Hiring Remote? Here’s How to Communicate Company Culture

by aj-bsa-admin on Oct 09, 2017

We’ve all heard about the fun things companies like Google and Facebook do to create a positive and engaging culture in their offices. It’s easy to drum up excitement in new talent when you can show off a cereal wall or slide on the office tour.

But what about the companies that thrive on remote staff? While it can be more difficult to communicate and effectively promote company culture when hiring for remote positions, it’s not entirely out of reach. Consider the below strategies as you develop your remote hiring process.

Well-Written Job Posting

When seeking to hire new talent to your team, take care in writing an accurate and engaging job description for the role. This is the first interaction that will attract talent to your company, so make sure your brand personality and unique aspects of your culture are present in the posting.

When hiring for remote roles, be sure to include any special perks your company offers off-site employees. Some companies will offer bonuses like internet allowances, professional training packages, or subsidized private health care.

More unusual remote employee perks include coffee shop gift cards, gym membership allowances, vacation expense allowances, and even long-term sabbaticals offered over incremental periods with the company to prevent burnout.

Face-to-Face Remote Interviews

When conducting interviews for remote team members, incorporate face-to-face meetings into your process. Face-to-face meetings are as important for hiring remote staff as they are for in-house staff. Using tools like Skype, Facetime or Google Hangouts, it’s easy to coordinate a meeting with candidates from anywhere across the globe.

Taking the time and effort to coordinate a face-to-face chat helps to personalize the meeting and allows both sides to gain a better understanding of one another. A lot is communicated through nonverbal cues, so this can be a great tactic to help you get a better feel for the candidate while providing them the opportunity to get a better feel for you as well.

People have different strengths in communication. Some may feel the most comfortable over email, others may prefer to speak over the phone, and some may find a face-to-face chat the most effective. In your interview process, try your best to incorporate all three methods of communication to give a fair opportunity for each type of communicator to shine.

Interviews With Various Team Members

Extending your interview process past the hiring manager and direct manager offers benefits for both sides. For the candidate, this gives an opportunity to get a feel for the different personalities on the team. For the company, it provides an opportunity to get an accurate idea of how this individual might fit into the team dynamic.

Setting up meetings between a candidate and team members is always a good idea. After all, these are the people the hire will need to communicate with on a regular basis. Getting a feel of what it would be like to work with colleagues makes a huge difference in a new hire’s understanding of company culture and can make or break the interview process.

Adding to that, it can be particularly beneficial to set up conversations with current remote team members for first-hand accounts of the remote workflow in your company and how your company culture specifically impacts remote employees.

Include Your Remote Team

If your remote company culture could use some love, prioritize these changes before you continue building remote teams. Treating remote team members like freelancers separate from in-office workers is dangerous for morale and retention.

There are many ways you can help build camaraderie and a sense of inclusion among your remote team members. This could include big on-location events like team meetups or even smaller, more commonplace gatherings like daily or weekly online hangouts between staff to catch up on project progress and speak with each other in a more relaxed setting.

Many successful remote companies hold annual or semi-annual gatherings to bring their staff together. For example, Buffer plans semi-annual trips with their whole team to have discussions and strategy sessions for the months ahead. Then, the team takes the evenings and weekends to enjoy the location and get to know each other better.

Promote whatever your company does to bring together remote workers physically or digitally. Include these experiences on the company blog and social media, and showcase these perks in the hiring process. Displaying this part of your culture shows remote talent that you take their contributions seriously and gets them excited to join the team.

Remain Open to the Changing Workplace

As workplace trends change, continue to create opportunities for remote team members to feel included in the inner workings of the company. This drastically enhances a company’s culture from the perspective of future remote employees and makes the hiring process smoother.

As the world becomes more and more connected globally, your remote workforce will become an increasingly important part of your team. Retaining this top talent around the world could be the key to your company’s success.

Expanding your remote team? Use Authentic Jobs to find your next hire.