So you’re looking to fill a position within your organization, do you hire someone in house or do you widen you candidate pool by opening it up for a possible remote candidate. At one time or another every hiring manager has been faced or has considered those two options, especially when there candidate pool maybe reduced by their location.
As you may know there are a lot of things to consider when making the decision to let someone work from their home office verses having them work in the company’s office. There is a special selfdiscipline that is needed when working from home and not everyone has it! The employee could be a wonderful productive member of a team working within an office environment but working from home they may turn unproductive because they don’t have the skills needed to work from a home office.
Telecommuting can be a “win-win” situation for both employer and employee. There can be a lot of advantages for both parties.
When a hiring manager is faced with making this type of decision, In house verses remote, he/she has to consider some of these things to see if the candidate can handle and be productive in a remote situation.
1. Does the candidate have a home office already set up in their home or are they going to be working off a TV tray in the living room?
2. Do they have a successful history working from their home office/ independently or is this going to be a first time thing for them?
3. Is their home office set up with the right equipment to do their job seamlessly, like they were working in the office?
4. Is their home work space free of distractions? Just because a person works from home, doesn’t me they can eliminate daycare for their kids if they are the only adult at home during the day.
5. Are they a good communicator? Will the employee be able to keep in contact with the office during normally work hours through email, phone and online chat programs?
6. Lastly will you have readily access to them as well during normal business hours?
There are some positives of having a remote employee if the right candidate is identified.
1. There is chance you can hire the candidate at a salary range less expensive if they’re from a smaller city and your office happens to be in a larger more populous area where the salaries can be higher.
2. Telecommuting arrangements can also decrease the down time for the employee which can be spent sitting in traffic verses walking across the hall to their home office.
3. Keeping an open mind about telecommuting can also attract more quality recruits.
4. Having the right telecommute employee can increase productivity for that particular positions as much as 40 percent, plus the retention of these employees tend to be higher as well.
Telecommuting can be a “win-win” situation for both employer and employee. There can be a lot of advantages for both parties. But there must be trust, communication and respect for this to work.