HOW TO HIRE FOR AND CONVEY REMOTE COMPANY CULTURE

By ConnectPoint Search Group

 

Company culture matters, even (especially) in a remote workplace. Therefore, when hiring remote employees, finding a candidate that synergizes well with your current team is imperative. The following tips will guide your candidate search and provide helpful insight on how to hire for and convey company culture in a remote workplace.

 

WHAT IS COMPANY CULTURE?

Culture is the character and personality of a company and is the key differentiator for what makes it unique to others; it is the sum of a company’s mission, vision, and values + its beliefs, behaviors, traditions, interactions, and attitudes.

Everything about a company impacts its culture, including leadership, policies, procedures, and people. Therefore, it is imperative for companies to be intentional about cultivating a purposeful culture that reflects who they are and how they wish to be portrayed. While a negative company culture can prove to be detrimental to a company, positive company culture will attract top talent, helps to drive employee engagement, impacts satisfaction, and greatly affects employee performance.

 

COMPANY CULTURE IN A REMOTE WORKPLACE

Culture is an integral part of a company’s growth and success. Whether all employees work remotely or only some of them do, one of your heaviest weighted tasks as a business leader is to cultivate culture. One might question the importance of company culture when hiring a remote employee, but culture is just as important – if not more – in a remote workplace as it is in-office; how well employees are connected to a company’s culture and the level of an employee’s engagement in that culture directly affects how productive and successful the employee will be.

 

HOW TO HIRE FOR REMOTE COMPANY CULTURE

Remote interviews do not offer the same opportunity to note social cues as in-person interviews do; therefore, it is imperative to be mindful about the following things during the hiring process:

Job Ad

You are ready to start your search for the best-fit candidate to add to your team and the first order of business is writing a job ad that well reflects who your company is. To attract candidates who are more likely to be a good culture fit, highlight your company’s most notable differentiators in the job ad and include details about the company’s mission, vision, and values. Attracting like-minded candidates who are excited about what your company is most passionate about is a great first step in attracting candidates that will align with your company’s culture.

Face-to-Face Interviewing

Utilize a video meeting platform, such as Zoom or Teams, and conduct the interview just as you would if you were sitting together in an office. Conducting interviews in a face-to-face setting will enable you to assess the interviewee’s ability to communicate based on cues such as body language, facial expressions, and tone of voice. Communication styles are often a telltale sign of whether a candidate will synergize well with your current team or not, and how they might align with company culture.

During a remote face-to-face interview, be mindful to consider the differences between an in-person and virtual setting and take into account that there may be factors that the interviewee has not been trained on that could be off-putting. For instance, while a candidate’s firm handshake at introduction in person may exude confidence, being uneasy in front of a camera on a panel Zoom call does not necessarily mean that the candidate lacks confidence or other social skills. Be mindful, yet gracious, so as not to rule out well-qualified candidates unnecessarily.

Consider Soft Skills

When it comes to company culture, it is often the soft skills that make the biggest impact for fit. However, there is no one-size-fits-all recipe for which soft skill set will make the right impact in company culture. Therefore, it is best to consider the characteristics of what drives the business and consider the soft skills of your current team; what soft skills would be best aligned and what differences in soft skills could complement? When interviewing, include a mix of behavioral and situational questions to help assess soft skills that will impact culture. For example:

      • Communication
      • Collaboration
      • Confidence
      • Leadership
      • Creativity
      • Empathy
      • Personality
      • Adaptability
      • Innovation
Assign a Small Task

When you schedule a remote interview, schedule a small task for the interviewee to complete prior to the interview. This can be as simple as a personality test or a skills test; such will provide insight to assist in selecting the best fit candidate for your company and the position. It also demonstrates the interviewee’s ability (and willingness) to follow instructions.

 

HOW TO CONVEY REMOTE COMPANY CULTURE

Hiring remote employees with company culture in mind is a two-way street. Therefore, it is equally important for the prospective employee to determine if the culture of your company is a good fit for them. To convey remote company culture in an interview, consider these things:

Communicate Key Differentiators

Many companies have opted to offer remote flexibility or a full-time remote schedule on a permanent ongoing basis. Therefore, companies are increasingly more challenged to communicate the other key differentiators that set their business and the position that they are hiring for apart from the competition. What makes your company culture unique and why should it be enticing to potential employees? Communicate the following to hire for and convey company culture in a remote workplace:

Mission, Vision, Values

Discuss the company’s mission, vision, and values to portray what the company is most passionate about.

Emphasize Employee Value

When employees feel valued, engagement increases. How does your company emphasize employee value?

Personalized Perks

Share about any employee personalized perks that the company offers. Check this out for examples.

Team Connection

Working remotely has the potential to feel incredibly isolating; how does the company ensure that employees are engaged and connected? Highlight any remote team-building initiatives that your company has implemented; convey company culture by sharing examples and/or photos of fun remote events or special activities.

For example, the CPSG team loves our fur babies and pets have always been a big part of our company culture – both in-office and remote. When hiring to add to our team, pets are always a topic of discussion. Also, we often enjoy including our pets in team zoom calls and highlight our fur babies in culture posts. Check out our National Pet Day and National Puppy Day posts to meet our fur family!

 

 

HOW TO CULTIVATE CULTURE IN A REMOTE WORKPLACE

As a leader of remote employees, successful cultivating company culture should be a primary concern. For more insight on how to do so successfully, check out our blog How to Cultivate Culture in a Remote Workplace.