Recruiting in the new world. People... They are Everywhere!!

As the world starts to rebound, many of us are planning to expand our teams. And with that comes a once in a lifetime opportunity to rethink how we engage with and hire new people.

Here are some observations:

• For many of us, our new people can be located anywhere in the world – this provides huge opportunities in diversity (local knowledge/languages, cultures etc), it also provides challenges because they could be anywhere in the world.

• We no longer need to think about how they might commute to the ‘office’.

• How good is their internet infrastructure – how good does it need to be?

• Remote locations may mean that salaries don’t need to cover high urban living costs

• Do we need to hire an ‘employee’ or perhaps a gig worker or contractor?

• Should we differentiate between employee and contractor or are they all ‘team members’?  

• With remote team members ‘onboarding’ becomes much more challenging. Can it be done through inspiration rather than controls?

• How do you build trust with someone you have never met face to face?

• Core purpose becomes much more important to bind the team together; playing hockey vs winning the Stanley Cup. Apple says, “Our mission has and always will be to create technology that empowers people to change the world for the better”.

• Do we pay people for their time in the office or ‘on-screen’ or do we pay for the value they create?

• Do we test all prospective remote team members for digital communications skills?

• How do you engage introverts remotely? Or is it the extraverts? Introverts are often very happy to work by themselves. Jungian extravert/introvert is different

• Does your recruitment agency work globally?

And once you hire them you may want to think about managing and leading remote workers.

Best regards,

Andrew