Finding the right employees to fill a void on your team is a challenging process under the best of conditions. When you’re looking to hire someone to work remotely for you, the challenges become even more daunting.
First, you need to draft the perfect want ad that makes it clear what you’re looking for without attracting a lot of riff-raff or scaring off potential winners. Then, you need to review all of the responses to identify what matches your needs the best. Finally, you have to conduct interviews and hope that you’ve asked the right questions — ones that shed light on the true skillsets of those you speak to.
After all of this — perhaps even after you thought you’ve found the right match for your team and the project’s parameters — there’s still the chance that your chosen candidate turns your offer down. Worse yet, once they’ve begun working for you, you may discover that they’re not as capable as they led you to believe. Now you have to start the process all over again.
All of this may leave you asking yourself the following questions:
- Where can I look to find capable and experienced developers?
- What should I say in my job posting to have it be noticed by the right candidates?
- How can I know that they will fit in with the rest of the team?
- What are the basic skills and personality traits I should be looking for?
- What is a fair rate of pay for remote programmers?
- How to hire remote developers?
Thankfully, there are strategies you can employ to streamline the process. The following information will lower the chances that all the time and energy invested in hiring a remote developer isn’t in vain.
Read on to learn reliable tips and tricks for how to hire remote developers.
Why You Should Hire Remote Developers
The decision to hire a remote developer should be based on many factors, not just the cost. While it isn’t the right choice for all situations, there are distinct benefits for employers and their employees. As a bonus, hiring a remote developer has advantages for the global environment, which all of us should be working to protect.
Benefits For Employers
Unsurprisingly, the benefits of hiring a remote developer for the employer rank high in the decision-making process. These include:
- Reduction of expenses — Remote employees don’t need office space, and they pay for their own utilities and office supplies. If even a small portion of your workforce operates remotely, the savings can be substantial.
- Access to talent — There are many specialties in the world of information technology. Finding someone who has experience in the niche you need and lives close to your base of operations may be nearly impossible. Hiring remotely allows you to tap into the global talent pool and find exactly what you’re looking for.
- Adaptability — In today’s fast-paced and ever-changing global marketplace, the only way for a company to stay competitive is for it to be able to adapt quickly. Hiring remote developers may allow you to find an individual or a team that’s ready to tackle your project in a short period of time with the most up-to-date technology and techniques.
- Happier employees — It isn’t a secret that happier employees are more productive and driven to help their company succeed. Both you and your remote employees reap the rewards if they’re happy because they wish to work remotely.
Benefits For Employees
The choice to work remotely is a personal one, and not every employee thrives under these conditions. However, those who choose to work remotely find many advantages to getting a paycheck without having to physically go to work. For example, they enjoy the following benefits:
- A better work-life balance — While a forty-hour workweek is the standard in the United States, the time spent on work-related activities can add up to much more than that, especially when you factor in commute times. According to the Office of National Statisitcs in the UK, the stress of battling traffic, relying on public transportation, and the anxiety this causes has been shown to contribute to depression. Working remotely eliminates the need for a commute of any kind. It often gives the worker the freedom to set their own schedule so that they’re free to do the things that make them happy.
- Efficiency — The power of employees to set their own work schedule and reduce transportation-related stress makes it easier for them to focus on the task at hand. They’re clearer-headed when they sit down to do their work, working more accurately and efficiently with less downtime.
- Less resentment — Let's face it, some folks just don’t like to be told what to do or when to do it. Given the opportunity to work without the feeling of being micromanaged will help remote employees feel more relaxed. In turn, this makes them more likely to finish work on time.
- Higher productivity — All things considered, those who choose to work remotely are happier and healthier. They’re more likely to get more done in their workday than those who work in-house.
Benefits For the Environment
Initially, the effect of remote work on the environment wasn’t a large part of the decision-making process. Now, with the evidence that our environment is in need, our ability to protect it as best we can has become an important factor.
Huge amounts of greenhouse gasses are released into the atmosphere every rush hour. This is especially true around large population centers. Add to that the damage that is done processing all of the gas and oil that’s burned, and the toll is quite significant. Any reduction in the number of people driving or taking public transportation is a benefit to the environment.
Why Revelo Hires Remote Developers
In addition to the above-mentioned benefits of hiring remote developers, Revelo adds another — diversity.
Hiring people of different cultures and backgrounds offers your company the benefit of fresh perspectives and unique insights. What better way to increase the diversity of your workforce than by hiring remote developers from nearshore countries?
Not only does Revelo offer a talented pool of skilled IT professionals, they also ensure that potential employees come from diverse backgrounds. This makes them an even larger asset to your company.
