Employees in every corner of the nation are finally returning to their offices, but the global shift to remote work continues.

Here’s a WOW statistic: According to data published by Upwork, 36.2 million Americans will be working remotely by 2025. That’s an 87% increase from the number of remote workers prior to the pandemic.

Large enterprises are comfortable with statistics like this because they’ve been hiring remote employees for years, but many small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are far less prepared for the age of remote work. They struggle with the digitization of their current workforce, and they provide less than stellar onboarding experiences for new hires. This creates a rift in the fundamental work culture which can ultimately lead to unhappy customers and (possibly worse) losing talent.

So how does a small business with limited time and resources make jumps to improve hiring practices? If you guessed “technology,” you’re right (and we admit, it’s obvious because an IT firm is writing this article). But more than that, it’s a shift in priorities when attracting, investigating, and onboarding new employees.

Being Able to Hire Remote Employees (and Attract Them) Is a Win

As Anne M. Mulcahy—the former CEO and chairwoman of Xerox Corporation—famously said, “Employees are your organization’s greatest assets, your competitive advantage.” As such, you want to attract and retain the best people on the job market.

Thanks to modern technology, your next hire doesn’t have to be located in the same building as your office. They could even be located in a completely different city. This gives you far more opportunities to find someone who’s not only capable but who’s also a good cultural fit.

Best of all, each remote hire can save your organization as much as $4,000 per year per employee on expenses such as office space, real estate, and physical job perks like parking passes. Clearly, being able to effectively hire remote employees is a huge win and achieving this goal can be fairly easy—at least with the help of modern technology.

1. Know Where to Look for Remote Employees

Remote work offers many attractive benefits to employees, including better work-life balance, less commute stress, location independence, and lowered expenses. It’s no wonder then that many people are actively looking for remote work opportunities—you just need to know where.

Instead of focusing all your attention on traditional job boards, make sure to establish a presence on the following sites:

  • FlexJobs: A job search site for hand-screened flexible and remote jobs. FlexJobs has been operating since 2007, making it one of the oldest sites of its kind.
  • WeWorkRemotely: A place to find and list remote jobs that aren’t restricted by commutes or a particular geographic area.
  • RemoteOK: An online job posting site for companies that need to fill all kinds of remote positions.
  • Stack Overflow:A thriving job board where organizations can find developers looking for work-from-home opportunities.
  • Upwork.com: This popular freelancing platform makes it possible for enterprises and individuals to connect in order to conduct business.

2. Build an Attractive Employer Brand Online

The best job candidates typically have multiple options to choose from, and money isn’t always the only factor they consider when deciding which offer to pick.

Just like when going on a date, you need to make your organization as attractive as possible to successfully hire and retain qualified people. Whereas local candidates most likely already know a thing or two about your organization from friends and acquaintances, someone located hundreds of miles away has no idea if your company is a nice place to work.

The solution? Build an attractive employer brand online by clearly describing your culture, publishing employee testimonials, and leveraging social media to your advantage. Use your website and make sure it’s not difficult to find raving customer and employee reviews, by ensuring you take control of profiles on Google My Business, Yelp, and Glassdoor to list a few. Without having to spend too much time getting to know you, job candidates should be able to visualize themselves as members of your team and understand what they can expect from you.

3. Make It an Easy Digital Interview Process

Work-from-home job interviews shouldn’t come with an accessibility challenge. There shouldn’t be a torrent of emails to find a time that works for the applicant and your interview team. And to keep both your productivity up and your candidate’s frustration down, there shouldn’t be long periods of time between interview activities.

The good news is that platforms such as HireVue make it easy for candidates to self-schedule interviews so that timetables on both sides can be respected. And with video interview software like Jobma, you can even ask candidates interview questions asynchronously, allowing them to answer them via video in their own time. Asynchronous interviews are perfect for assessing each candidate’s fit for your company’s culture. Then, the final interview with each suitable candidate can happen through video conferencing and tools like Microsoft Teams or Zoom.

You’ve Successfully Hired a Remote Employee! What’s Next?

Technology puts talented remote employees in your open seats, but then it’s your job to help keep them there. With modern tools, you enable them to work from any location securely and productively. And on any suitable electronic device.

For that, you need to provide your remote workforce with suitable cybersecurity tools, cloud collaboration software, and ongoing training, which is where we at Help Desk Cavalry come in. With our managed IT services, you can make remote work situations work for you, instead of dealing with IT-related issues that keep you from focusing on what you do best. Get in touch with us for more information.