The Ultimate Guide to Hiring Remote Tech Talent

Templates and Tips for Successfully Scaling a Remote Tech Team

The world is moving towards digital. There are digital payments, digital houses, cars run by software. As a result of the pandemic, we’ve seen the infusion of data-enabled services into ever more aspects of life. Whether the company is a tech company or not, they still need someone to handle IT and the technologies they use for daily operations.

All of this puts immense pressure on the talent pool which is limited. That leads to recruiters getting desperate to fill positions and candidates end up upholding most of the power.

Candidates keep giving interviews in the hope of finding a better deal even if they’ve committed to one company. They take advantage of the tech-talent crunch to demand better salaries, hikes, and perks. This affects the organization’s bottom line lowering profits, cash flows, stock prices, valuation, and more.

As a recruiter, you know how hard it is to find candidates that can solve the complex problem your company is trying to solve. You have to find a candidate, convince them to talk to you, evaluate them for technical and cultural fit, and pray that they don’t get poached in the middle of the hiring process by someone else. All this while, there’s pressure from the team to get them a new member as soon as possible.

Let’s see how we can optimize each step to make huge improvements to the overall hiring process.

Prepare a Job Description that Makes Them Gasp (& is Accurate!)

The job listing is any potential candidate’s first encounter with your company and the role, so it is essential that it is clear, compelling, and engaging for the type of audience you are looking to attract.

Put yourself in the shoes of a jobseeker when writing the description. Include all of the information you would want up-front, that would help anyone decide if they can see themselves working at this company, in this particular role.

The Director of Content Marketing position listing at Podia sets a strong example by clearly explaining who they are, what sets them apart, the company culture, and the job duties.

Here is a template you can use to create your job listing:

Job Title:

Include company, location, and job type (full-time, part-time, remote)

Reports To:

List manager position and team name.

Job Overview:

Give a four-sentence description of the role, what its purpose is, what success in the role means, and what it contributes to the company as a whole.

Responsibilities and Duties:

List essential duties in order of importance in complete sentences with gender-neutral language.
Begin each bullet point with a verb and keep it all in the present tense
Outline day-to-day tasks and the technical skills required for each one.

Qualifications:

List education level.
Required work experience.
Specific technical skills required, specific programming languages.
Interpersonal/character skills.
Any certifications needed.

Benefits:

What will employees get out of working at your company?
Include financial perks, salary range, and healthcare or vacation plans
List company culture perks like flexibility, development opportunities, and events.
Explain the general attitude of the workplace and its fun, casual, or independent tone that will appeal to tech employees.

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Get Help from Current Employees

No one knows what it’s like to work at your company better than your current employees. They will have a strong sense of exactly what skills and attributes are needed to succeed in a position like theirs and will serve as a vital tool in the recruitment process.

Establish a strong employee referral scheme to get access to valuable candidates that have been vetted by your current workers and offer them rewards in return.

Employees hired through a referral tend to have a higher retention rate, as they are more aligned with the company and the position coming into the job than ordinary candidates.

Here’s an example of a company promoting their referral program amongst their employees:

Source

Filter through Your Previous Applicant

Go through your previous and recent applicants to scan for skill sets and experience that may offer something unique.

You may have previously received applications from accomplished individuals when you weren’t hiring for their ideal roles. Whether they made it to an interview stage or not in their first application, they may be
suitable for a different position you are looking to fill now.

Post on Online Job Sites

It’s no surprise that you’ll find hundreds of job sites to post about the role you are trying to fill. But to make your process more efficient, choose the sites where developers are more likely to hang out.

For example, posting on LinkedIn might be more beneficial than posting on Upwork. Keeping track of all the listings might be tough so take your pick of the top 5 or top 10 and make sure you receive an email when someone applies to your job posting.

Let the World Know via Social Media

Use platforms like Twitter, Instagram, and Slack to post job vacancy announcements. By sharing the post with billions of active users, your job listing will reach qualified individuals who may be interested in new opportunities, but not actively searching for jobs.