The 3 Primary Challenges of Hiring Remote Developers
Hiring the right employee is always a difficult task, and hiring a remote employee comes with its own challenges as well. Ultimately, the benefits that the right individual or team of remote developers will offer to you make the process worthwhile — both for you and your other employees.
Great advantages come with understanding the challenges you’ll face in your search. Here are three of the hurdles you’ll have to successfully navigate.
Creating and Managing Job Postings
Finding the best way to write a job posting is a weighty undertaking. You must ensure that it attracts the right candidates and avoids the interests of those that aren’t qualified. From there, you have to decide on the right job boards to post it on. Chances are you’ll have to post the job on multiple job boards for the best results.
All of this means that a large portion of your day may be devoted to logging in and out of job boards, sifting through applications until you find the help you need.
Vetting Candidates
Assuming your efforts to create a good job posting were successful, you now have a pile of potential candidates that have to be sorted through and vetted. This process will also occupy a decent amount of your valuable time.
Language Issues
If you’re running a company based in an English-speaking country and the remote developers you’re considering are located in countries where English is not the official language, you may encounter communication issues.
The talent of a developer you hire doesn’t really matter if he or she can’t accurately communicate with the rest of your team — there are going to be mistakes and delays. Be aware that some who can write fluent English may not always be able to speak it clearly, and those who speak it well may not be able to communicate effectively through writing.
Regardless of their native language, all of the above challenges can be managed with a strong understanding of what makes a talented software developer and a clear idea of what your team needs to get the job done.
Extensive interviewing and time spent finding references or reviews will help to screen out some unfit candidates as well.
How To Write a Job Description for Remote Developers
Writing an effective job description to hire remote workers requires that you clearly and concisely explain the skills needed, the time expected, and the compensation being offered. Getting the details right will help to cut down on the number of applications you receive from people who are unable — or unwilling — to do the job within the given parameters. And it all starts with the right job title.
Title
Avoid fluff or superlatives when writing a job title. While you may be looking for “The Best” developer or a “rockstar” programmer, those types of words have no place in a job posting title. All you want to put in the title is a descriptive name of the actual position. For instance, if you’re looking for a developer who has experience using the Kotlin language, the phrase “Kotlin Developer” will bring in resumes from people with the exact skill you’re looking for. With a simple title like “Software Developer,” this results in receiving resumes from people who likely aren’t experienced with Kotlin.
Description
The description is the place where you get to sell your job. It should contain all of the details, including required skills and your company’s expectations for those who fill the role. It should also have information about the job’s salary, benefits, and perks.
Job seekers aren’t any different than the rest of us when it comes to reading large blocks of text — they frequently get bored and tune out the information. For the best results, break up the information into small chunks and include lists where applicable.
If you’re at a loss for how to begin, you can find templates for job listings online. Once you have them, all you need to do is enter your specific information and the job is mostly done.
Requirements
Perhaps the most important aspect of your job posting is the job’s requirements. You really don’t want prospective candidates to miss this since many job seekers consider it the make-or-break section of a job posting.
This information is best formatted as a list. That way, candidates can use it as a checklist to see if they meet all of the job’s basic requirements.
Again, the more specific you make the job requirements, the less likely you are to end up with a bunch of resumes that aren’t useful to you. For instance, instead of simply saying “experience required,” try instead, “at least 5 years experience using Kotlin required.”
What’s the Process for Hiring Remote Developers?
There’s a five-step process for hiring the right remote developer.
1. Find the Right Job Board and Post Your Listing
Once you’ve created a job posting that you believe contains all the relevant information in a way that’s easy to understand, you must decide where to post it.
There are many job boards online to choose from. Some cater to specific niches, and others will let you select a geographical region where your post will be available. But not every board has a good reputation or is widely known.
Take the time to research the job boards before posting, and choose the ones that best meet your needs. You may need to post on several ones to reach your desired developer.
2. Sort Through the Applications
No matter how carefully you word your job posting, there’s still a chance that you’ll get applications from people who aren’t right for the job.
Avoid unqualified candidates with a quick screening of the applications. This will allow you to fully focus on those who may be an asset to your company.
3. Pay Attention to the Cover Letter
While reading through resumes will give you a clear idea of the education and experience the candidate has to offer, cover letters provide additional desired insight.
A cover letter that’s well written should be in clear English and concisely persuade you why you should hire the candidate. If it does, then you know that they're capable of clear and effective communication. If it doesn’t, you may want to get back to searching.
4. The Interview
If a job seeker has made it through the previous steps, then it’s time to set up an interview. Having a successful interview can be a bit of a challenge in the case of remote employees, but it’s still a necessary step.
Even if your interview is through a computer screen, you'll still be able to ascertain the communication skills of the candidates. Ask the right questions to get a sense of the level of their experience and whether or not their personality will fit with the rest of your team.
