How and where to find remote employees

Many types of business today “went online” and do not need the maintenance of the office and staff. Practice shows that remote specialists are much more profitable. No need to pay for the rental of premises, equip a place of work, buy computers and other office equipment. The applicant for remote work has all this. One can only hope for its reliability. But how to find remote employees and not make a mistake in choosing? Based on the experience of people engaged in business, good search tips have been collected.

Zamir Shukhov, CEO and partner at Global Venture Alliance (GVA), says: “Finding remote employees is a real challenge. Here you need to pay attention to the personal qualities of the person whom you want to engage in your project or in your company remotely.

Key qualities of a successful remote specialist: high discipline and ability to plan your own time. When a person is not in the office and is not physically connected with the team, does not have direct leadership, then he must have a very high self-organization so that he can successfully carry out the tasks that are assigned to him. If we talk about the search process, it is not much different from the search for a full-time employee, but it is important to pay attention to the special qualities of a person ”.

Who are we looking for?

Before you find remote employees and assemble a workable team to perform specific tasks, you need to decide who is needed. Tatyana Shilova, an expert in personnel management, comments: “First of all, you need to determine the profile of the candidates, then what you will offer them, and only then proceed with the search”.

People who want to work remotely can be divided into groups:

• Moms with children. These are women up to about 40 years old. Prefer to work 4-5 hours a day, but at a convenient time, not on a strict schedule.

• “Free artists.” These are people of different age and gender, preferring travel and a free work schedule. Often creative and talented..

• Ordinary workers. People from small towns where it’s hard to find work. “Udalenka” for them is a livelihood, not a side job.

• Professionals. Able to perform complex tasks, strive for development.

The first two categories – people are not very reliable, although of course there are exceptions. They can disrupt tasks. The third group is more stable, focused on the result. And the fourth is just a gift. They do not need to retrain, they know their job. But such employees are not cheap.

Natalia Storozheva, head of the Perspektiva business and career center, says: “Depending on the tasks facing the company, you can attract people with completely different motivations to work remotely. If you need to conduct a financial audit, assess the level of information security, develop a marketing strategy, it is better to attract professionals with good recommendations and a solid track record. Their work will cost “not three pennies,” but to save on serious strategic tasks is to pay twice.
If you need new ideas, a creative approach, a “fresh look”, for example, in order to update the texts on the site, develop the design of advertising and information materials, develop the concept of an online store, it is better to attract creative people with a good portfolio. Unfortunately, “artists” may not be very mandatory, break deadlines or interact poorly with the core team. But this can be offset by good management of managers..

To carry out a simple routine work: data processing or posting information, it is quite possible to attract women sitting at home with children and performing work qualitatively, but not on schedule, but at a time convenient for them. ”.

We designate rights and obligations

It is worth understanding the difference between remote employees and freelancers. This is not the same thing. Freelancers work from order to order. And remote employees are regular people who are part of a team. Though they work from the other end of the country or even from another state.

As a rule, they are formalized for work with all the ensuing rights and obligations. When searching for such employees, it is necessary to immediately identify the working conditions, so that the person understands that he is offered a permanent job. It is this condition that makes it possible to find worthy workers aimed at long-term cooperation. And weed out those who simply temporarily would like to earn extra money or combine two or three jobs at the same time.

Tatyana Shilova says: “When selecting remote employees, it is necessary to tell what is expected of them and what is expected of them, what will be their responsibilities and projects, deadlines for completing tasks, what is the order of interaction with the leader and the team”.

Search Methods

There are many sites for searching. Below we list the main and most famous of them that will help you find remote employees.

Classic Job Search Sites

As a rule, posting vacancies and finding employees on such sites is paid. But still, we must voice these resources. The most popular of them are: hh.ru, rabota.ru, superjob.ru.

If you are not looking for a remote employee, but want to become one, then simply fill out your resume and indicate that you are ready to work only remotely. It does not require any payment.

Freelance exchanges

On any freelance exchange, the customer can post a task with a description and requirements for the necessary work. But if you need a specialist on an ongoing basis, then you have the right to try to place a vacancy with a detailed list of functions and conditions for the candidate. It is likely that some of the freelancers need constant remote work, rather than a one-time order.

