With the dawn of the “new normal” after the challenges of the last couple of years, companies are looking at human resources from a different perspective. Organizations are striving to find ways to reach candidates and hire the right applicants for the right role. Top talent is highly sought after, and it has become a constant struggle for companies to secure highly skilled and exceptional individuals. The same goes for remote-first teams.

In this article, we’ll guide you on how to attract top-notch employees and give you strategies for how to motivate them to work with you toward growth and success.

Importance of Attracting Talent for Remote-first Companies

It is vital for you as a remote company to secure new hires that support your vision and have goals and objectives aligned with yours. Here are some of the reasons:

Boosting Your Competitive Advantage

Individuals who prefer a good work-life balance and flexible hours are often the applicants who are looking for remote jobs. By providing this, you’ll be the preferred choice over companies that do not provide the same opportunities. What’s more, by hiring remotely, you open up your company to the best talent in the world, rather than the most conveniently-located. This means that you capture the best team members, enhancing your productivity and innovation, and thus improving your market position.

Improving Your Working Environment

Collaboration of a-player employees who have the same work ethic and perspective immediately spells success for organizations. Having the right talent onboard and new hires striving to perform at par can promote a positive environment with high engagement and participation.

Increasing revenue

If you only hire for the sake of filling up a position, employee costs that make up the hiring, training, and other hours will increase and in turn, will affect your bottom line. When you attract top talent, you save unnecessary costs and time wastage from constantly interviewing, onboarding, and replacing previous employees.

Achieving High-Quality Output

If a company hires a candidate who will grow and develop while doing their work, there is a lesser chance of unexpected time off, complaints, and quitting their job. Engaged team members are more likely to produce high-quality and timely output compared to uninspired ones. Happy employees are more productive which contributes to increased overall company performance. 

Attracting Talent: How to Pick Winners

Attracting talent is vital to the success of every company. Ensuring that you manage to successfully locate, engage, and recruit the best and brightest will surely aid the growth of your organization, and is one of the biggest challenges that companies face globally.

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Here's are some steps to help you attract the best talent for your team:

Choosing the Right Candidate

If you only have one applicant and you think you can train them to become better, it would be better to say no now rather than spend significant amounts to upskill them. Expand your pool to reach more candidates and find the best individuals for your team, with the strongest skill-sets and most suitable experience, rather than just those who are nearby. 

Offering Competitive Benefits

A high salary may not be enough as top talents compare the perk packages that different employers offer. Offering leading benefits, such as extra paid days off to de-stress, well-being breaks, health benefits for dependents, paid parental leave, childcare programs, and other policies that take care of employees both financially and non-financially is a great way to attract the right people to your team — and to keep them motivated.

Communicating Career Development Opportunities

Remote work may be stereotyped as lonely or dull for some — but that doesn’t mean good performance remains unnoticed. There are many ways to grow in a remote company, and organizations can ensure stability and long-term growth by offering their people clear career-development opportunities, and being sure to communicate them, too. This aids both employee retention as well as engagement, but is also a key factor that top talent will look for when choosing a new employer

Retaining Winning Teams

It’s not only important to find top talent, but you must also know how to keep it. After all, the hiring process is long — and expensive. Therefore, if you have a high churn rate among your employees, you are wasting valuable resources. Here are some key ways to ensure retention as an employer: 

Promote Transparency 

By specifying roles, duties, and functions, team members are empowered and more confident in doing their job. Visible resource schedules for vacations and reduced overtime can help prevent isolation and burnout. Accountability breeds honesty and taking responsibility which boosts individual people skills and professionalism. 

Establish a Strong Remote Work Culture

Remote work does not have to be dull and comply only with what is needed. Icebreakers and weekly huddles build camaraderie and stronger staff-manager relationships among team members as well. Promoting a positive remote work culture enables workers to deepen their working relations with peers and teams. It also helps refresh their purpose to anchor themselves more tightly to the company.

Upskill Team Leaders and Hiring Managers

Supervisors and managers are the direct contact with employees which is why they should be provided with the necessary skills to improve teamwork and leadership and make major decisions. Hiring managers who fail to focus on picking exceptional talent from a pool of applicants also fail to answer the company’s current needs which can be detrimental to the organization’s functioning.

Motivating Remote Teams

Provide Alternative Team-Building Opportunities

Arranging coffee meetups and company retreats will help reduce employee remoteness and open a window to recharge and stay connected with the rest of the team. Organizations that provide innovative ways help build staff confidence to reach out and get involved. It also allows them to observe, suggest, and be creative which increases employee engagement.

Awards and Recognitions

Talented employees committed to bringing their best selves to the table contribute highly to leading a successful company. With each milestone the company reaches, leaders can show appreciation to outstanding individuals who helped make it happen. Awards come in different forms and are not just a recognition program. Recognition can be shown through gift cards, local tours, wellness and relaxation opportunities, dining, and other experiences that relate to a goal or target they achieved.

Maximize Potential

Aside from awards and recognitions, deserving individuals can also maximize their potential through work promotion. In a 2022 survey, studies show that 41% of remote employees have fewer chances of moving up the company ladder than their co-located counterparts. Taking care of their progress and career path is key to keeping employee retention high. Providing a ‘remote development lead’ who takes care of remote workers’ progression can help and form part of your remote HR function.

Feedback and Evaluation

If there are employees who excel, there are other personnel who have yet to develop their potential. Assessing the quality of work is an excellent way to review if they can still deliver and if their abilities are still suitable to what the organization requires. While constantly communicating and seeking feedback gives constructive criticism, it also shows leadership to learn when to let go of individuals who are not aligned with the company's demands anymore.

Attracting Talent – A Vital Process for Remote Companies

Remote-first organizations need to hire individuals who are the best fit for the company. By hiring correctly, you can help create high retention rates and choose employees that excel rather than hiring mediocre ones. It may take creativity to keep your top remote workers engaged and motivated but once you find innovative ways to hold them in your payroll, expect lower employee costs and increased productivity, collaboration, and efficiency.

RemotePass has features that can help you optimize, streamline, and build on your approach to remote working. Our powerful onboarding and easy-to-use financial solutions, remote-first companies are sure to manage more effectively and give way to future successes.