5. Evaluation and Testing
The final step in the process is to put the candidate through a series of tests so that you can evaluate their performance. Obviously, the exact nature of the testing depends on the role to be filled. However, giving them a task to complete in a predetermined period of time will not only give you a chance to evaluate their skills but also shows how they perform under pressure.
What Does a Good Developer Look Like? 5 Skills to Look For
It goes without saying that any remote developer you hire needs to be skilled at programming. However, that isn’t the only thing they need to be skilled at. Look for people with these five traits to make sure you’re getting a well-rounded employee with staying power.
- Discipline — Any remote worker needs to be self-disciplined enough to meet deadlines and complete projects without outside intervention.
- Communication — Good communication skills are necessary for most positions, but this is especially the case for remote workers.
- Initiative — Remote workers must have the initiative to seek out guidance when necessary and look to continuously improve their performance.
- Balance — Being able to balance one’s work life and home life is vitally important for a remote worker. If they can’t draw the line between family and work, they risk being distracted and unable to focus on the task at hand.
- Maturity — Ideally, maturity encompasses all of the above-mentioned traits. A person’s age isn’t always a reliable way to determine their level of maturity.
Related: What Is The Best Way to Hire Good Developers?
Should You Hire a Freelancer or Full-Time Remote Developer?
Ultimately, the decision as to whether to hire a freelancer or full-time employee depends on the specific needs of your company and budget. Decide which type of developer is right for you by reviewing the pros and cons of both options.
Pros of Freelance Remote Developers
Hiring freelance remote developers will offer these advantages:
- Save time and money
- Huge talent pool to choose from
- Adaptability
Cons of Freelance Remote Developers
These are some of the disadvantages of hiring freelance remote developers:
- They may disappear every now and then
- Harder to determine work ethic and experience
- Might be difficult to establish loyalty to you or your company
Pros of Full-Time Remote Developers
Hiring a full-time employee to work remotely is a relatively new concept, but it is gaining in popularity. Here are a few of the reasons why:
- Less expensive
- More talent to choose from
- Higher employee satisfaction and production
Cons of Full-Time Remote Developers
There are some potential pitfalls when hiring remote developers. These include:
- Hard to create a team mentality
- Time zone issues
- Potential communication issues and culture clashes
A freelance remote developer might be the right choice for your company if your budget is small or if the project is short-term. If you're likely to have continuous work or are trying to build a foundation on which to grow your company, then a full-time remote developer may be the best choice.
7 Places To Find and Hire Remote Developers
Once you've decided that hiring a remote developer is the right choice for your company, you need to begin the search. Here are 7 places where you may be able to find the right match.
Outsourcing Agencies
Outsourcing agencies make the entire process a breeze. All you have to do is contact them, let them know exactly what you are looking for, and when you need the project completed. From there, they’ll go and find the right IT professionals for you.
That’s it. No fuss, no muss. They find, vet, and hire the candidate with absolutely no effort on your part.
Freelance Marketplaces
Freelance marketplaces are the most useful if you have a specific short-term project you need to have completed.
In this case, the freelancers advertise their expertise, availability, and pay requirements. The employers search through them to find the candidates they want.
Job Boards
Job boards are perhaps the best way to find a skilled developer on your own, but the process is labor-intensive. Still, if you have a position to fill and you don’t want to waste money paying an agency to do the work for you, they are the way to go. Here are several of the more useful and popular job boards.
- FlexJobs
- We Work Remotely
- Working Nomads
- Landing.Jobs
- Jobspresso
- Remote OK
- NoDesk
- Remotive
- Remote.co
- The Muse
- SkipTheDrive
- Remote
- VirtualVocations
- Letsworkremotely
- Remote Work Hub
- Remotely Awesome Jobs
- Go Remote Jobs
- GoRemote
- EuropeRemotely
- Work in Startups
This was created as a way for members of different career niches to find each other, provide career advice, and give referrals. It has grown into a great place to find remote or in-house workers of any niche.
Referrals
Referrals have always been, and still are, an important way to acquire information on new employees. They help to familiarize you with the talent, work ethic and skills of whom you may be considering.
Since Reddit is a forum site, you may not expect it to be a valuable resource when searching for new talent. Like most sites, though, it has evolved over time. It now provides areas known as subreddits where people of specific niches can showcase their skills and make a name for themselves.
Further Resource: Alternative Tech Staff Augmentation
Revelo
Revelo is a unique platform that works to find high-quality tech talent in Latin America and connect them to employers in the United States. They aren’t an outsourcing agency — rather, they’re a source for skilled and vetted remote software engineers that you can choose from.
Contact us to find out more about how Revelo can help you to find and hire remote developers.
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