The Benefits and Risks of Hiring Remotely
In the past few years, remote hiring has become a popular practice for many businesses. There are benefits to this arrangement, but there are also risks that need to be considered as well.
In order to make an informed decision about whether or not you want to hire remotely, it is important for you to know all of the benefits and risks associated with this type of recruiting process. In this blog post we will cover both benefits and risks so that you can decide if remote hiring is right for your company!
The Benefits of Remote Recruiting
When you hire remotely, you are able to tap into a highly qualified talent pool and you can look beyond geographical boundaries for the best candidate. Sometimes access to highly skilled talent or specific talent may not be available locally or at the same geographical location as your company.
The technology has opened up for more time-efficient remote hiring, where you as a recruiter can set up the whole process online. Remote hiring saves time, money, and the environment. Of course, setting up remote hiring will put a lot of focus on the process itself, how to make it safe first of all. And with safe we mean secure from hiring the “wrong” people.
When you have a meeting/interview in person you might get a better feeling for how this person is and how well he/she will fit the team, than if you do it remotely in front of the laptop. And usually, during the physical interview, the person will identify him-/herself by providing an ID. So the most important step when hiring remotely is to secure a proper ID- and identity verification system. This can either be done by leasing software and let your internal team handle it, or, you can outsource the complete identity verification process to a specialized verification company like Evalid.
The Risks of Remote Hiring
The benefits are not the only things you need to consider when hiring remotely. There are also risks that come with this practice, especially in terms of security and trust issues. We even wrote a white paper about them!
Hiring remote workers can have a negative impact on your company culture if you’re unable to communicate well or bond properly during the interview process. This can happen because there is no physical interaction between the hirer/interviewee so it might be more difficult for the interviewer to get an accurate understanding of what kind of person he or she will be working together with after they’ve been hired.
It’s important to remember that even though someone may look great online, their mannerisms could change once they meet face-to-face; therefore, it’s crucial that you do your best to meet the candidate face-to-face whenever possible.
When hiring remote workers you run into confidentiality risks, because if there is no physical interaction during an interview it could be harder for you as a company to verify that all necessary information will remain confidential between both parties.
The biggest concern with hiring staff remotely is, as we mentioned above in the benefits section as well, the risk of hiring fraudulent people with bad intentions that might hurt your clients or your company. It sometimes takes only one fraudulent person to ruin a company completely. So make sure you secure the remote hiring process with a solid ID- and identity verification step.
Conclusion
The benefits of remote recruiting are many but just like with everything in life there are also risks involved; therefore, make sure to weigh the benefits and risks before deciding whether or not this type of recruitment process will work well for your company.
Remote hiring benefits your business in many ways, it brings a talent pool to your company that might not be available locally. However, make sure you secure the online recruiting system with a proper identity verification tool.