The covid pandemic affected the work routine and models of professionals. One of the drastic changes this pandemic made successfully was remote working. Remote working refers to doing your job, which you would traditionally do in your office, from anywhere. It is casually called work-from-home.
Prior to the pandemic hitting the globe, the percentage of the population working remotely was as low as 6%. About 3/4th part of the population had never experienced the routine of remote work. Many reports report that remote working has increased the productivity of employees. The success of remote working can be attributed to the advancements in technology.
Some of the most prominent technologies used in remote working are Cloud computing, Management tools, Mobile tools, Communication tools, and Business applications. Without the existence of technology, remote working could not have seen its glory. Remote working also aids in improving work-life balance.
Table of Contents
What is a remote developer? How to become one?
A remote developer is just one software developer coding and programming. The only difference is that he can work from any place rather than sitting in the office during working hours. To become an efficient remote developer, it is necessary that one should know the skill set required in his particular niche. There are multiple self-guided online courses that can help in gaining the needed skills.
Once the developer has gained his skillset, he should be starting filtering the best remote work options. Almost no hiring committee would hire a remote developer without an interview. Hence the next step is to ace the interview. If the aspirant gets the result he wants, the last duty of a remote developer is to collaborate with the rest of the team.
Why hire remote developers?
Let us discuss how it can be beneficial for you to hire remote developers. Hiring remote developers offers an extended pool of talent. With so much population, the quantity has been elevated while the quality seems to degrade. Hiring becomes tough and difficult because of the shortage of talent pool.
Another benefit of working with remote developers is that they can bring more productivity. The world of the present time, with its modern ways, is successful in providing the same, or sometimes the better, quality of work from their remote locations only. The increased productivity of remote developers can be conferred to suitable environments and flexible time.
A lot of managers also consider the remote working of developers to be cost-effective. This is because it cuts down various expenses like electricity, internet bills, etc. The long hours of office can rot creativity. This problem can be resolved easily by the concept of remote working. Remote developers have a choice to involve themselves in multiple tasks, which allows their creativity to develop creative ways and enhance productivity.
The pitfalls of hiring remote developers
The concept of remote developers has a lot of benefits with it. But here are some of the famous drawbacks if you are looking to hire a remote developer. The foremost concern regards the quality of the work. Very often, businesses, to cut off expenses, hire remote developers that are asking for less money than the crowd.
Gaining experience for newbies can be one of the reasons why you are getting remote developers at lower prices. This comes at the stake of disruption of quality. The new programmers might make glitches in the codes, which can hamper the results you need. To prevent such happening, you can conduct a hiring process that checks their ability. You can also take the reference of their past work.
Another problem that arises with remote developers is communication barriers. Communication barriers can arise because of different reasons. Some of the reasons are language barriers, lack of trust, poor working environment, lack of training, or poor management. One other drawback associated with remote development is inconsistent schedules. The remote developers you are working with are spread across the country or globe. This will lead to inconsistent working hours and will hamper project management.
Remote developers can add a lot of value to your company. They can be an integral part of the company and gain the best results for your company. But the hiring process for selecting the best candidate for remote development can be a tricky task. If the right candidate is chosen, they can impress you with what they have to offer. But if the hiring process becomes a little lenient, the growth and productivity can be hampered badly. In the upcoming part, let us talk about 6 mistakes people make while hiring remote developers.
1. Do you assume hiring a remote developer is an easy task?
One silly assumption managers make is that hiring a remote developer is an easy task. If you wish to hire any random person from the crowd, we agree that it can be really easy. But if you do not want to compromise the quality, we got your back. The hiring process can be a tedious one. It involves advertising, screening, interviewing, and finally selecting the candidates.
Let us not forget the large pool of developers in the tech hub. If you have hired a remote developer, it should be considered that you are ready to add a new remote employee to your team. Another important factor remains to provide a healthy working environment to your remote developer.
2. Limiting the search for remote developers in your locality
Remote working promotes efficient working eliminating the strict working environment of office work. The benefit of working with remote developers is that it eliminates geographic hurdles.
The expanded radius allows for adding diversity to your company. This can also extend the talent pool in your business. Hiring remote developers allows opting for talent in your domain beyond your vicinity. Remote developers can be found under an affordable budget.
Let us understand this with the example of CompuVision. The company struggled with growth and productivity. Later, to increase productivity, the company hired independent professionals that worked on their own accord.
3. Recruiting without an interview
In-person hiring involves a strict hiring procedure, inclusive of interviews and multiple steps of hiring. When a manager shifts to remote hiring, interviews become lenient.
The most popular strategy for hiring remote workers is performing video interviews. Video interviews can disclose enthusiasm, communication skills, experience, and technical knowledge. Video interviews are tagged to be more convenient by professionals.
Virtual interviews if conducted properly, the skills of the candidates can be evaluated more efficiently. The talent pool can be gathered more effectively as there is geographic flexibility. Interviews make a crucial part of hiring remote workers, as they may impact the productivity of the business.
4. No training processes for hired remote developers
For remote developers, it becomes a task to learn the new tools, details, and processes about how the company or business works. To understand the company culture, training processes become extremely crucial.
Building a centralized library containing guides, organization charts, and other information related to the company can be one way to ease things for fresher remote developers. Having the necessary information regarding the company allows remote developers to focus on their work instead of looking and waiting for answers.
The two models are used extensively by companies: Synchronous and Asynchronous. The synchronous model allows training by collaborating with an experienced developer. While an asynchronous model, the training is performed by self-guidance.
5. