.  This also means that the people you hire have to maintain a work-life balance that the desirable trait. Below are the things you need to look out before hiring the actual talent pool.

• The need for a motivated and self-driven person. They must be receptive to the comments and feedback provided
• There should be a clear agenda and the person should be a get goer
• There a dime a dozen of remote workers online. Place an ad on different media sources. Either it may be on blogs, career sites, freelance websites, online boards. These are the workers who find their way out in craigslist and the local paper
• Ask the right questions in the interview and check whether the job candidate is the right fit. Ask the questions and check if

They follow instructions properly

Sufficiently handle the feedback

If there is any relevant work experience

Hiring remote workers is not a scary thing anymore. Embrace the challenge and learn from the experience in a fun way. However, it is the way how the future works.

Learn by observing

Take into considerations of all the things

• How promptly they reply to your emails
• Observe their Professionalism and tone.
• Communication skills

During the whole process of the interview. If the response time for emails differ, chances are that they won’t react quickly to the work-related emails. They need to focus on more important details. Hire someone who answers quickly and frame their decisions well on screen.

Adaptable

The remote worker’s mentality should not be a traditional or a novelty. They have to adapt to the new environment. They need to equip themselves with new tools of communication

• Respect specific rules
• Understand how to solve certain problems without driving to the nearest office or ask for support

Every office has its own work culture. A remote employee needs to understand this. There should be clear rules laid out in each message, task or email. Being flexible and working under pressure are the key abilities that a remote worker must possess.
For example, There is no internet connection near your new team member. This should not delay your work. A person who reacts in such a situation should be appreciated.

Self-motivated

Which personality trait are you looking for

• First who need always a pat on the back and wants to hear “Good-Job well-done”
• Second, a self-prodigy, who will be on high-spirits and motivated every time through one’s own personality.

66% of them are looking for this, as it is one of the important traits. One of the reasons why top candidates fail is the reason, they lack self-motivation.

Team and result oriented

There should be common values and goals that align with the companies goals and mission. Sound’s like an ironic thing, right? Well, it’s not. 60% of the companies are following this. A whole barrel can get spoilt by one single rotten apple. So, look for one fresh, good apple to grab.

People who are changing their careers from cubicle to a remote team face this problem. In a work-place, they are employees who finish the work early and kills the other time doing nothing. After seeing this they stretch this 3-hour day work till 8 hours pretending to be busy. This results in boredom and eventually lacks work efficiency. Now as the new team member is a remote worker, there will be no waling away of time and at the same time, the output is more productive.

Conclusion

As remote working became a frequently accepted norm and increasing trend in the modern workforce environment, many companies are opting that. They are implementing it and looking for the best candidates to strengthen their business growth.  Some companies even took a step further and building a new virtual team. If you fall under this category you need to screen the candidates and hire the one who works efficiently without any supervision.