Post-pandemic life has ushered in an entirely new way to work. Increasingly, employers are offering hybrid or fully remote job opportunities, expanding beyond their corporate headquarters and hiring remote teams from all over the globe.
As a remote-friendly employer, you see firsthand the benefits this new way of working provides, like access to more diverse perspectives and top-tier talent, international exposure. What’s more, it’s reported that people who work remotely are generally happier, according to a study published on Flex Jobs, which also goes on to say that remote workers experience higher productivity and better focus than they do when in an office environment.
As with hiring for in-person roles, recruiting for remote positions is time-consuming and expensive. If not done right, you can spend months and months and tons of money before finding the right person for the job. One way to avoid the costly mistake of hirng the wrong person, is to ensure your remote work interview questions probe at specific characteristics you need your remote hire to have in order to succeed.
We have compiled a comprehensive list of remote work interview questions to ensure you hire the right person, the first time around. First let’s paint a better picture of what key characteristics you need in an effective remote worker.
Key Characteristics of a Remote Hire
As with any job, whether in-person or remote, your candidates will need to have the requisite skills related to the job you are hiring for. This will vary from role to role, and company to company.
Things like empathy, attention to detail, organizational skills and passion are all professional skills that will also help your team member thrive in the role, too, but there are two specific characteristics that you will want your remote worker to have. These include:
Strong Communication Skills
With remote work, often your team members will be working flexibly[FR1] , sometimes across multiple time zones, which will require asynchronous communication.
You must ensure that the remote employees you hire has strong communication skills and communication style. Not just face-to-face, but across email, instant messenger, video chat, and across collaboration tools and software.
Focus in a Remote Environment
You must ensure that your remote workers have the ability to limit distractions and stay focused on tasks, ensuring that when they need to get projects complete they can do so efficiently and remain engaged.
So, how do you ensure you are recruiting and hiring talent that possess these characteristics in addition to all of the other qualifications your particular role requires?
Top-tier interview questions, of course!
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We have a comprehensive list of remote interview questions that will help you better understand your candidates potential strengths and weaknesses to determine if they are a fit for the role.
10 Interview Questions to Hire Top-Tier Remote Workers
1. Have You Ever Worked Remotely Before?
First things first, you will want to ensure the candidate is comfortable and ideally, familiar with working remote.
This will ensure they understand the nuances between in-office and remote-first roles, and will be able to quickly adapt their working style to seamlessly integrate into your team.
Someone who has never worked remotely may have misconceptions about what it means.
2. When Working Remotely, What Challenges Did You Face?
Similar to question one, you will want to get a sense of the challenges your candidate has experienced in a remote role and what steps they took to overcome them.
The goal here is to get a better sense of the candidate’s familiarity with remote work and their ability to navigate the common challenges inherent in this type of working environment.
Things like staying engaged with colleagues, effective communication to update on projects, ability to remain focused, etc.
3. Have You Worked with a Distributed Team Before?
While this question may sound similar to question one, it is not.
This question gets at the core of remote, global work, which is different from the dynamic of a remote-first team that work from home but are located in the same city. With a distributed work force, you can have colleagues located all across the world, operating in different time zones, across continents.
This presents its own unique set of challenges for someone who does not have experience leveraging asynchronous communication tools and collaboration systems and engaging with people who are working different hours, with diverse perspectives and cultural customs.
Asking about your candidate's experience with distributed teams will give you a good idea of their comfortability – and willingness to learn – in this kind of environment.
4. What Systems and Tools Have You Used to Communicate with Remote Colleagues?
This question will give you a good sense of whether or not the potential candidate has experience with and/or is comfortable using tools and technology to facilitate effective remote work and collaboration across different continents.
Asynchronous communication tools, which enable collaboration and connection among teams that are remote and often globally distributed, can include a variety of video conferencing platforms, content management systems and instant messengers.
8 Popular Systems and Tools to Communicate With Remote Colleagues
Google Workspace is a collection of cloud computing, productivity and collaboration tools, software and products consisting of Gmail, calendars, Meet & Chat for communication, a drive for storage, Google Docs editors and more.
Notion is a productivity and note-taking web application that offers organizational tools including task management, project tracking, to-do lists, bookmarking, and more.
Basecamp refers to its platform as “refreshingly simple project management software”. Basecamp provides remote workers with features like message boards, document and file-sharing capabilities, to-do lists, schedules and real-time progress tracking.
Dropbox is a cloud-based file hosting service that allows users to store things like computer backups, photo libraries, thousands of documents and more – all in one place.
Dropbox has other integrated features like Sign, which streamlines your document workflows with legally binding eSignatures and Passwords. This allows you to automatically store unlimited passwords in one central secure place.