Now very popular exchange kwork.ru. There are experts from almost all modern Internet professions. Use this. In addition, there is simply a huge number of specialized sites for freelancing. Only for copywriters, only for designers or only for programmers. Google.

Social network

You can find remote employees through friendship in social networks. Try to expand your circle of friends through interesting posts, involving people in discussing topics of interest to you. There are also special groups where everyone can post for free an advertisement about finding the right person. One of these groups is called Distance.

You can personally make suggestions to the people you need. Linkedin or Facebook social networks are more suitable for this, where it is possible to find people by the filter of a particular post. Just do not overdo it and do not turn into a spammer.

Bulletin boards

Online bulletin boards are also able to help you find an employee. Post vacancy announcements, leave your contacts and collect feedback. Well-known Avito is perfect for such a procedure..

Personal recommendations

With all the abundance of digital opportunities, do not forget about personal help. Searching among acquaintances, former colleagues, executives, and clients will help greatly simplify the question of how to find remote employees. It can also be a more accurate and quality recommendation. After all, no one will advise their friend a bad specialist.

Geography of search

It is important to pay attention to the geography of the search. For example, it is easiest to find a competent specialist in удал udalenka ’from large metropolitan cities.

You can search in neighboring countries – in Ukraine, in the Republic of Belarus. There are chances to invite a worthy employee and pay him a not very high salary, but quite decent for his native country. The average salary in Ukraine, for example, in 2017 was a little over 16 thousand rubles (7470 hryvnias). There are workers in Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. But if a call center employee is required, then it is better to choose with a good knowledge of the Russian language and a clean, competent speech.

Alexey Galitsky, manager of UP business, says: “The main advantage of remote work is the ability to attract employees from all over the Russian Federation and Russian-speaking CIS countries. This is a significant advantage for large cities such as St. Petersburg and Moscow. In addition to wide territorial coverage, the cost of specialists in the regions is cheaper than in megacities. For example, a strong full-time coder in Moscow will cost from 100 thousand rubles, at best from 80-70 thousand rubles, remotely you can attract him from 30-40 thousand rubles, depending on qualifications ”.

What to look for

Retraining does not play a role (except for some types of work where special knowledge and experience are required). Learning is the main thing.

When selecting a candidate you need:

• give a test task and look at the result;
• on the freelancers exchange: pay attention to the rating and feedback on its work;
• It is worth studying the profile of the applicant for work in the social network, this is like a finished dossier per person. Service will help to monitor all social networks of a person at once Yandex.People.

Tatyana Shilova, an expert in personnel management, says: “Because it is more difficult to make a choice among candidates for remote work, you can give them a test task to see them in business or first take on a small project or task, and then decide the candidate suits you or not. You can also give all candidates the same task, and then choose the one who best suits your requirements ”.

Natalia Chukhrova, coach: “Depending on the type of business, remote employees should be carefully checked for the presence of hard skills (professional specialized competencies). For this, various methods can be applied – from banal testing to interviews with an expert on Skype.

In general, the assessment of one candidate lasts from 40 minutes to 2–3 hours. And this is taking into account the fact that at the input, resumes should of course be screened out according to primary criteria – work experience, specialty, time that a person can devote to work activities, etc. Also, essays and examples of current work are often used to determine the competence of an employee, plus – for many experts it is important to take an IQ and EQ test, there are countless of them now, you can choose any one you like.

The only thing is that I would recommend the leader first to take the test himself, in order to choose the most suitable for his own ideas about the desired level of intelligence. Today, remote assessment centers are rapidly gaining momentum; my colleagues and I often encounter such requests, both within large corporations and in private, single selection. It is important to use quality assignments and cases. And pay special attention to narrow-profile role-playing games, especially when it comes to positions in sales or personnel management. There you can just see the soft skills that often remain in the shadows, not even remotely, but also with full-time staff selection ”.

In any case, a worthy employee will have to be trained. For this, the applicant is given a chance to show himself and show. Even a promising employee is not immune from mistakes at first, but he is distinguished by the ability to understand what is required and make adjustments in time.

How and where to find remote employees – Tips and tricks

Who are we looking for?

People who want to work remotely can be divided into groups:

We designate rights and obligations