Being active on Twitter or LinkedIn and using hashtags are great ways to get your job openings in front of candidates, for example, #devjobs or #javaprogramerhiring can help you reach the right candidates on Twitter.

You can share why your company is a great place to work & the growth journey of employees who work there. Invite people to ask your questions in the comment section. This will start a conversation with potential candidates and also spread your content faster.

Disney has a Twitter handle dedicated to sharing news about open roles.

Go to Career Fair

Career fairs are an efficient way to recruit a large number of people. It’s a great option for a service tech company. People attending tech fairs are serious about a job so your rate of hiring would be faster.

Most tech hiring events are recurring so you can plan to attend in advance:

List education level.
Required work experience.
Specific technical skills required, specific programming languages.
Interpersonal/character skills.
Any certifications needed

Organize Hackathons

Hackathons present a unique opportunity for both employers and job hunters. They allow applicants to demonstrate their skills and potential business value.

Companies like Google hold annual hackathons and developer challenges that they use to create mobile apps and seek out the best talent. These events can help a company identify candidates that would not have necessarily stood out on paper, but whose skills bring an exceptional level of talent to the table.

Reach Out to Ellow

Ellow is a top freelancing site that connects companies with the talent they need to scale their teams. The platform provides you with candidates that match your exact job description requirements to make it easy to hire qualified candidates remotely. Our algorithm screens our talent pool to match you with ideal candidates, giving you access to individuals beyond your immediate network and region.

Filter Candidates to Narrow Down Your List

With a list of applicants to choose from, consider these essential methods to help you easily standardize and streamline your hiring and screening process.

Start with an automated scanner: Narrow down the list to applicants who meet required keywords. Set scanners to pull for words like ‘java,’ ‘app,’ ‘UX,’ and more so that you can filter out any candidates who may have applied despite lacking the necessary skillset.
Use a standard rubric to check coding and software expertise: Match candidates up against your criteria to see which applicants score the best.
Conduct a test project: Put candidates developing skills to the test through a task that would emulate the position at your company. Create a 2-4 hour tech challenge, ask candidates to complete a short programming ‘homework’ assignment, or give them a whiteboarding prompt. Easily compare candidate outcomes against your checklist.

Test Candidates For Cultural-Fit

Conduct in-person or zoom interviews to have a more in-depth conversation with each promising candidate to get a sense of their values, personality, and potential fit within the company’s mission and the team dynamic.

Here are interview questions to ask remote tech candidates to determine cultural fit:

What work environment makes you succeed?
How do you handle your workload when working from home?
What kind of management style do you prefer?
Describe your ideal workday.
What is your typical role in a team project?
Give examples of when you have shown exceptional adaptability and problem-solving skills.
How do you deal with unexpected challenges?
How do you ensure you are keeping up to date with software and engineering?
Name a tricky technical problem you encountered and how you solved it.
Describe the programmes, languages, and procedures you most often use

Finally, Make a Selection

If you were assessing candidates against structured rubrics in the filtering stage, determining the right person from the group will be that much easier.

Assess your scores of their tech challenge and homework prompts, their unique skill sets compared to other candidates, and how well it seemed like they would fit into the company based on the interview.

Ultimately, it is important to go with your instincts, keep an open mind, and use reference checks as the last stage to avoid any unexpected character outcomes and verify that this candidate has performed well in previous environments.

Onboard New Hire for a Productive Start

Onboarding new candidates in a remote environment can be challenging. It can be more difficult for employees who join teams remotely to fully integrate with the rest of the workforce. Start with surveying your existing remote workers to fully understand their current experience working remotely with the team. Take their feedback and learn how to make remote work better for them and for new workers joining the team. To set new employees up for success…

Environment: Ensure they have a comfortable office setup with all of the equipment and furniture
they need, provide them with a budget or materials to fully set up a home office.
Team integration: Set up short one-on-one zoom sessions between the new hire and many of the existing team members so that they can quickly get a sense of who’s who and the organization structure to avoid isolation and working in a silo.
Mentorship: Assign them a ‘buddy’ or peer mentor on the team who can be their go-to person to ask questions about processes, procedures, and company culture.
Socializing: Create virtual environments where employees can ‘drop in,’ like a discord channel or
coffee break zoom room so that new hires can develop spontaneous relationships with their
colleagues.

