What’s the Trick to Hiring Remote Staff?

Ray Access has been a virtual company since its founding in 2014. Our work-at-home business model suits the type of work we do and the often-distant location of our clients. It simply doesn’t pay to keep an office when all our business is conducted via email and cell phone. And not having one keeps the overhead low.

Originally, Ray Access consisted of founders Linda Ray and Mark Bloom. We did all the work. But as the business grew, we needed help, eventually hiring (and sometimes firing) dozens of contract writers and support staff. Along the way, we’ve picked up insights into hiring remote staff, which we’d like to share if you’re considering doing the same.

How Do We Hire Remotely?

This question comes up a lot. How can we hire someone we’ve never met in person? The solution to this seemingly difficult problem is simple. After all, we ask the same of our clients. We want them to hire us to write their website content, blog posts or newsletters without ever actually meeting us.

When hiring remote staff, it’s all about building trust. You want to trust that your remote workers are doing the tasks you’ve hired them to do. Some businesses pay by the hour; we don’t. We pay per project, so it doesn’t matter to us whether it takes 10 minutes or 10 hours to do the work. The pay is the same. Our clients get the same deal: their price is the same, regardless how long it takes us.

What’s the First Sign of a Good Hire?

The first hurdle is prompt, professional communication. When prospective team members contact us — or when we contact them — the promptness of the reply tells us how eager they are regarding our opportunity. An unanswered email or a late response doesn’t send a positive message. There are valid excuses, but prompt replies create a starting point for any remote relationship.

Promptness isn’t the only criterion. When we’re hiring remote staff, the level of communication is also pertinent. Our goal is to get to know someone we’ve never met. The only clue, so far, is the way they communicate. We value communication as much as an assignment that’s well done; therefore:

• We expect well-crafted email messages. Misspellings and incorrect grammar usage are clues that the candidate isn’t a good fit for us. You may feel similarly.
• An unprofessional tone is another deal-breaker. We offer a source of revenue for our freelance writers. In return, we expect them to take our expectations seriously and maintain a professional approach.

How Do We Set Expectations?

At Ray Access, we don’t hold formal interviews when hiring remote staff. If you do, use a phone call or a Zoom meeting to meet your prospective remote worker. Once a potential writer passes the communication test, we offer a test assignment. The writer gets paid for this work whether or not we deem it good enough to use — unless we find it’s been plagiarized.

Along with the test assignment instructions, we send our style sheet and non-negotiable guidelines, in which we set our expectations for communication and work. We’ve fired contract writers for repeatedly breaking these expectations, although we usually give everyone a second chance.

The test provides an example of their work and makes them feel like they’re really working for us. We provide some coaching and encourage questions. We give enough time to complete the assignment. The process gives us an insight to how new writers work, what they’re capable of and how well they respond to instructions. If it works out, great. If it doesn’t, we pay them and send them on their way.

Read Part 2 for more tips about hiring remote staff in our next blog post.

Ray Access is a content marketing firm that delivers targeted words to empower your business. Contact us about your specific project to receive a quote or discuss your needs. We write website copy, blog posts, e-newsletters and more. Everything we do is thoroughly researched, professionally edited and guaranteed original.