6 Strategies for Hiring Tech Talent Remotely

Remote technical interviews are now the new business imperative. They follow social distancing guidelines, making them more advisable than in-person interviews during the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s no surprise that 86% of organizations switched to virtual interviews to continue their hiring roadmap, as per GartnerOpens a new window . 

But a remote technical interview also has its challenges.

It’s much harder to read body language, and you don’t have the convenience of real-time repartee, quickly clarifying minor points to prevent miscommunication. Candidates cannot physically experience your workplace, making it difficult for them to gauge your company’s culture and working environment. 

That’s why you need a structured process to aid the hiring of app developers and software engineers during the pandemic.  The following six steps will help you formulate a plan that sets clear benchmarks for remote technical hiring in response to COVID-19 and beyond.

Learn More: Top 10 In-Demand Tech Skills You Should Master in 2021 

1. Develop and Use a Standardized Scores-based Rating System

Before starting the interview process, you should be ready with a score sheet. 

Score sheets help technical interviewers rate a candidate’s eligibility in a quantifiable manner. It includes strategic questions to guide the interviewer, helping them get a sense of the interviewee’s personality traits, educational qualifications, work experience, and, of course, technical skills. 

When filling out the score sheet, interviewers must record their observations rather than coming to a concrete conclusion. This keeps the process fair and objective even when conducted remotely. 

A standardized score sheet will: 

• Categorize traits into clear buckets instead of what the interviewer thinks is important
• Maintain consistency across different candidates and interviewers 

So, how do you go about developing the score sheet? First, assess the skills a candidate would need to do the job for which you are interviewing. List out questions that can shed light on the candidate’s qualifications against these specific skills. 

Your organization will have documents defining hiring standards, including the necessary skills, core values and the differences between role levels. Use these documents to develop interview questions that have both possible good and bad answers.  Be ready with follow-up questions for a candidate whose answers seem vague or evasive. 

2. Prepare Your Infrastructure to Support the Remote Interview

Compared to all other online interview techniques, a live video is the most effective as it is the closest to an in-person presence. Make sure the interviewer has access to a strong internet connection. They can also conduct a practice interview with a colleague to ensure your technology works.

Send the candidate an invitation to your interview via email. This email should include the day and time it will be held, any login code for accessing the interview software you’ll use for the interview, the estimated duration, and any additional information or documentation you will need from the candidate.

On the day of the interview, choose a place that is quiet and free from distractions. If you are interviewing from home, make sure those who live with you (including your pets, if any) will not disturb you during that time. Keep your environment as professional as you would during an in-person interview. 

Finally, be prepared to sell your organization to ensure the candidate knows what your company does and why one would want to be a part of it.

3. Use Hands-On Tests To Check For Technical Competencies That Reflect a Candidate’s Skill Level

A large portion of the interview will involve hands-on coding at the keyboard.

The coding assignment covers areas that accurately predict whether a candidate will be a successful developer/software engineer at your organization, based on the job’s description and responsibilities. Review the resume, especially the last 2-3 years of work experience, to develop questions related to a specific experience, qualifications, and the coding problem you will be giving the candidate to solve.

You can get a headstart to hands-on testing at the Q&A stage of the interview itself. Each interview question should focus on a single competency without going into topics that aren’t really relevant to the job. For example, questions on sorting algorithms that have little to do with practical application and analytical capabilities will only tell you how recently the candidate left school! 

The coding assignment should allow them to show you that they can make sensible design decisions. Can they translate your problem statement to technical requirements? Can they make reasonable decisions that balance simplicity with future needs? Are their solutions overly complicated? Can they communicate clearly? How do they accept feedback? Does their solution demonstrate poor code quality or extensive knowledge gaps?

Write down as much of the interview as possible (or record it with the candidate’s permission) so that you can review it to make your hiring decision. 

Learn More: 8 Tips to Retain Your IT Workforce in a Downturn 

4. Avoid Bias At All Costs 

Bias is always a risk when hiring, especially if you are doing it remotely. The chances are that you won’t have a panel of interviewers to balance out any personal subjectivity. When one person assesses the candidate through a digital channel, their biases and personal preferences can easily shape their initial impressions. 

