Top tip to expand your team with remote workers

Remote working is a term we’ve all heard plenty about over the course of the last 12 months. With millions of people swapping the daily commute for more free time and the office for a space at home, it might come as no surprise to hear that remote working is here to stay. 

Research carried out by social media tool, Buffer suggests that a massive 98% of people would like to be able to work remotely at least some of the time, even when life fully returns to normal. While remote working should allow for a much better work life balance, it also means that as an entrepreneur, you might have to rethink how you hire new recruits when the time comes to grow your team. 

Why hire remote workers?

As an entrepreneur there are plenty of benefits to hiring remote workers but the most significant are:

• You won’t need to pay hefty office rents to give your team somewhere to work, meaning your overheads will be lower and your business expenses leaner.

• You won’t need to invest in lots of equipment, furniture and other resources.

• You can open your hiring process up to more candidates.

• You can hire from overseas and tap into a much larger talent pool when travel to the office is no longer a requirement for staff.

Set yourself up for success with onboarding

A key aspect to successfully hiring remote workers is to have a documented onboarding process in place. Many of the face-to-face onboarding experiences typical of recruitment can seamlessly transition to the remote workforce. Rather than sitting next to someone to walk them through a certain software system for example, schedule a video call and share your screen or record audio or video tutorials to share digitally. 

Introduce a buddy system

If you already have team members in place, creating a buddy system which pairs a new remote hire with someone already up to speed can be invaluable. The buddy can act as a support system, provide a friendly face and ear in a new environment and answer questions so your new remote team member feels supported and welcomed as they adjust to their new role. 

Schedule social experiences

Your company culture is an important part of the employment experience and can help to foster loyalty. In a remote environment, as many businesses have found during lockdown, culture can be hard to preserve. It’s harder still to instil your culture in remote hires who may never have spent time in the office or with your team. Fortunately, many digital tools are emerging to plug this gap and make scheduling remote social time quick and easy. Check out Donut on Slack as one example, to pair team members together at random to enjoy a coffee and donut each week, either face-to-face or remotely.