Tips for Recruiting Talent Remotely

Know what you are looking for: Have a master list of the skills, experience, and qualities you need from a candidate in each position. This will make it easier and mvore efficient to outline the job description, screen resumes, test candidates, and determine the most qualified individuals.
Know what the developers want: Developers are looking for environments where they can improve their skills, work on innovative projects, and get compensated well for their top-tier skills. Make it clear that you offer these opportunities in your conversations with candidates.
Choose the right sourcing channels: Advertise and look for candidates on the platforms that
match their interests. Find tech-specific marketplaces like ellow.io to get a pool of vetted candidates and individuals with solid skill sets.
Invest in employer branding: Build a strong employer brand by projecting the positive qualities of working at your company. Post about your employee experience on social media, invest in their development and learning and get your company name on lists that outline the best places to work.
Ask the right questions to check cultural fit: Get a sense of who they are and how they will fit in
with your company’s culture.

Follow this checklist to keep your entire process on track:

Identify where you will source candidates: Make a plan regarding where to post your job listing, whether there are any individuals you already know of who you want to contact, and if you have a budget for using online platforms and tools to help your search. Identify if you will be hosting hackathon events or attending any in-person career fairs.
Develop criteria: To help you assess candidates throughout the process.
Create your job listing: Use our outline and guide above to craft a target job description to be posted across job boards.
Promote the open position: Notify your current employees when you are hiring to gain access to their networks and post the listing across social media.
Create a shortlist of candidates: Screen applicants across platforms for the skillset you are looking for
Assess candidate skills: Distribute skills tests and practice projects to your shortlist to see who might be the best fit. Create a shorter list from here
Conduct interviews: Meet with the best performing candidates via zoom to ask them further questions about cultural fit and to get a sense of their suitability for your team.
Assess candidates: Reflect on your rubric to see which candidates are the best fit.
Create your job listing: Use our outline and guide above to craft a target job description to be posted across job boards.
Make an offer to your top candidate
Create a shortlist of candidates: Screen applicants across platforms for the skillset you are looking for
Prepare onboarding materials: Conduct your new employee onboarding process integrating
them with the strategies outlined above.

How Ellow Helps Recruit the Best Tech Talent

$100,000 a year per job—If you are a tech company, that’s the amount you can save by hiring a contractor instead of a full-time employee (source New York Times). It can also be easier & quicker to hire for a contractor position than for a full-time employee role.

Ellow.io is a global market place connecting companies with vetted candidates using artificial intelligence algorithms.

Here’s a glimpse of how the process works:

Our platform offers support for hiring and tracking remote candidates and pulls from a global pool of talent. We have freelancing, niche, and work-from-home candidates ready to be paired up to your position.
We screen each applicant for their communication skills, technical abilities, programming
knowledge, overall approach, and attitude towards work.
Then, our algorithm works to find candidates that fit your needs, finding qualities within pre-set
parameters to ensure you can hire high-quality talent quickly

We help you hire talented developers without worrying about quality, or managing their payroll or contracts. You can create a talented and affordable team in India without worrying about tax rules, payroll, or benefits. ellow takes care of that.

With ellow, your talent search will be more accessible, more efficient, and deliver better results. We provide timesheet and work history tracking, invoicing and payments, and contract signing tools all in one place.

As a hiring manager, all you have to do is register, post a job, and let our algorithm do the matching. Then, you can select from the set of options, get in touch with the candidate, and complete the contract signing and onboarding process all within our platform.

With a global talent pool, you are guaranteed to get a candidate who has the skills, experience, and knowledge that you are looking for to outperform their market competition.

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