Microsoft Teams is another platform where users can chat, make video and phone calls, and share files while integrating natively with all other Microsoft products.
This tool makes collaboration simple by allowing users to easily find, share, and edit files together in real time with apps like Word, PowerPoint, and Excel.
Slack is a messaging app for businesses that helps connect teams to the information they need. With Slack, remote workers can navigate a user-friendly interface that lets them chat with their colleagues, share files, collaborate, video call, and more.
The tool also can integrate with other commonly used business products like G Suite, Adobe Creative Cloud, DropBox and many more.
Trello is a project management tool that can make cross-collaboration and automation of tedious tasks super simple. Remote workers can set up boards to organize tasks and keep teams moving forward.
Lists break down the different stages of a task and can be customized into workflows that fit your team’s specific needs. Cards are another function that represents all the tasks and ideas with information relevant to help everyone get their work done.
Zoom is a communications platform that can help remote employees connect via video, audio, phone, and chat. It’s become a popular choice among remote-first employers who want to collaborate and host meetings from a distance.
With Zoom, team members who work remotely can have breakout rooms, and use emoji reaction functions and filter features. There are free and paid-for subscriptions depending on specific needs of your remote team.
5. How Do You Remain Focused in a Remote Work Environment?
Remote work can come with its own set of distractions. Remote employees might be distracted by the noise of other people in their co-working space or perhaps children are being disruptive while working from home.
Distractions in a remote environment are inevitable, but there are many ways to mitigate them and ensure you remain engaged and on track. Asking this question will give you a sense of how your remote candidate copes with these common issues.
They might even give you some ideas for yourself! Things like noise-canceling headphones, meeting-free days and scheduling calendar blocks are some answers you might expect to hear during your remote interviews.
6. Tell Me Some Ways You Like to Disconnect from Work in a Remote Setting?
Better work-life balance is one of the best parts of remote work life, giving people back time in their day that would typically be spent commuting to and from the office.
That said, having no clear separation between your professional and personal life can sometimes give remote workers trouble disconnecting. It is critical to take meaningful breaks from work to spend time with loved ones and do activities you’re passionate about beyond your remote job.
Asking this question in your interview not only lets you learn a little bit more about your candidates’ hobbies and interests, it allows them to reevaluate their relationship to work.
7. Why Are You Interested in a Remote Job?
If the candidate you are interviewing has never worked remotely, this question can help you better understand why this kind of working arrangement is appealing to them.
As a remote employer, you want to make it clear to your candidate that a remote job isn’t always fun and games, and paint a clear picture of your expectations. Many candidates want to work remotely but aren’t aware of the reality and may find the transition harder than they previously thought.
What’s more, the answer your candidate gives can help give you insight into who they are both as a person and an employer.
For example, if they say remote work is appealing because they have young kids at home, that may indicate potential distractions or obstacles for them in the role.
Not necessarily a deterrent, but just something to keep in mind.
8. What Do You Like and Dislike About Working in an Office Setting?
The reality is, some people thrive in social, in-office environments. Some team members may not fully grasp the reality of working remotely, which can involve far less face-to-face interaction.
This is a great time to emphasize the fun, virtual events your organization hosts for employees. You can also ask the candidate about their experience with digital events and what they have found effective and enjoyable in the past.
In this day and age, company culture is a real asset to have - especially with remote jobs! Employees working in a remote job or with a distributed team can both appreciate a hiring manager who highlights how culture is prioritized.
The key here is to ensure the potential team member is aware of the ways your organization champions connection and camaraderie through engaging, virtual activities.
9. How Would You Rate Your Tech Skills?
Before you hire a new team member, the hiring manager should ensure that they are comfortable and able to use and troubleshoot their tech on their own.
Of course, remote-first organizations will often have in-house tech support available with a call or email, but for day-to-day hardware issues or computer glitches, it’s ideal if your candidate has experience and is able to handle minor technical challenges as they come.
10. Where Do You Prefer to Work?
While this environment provides a ton of flexibility in terms of where your remote team members can do their jobs, it still requires things like a dedicated space, strong Wi-Fi and an environment conducive to taking calls and meetings if need be.
Depending on the overall compensation and benefits package you are willing to offer, you may want to better understand your candidate's remote work environment in case they require some supplies or hardware, like a desk or computer monitor. You also want to get a sense of the kind of environment that your candidate finds the most inspiring and productive.
Now that you know what questions to ask, remote interviews should be a breeze.
Remember to dig deeper and use these questions as a complement to your other standard remote interview questions to ensure you are getting all of the information you need to hire the most qualified, best culture fit for your remote team.
We know this is easier said than done.
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