Remote work has increased by 44% in the last five years. The increased demand for remote work has been driven by many factors, such as advancing technology and the COVID-19 pandemic. 

While remote work has provided plenty of benefits for organizations, it has transformed key functions of Human Resource Management (HRM). After all, HR departments are responsible for managing remote teams — which are an organization's most valuable assets. 

As a result, organizations at large must understand how Remote HR can best respond to the changing work demands. Thankfully, there are a range of different platforms to support HRM in remote settings, and so leaders have a hidden arsenal to help tackle some of the challenges this new way of working and managing presents. 

In this article, we provide a guideline for managers to help them select the best remote HR tools in order to improve their management of remote teams, and ultimately achieve more with their distributed workforce. 

The Importance of Remote HR Tools

HR departments are vital in supporting employees and ensuring they achieve their full potential. In the past, HR involved working closely with teams to develop strategies unique to each organization.

Every company is nuanced in how it tackles various functions related to the human aspects of work. However, a fundamental similarity is that leaders must interface with the people to ensure a solid foundation for productivity.

Remote HR has developed under the changing nature of work. Remote HR systems enable HR professionals to conduct their core functions as they would in a physical office setting but without the colocation. Therefore, remote HR tools support the transition to an effective operation of a remote workplace.

Remote HR software will help business continuity and ensure other functions, such as onboarding, are managed seamlessly and effectively.

How to Make Remote HR Work

While Remote HR involves replicating the core functions of HR in the virtual space, not all factors remain unchanged. There are vital considerations to ensure that remote HR plays a primary role in supporting the part-time and full-time contracted employees. These include: 

Understanding Your Employees

Managers need to understand their teams and the context of their work deeply. While individuals have demonstrated that they can perform well in office settings for decades, this may be shifting with widespread remote working. Teams are likely to function in different ways, meaning that their unique approach may lead to a diverse set of challenges.

Considering teams’ unique setups and needs allows managers to provide the necessary support. Remote HR can only work when individuals are involved in key decisions that affect their work. For instance, some people will have to juggle critical work tasks with other responsibilities, such as childcare, and understanding this is a vital step in achieving success.

Providing Learning Opportunities

Learning is necessary for the organization and allows individuals to deal with new challenges. Remote work has created plenty of disruption, especially for individuals accustomed to traditional work environments. The growing importance of soft skills such as resilience and communication necessitates continued learning.

Once teams are engaged in continuous learning, remote HR functions better. This is because supporting employee growth and facilitating them with centralized access to information will ensure the organization continuously evolves, and also reduces the risk of employee churn. 

Scheduling Regular Facetime 

Video conferencing can become stressful when overutilized. This is even more true considering that individuals have different personalities. However, ensuring regular facetime with remote employees enables HR managers to take a temperature check of how teams are doing. This is essential because individuals’ attitudes influence their performance.

Face-to-face communication is necessary, but HR managers can opt for informal approaches to these sessions. This will allow employees to relax and portray their thoughts and feelings. When done right, face-to-face conversation can motivate employees to support remote HR functionalities. Plenty of remote HR software is available to ensure the organization and its employees are well-adjusted to the remote work environment.

The Best Remote HR Software for HR Core Functions

Having the necessary skills to manage teams in a remote organization is only one half of the battle — HR managers also need remote HR software that will support the delivery of the best results.

Remote HR software provides employers access to vital information that will guide key decision-making. Therefore, such software boosts the company’s productivity and supports a fluid remote HR system. In the following section, the we provide examples of software to support the myriad core functions of HR: 

Recruitment

Organizations face stiff competition in the current business environment. Therefore, getting access to the right candidates is vital. Recruitment in remote work ensures that the company has global access to the best candidates — not just those who are conveniently located.

Using platforms such as WeWorkRemotely to advertise open positions is a great way to reach out to candidates from all around the world, and gives you the opportunity to source from anywhere. Then, utilizing a tool such as Lever to manage your recruitment process can help to automate key milestones in communication, and makes it easy to keep track of incoming applications.

Candidate Selection 

Using tools such as myInterview or Test Gorilla is a great way to pre-screen candidates and save your remote HR team valuable time. These tools enable you to build qualification criteria into simple tests and questionnaires, which then helps to refine the candidate pipeline so that you don’t waste time interviewing ill-qualified candidates. 

Remote interviews are time-consuming and resource-intensive, so using pre-screening software is a great middle step between receiving applications and conducting interviews. 

Onboarding 

Onboarding is a necessary process that ensures that the legal side of hiring remote employees and contractors is covered. This includes KYB checks, contract signing, and getting your people set up for payroll and other important aspects of HR. 

RemotePass is a software that provides seamless onboarding for your people — no matter where they are based. Automatically generate locally-compliant contracts, manage the hiring of FTEs through an Employer of Record (EOR) solution, and automate other processes such as KYB, setting up payroll, and building the foundations for successful collaboration in just a few clicks. For US-based companies, RemotePass also automates much of the tax form collection process, which can be especially challenging when dealing with remote contractors. 

The Need for An All-In-One Software 

HR managers are constantly faced with multiple decisions due to the complex nature of managing people. This task becomes all the more complicated when the work shifts into the virtual space. While remote work has plenty of benefits, there is a need for top-level dedication among managers.

Many decisions affect an organization’s productivity. Therefore, remote HR requires one software that can provide all the essential HR services linked with increased performance. RemotePass is the best solution for onboarding, remote team contract management, benefits, and overall HR functions.

Despite the experience and skills of an organization’s HR managers, remote work is associated with unprecedented factors not experienced before in the business environment. Thus, the right software ensures managers have at the tips of their fingers a tool that will prove their decision-making regarding remote contracted employees. 

RemotePass provides a unified platform for global onboarding and payroll. The work of an HR is significant to the company and will influence how employees conduct their activities. Therefore, selecting software that will complement the HR system and the unique organizational culture is central to the organization’s increased productivity. 

RemotePass ranks as the best remote HR platform for organizations looking to create or sustain competitive advantage in the changing workplace environment.

Remote HR: The Gateway to A Seamless Distributed Workplace

This article has provided an overview of how remote HR can effectively contribute to the organization’s productivity. Although HR functions are still relevant in the changing nature of work, organizations need to support HR managers with appropriate software to support their processes and decision-making. Doing so will ensure that the business runs smoothly, therefore resulting in an efficient team that produces successful projects.

Thankfully, RemotePass is here to help companies, as well as full time employees, to streamline the entire process — from onboarding to managing employee benefits — in a single, easy-to-use platform.