It is imperative that: 

• Personal impressions are NOT recorded as conclusions (the score sheet can help you here)
• The interview questionnaire does not touch upon personal or potentially offensive topics 

Interviewers must be cautious about both intentional and unintentional bias. It is against the law to discriminate based on a candidate’s demographic, and it will also lower your possibilities of acquiring top talent from across a diverse pool. 

To prevent bias in your interview, avoid asking personal questions – for example, anything about kids, age, pregnancy, religion, or health status. Stick to technical questions only. It is a good idea to get your interview questions pre-vetted by the company’s legal HR counsel. In case you don’t have one, consult your local government’s equal opportunity employment office to understand which topics come across as discriminatory/bias-prone. 

5. Work Proactively to Minimize False Negatives 

A false negative occurs when a candidate who is well-suited for the job is assigned a low score or makes a poor impression on the interviewer. This usually happens when interview questions are too generic, irrelevant, or trying to capture a lot of information at once. 

For example, a coding question should explicitly mention if you prioritize optimality, functionality, or speed and whether testing is also part of the score. Without these specifics, you risk penalizing a candidate for not completing a task that wasn’t mentioned (but might have been implicitly required) – thereby introducing false negatives. 

However, the skill test shouldn’t become too easy in an attempt to make it specific.  Adhere to your organization’s guidelines when giving assistance or hints so that you do not skew a candidate’s performance. Here are a few tips:  

• Avoid giving candidates tasks that have a single, specific solution. These can make it arbitrarily easy for a candidate to find that one specific solution. 
• Ask open-ended problems that can be solved without studying any specific topic, algorithm, or data structure. This minimizes the effects of arbitrary advantage/disadvantage.
• Be clear about what you will provide the candidate and what the candidate is expected to produce in return. Don’t ask the candidate to define the requirements for the task you’re going to give them. Even a highly capable candidate won’t be able to provide a satisfactory solution if you don’t provide the context/constraints/requirements necessary for the problem.

6. Ensure Your Candidates are Comfortable With The Entire Experience

To help them feel confident and at their best, schedule the interview on a day that gives your candidates sufficient time to prepare. 

The common best practices for in-person interviews apply here as well: 

• Look and sound professional 
• Switch off your phone and computer notifications to reduce distractions 
• Make direct eye contact with the candidate by looking at the computer’s camera instead of the screen

A good way to increase a candidate’s comfort level is by giving them a chance to talk about their best work. This will also build confidence before the coding portion of the interview.

The second element for superior experiences is transparency in expectations. Tell candidates at the very outset that a score sheet will be in use, that there will be questions around certain topics, and the method of assessment. At the end of the interview, candidates should feel like they had a professional and fair experience. 

Be sure to let the interviewee know what to expect going forward. Let them know when you plan to finalize a candidate, how you will inform candidates of their status, and if you require additional information. Finally, ask them if they have any lingering questions.

Learn More: 8 Hard-to-Fill Cybersecurity Jobs in 2021 

Making Provisions for Remote Technical Interviews in 2021

Despite these complexities, there is an upside to remote interviews besides keeping your employees and candidates safe from COVID-19. 

They are particularly useful when hiring foreign talent for a virtual team or an employee for a satellite/non-HQ office. Remote interviewing lets you accommodate a variety of schedules and meet with interviewees across time-zones. Further, candidates might have full-time jobs making it impossible for them to travel to meet with you in person.

Remote interviews are also more suited to recording, giving you the chance to recheck the first interview’s judgement. You could use these recordings as coaching materials when filling future vacancies. 

The demand for developers and software engineers isn’t slowing down. Reports suggest that despite a sluggish economy and concerns around job loss, software development roles actually saw an increase in demand (8%)Opens a new window – among the few industries to increase hiring since the pandemic. Now more than ever, technical interviewers should ensure candidates are comfortable with the remote hiring process, eager to join their organization.

Are you ready to fill the technical job vacancies through remote-only hiring channels in 2021? Comment below or let us know on LinkedInOpens a new window , TwitterOpens a new window , or FacebookOpens a new window . We’d love to hear from you!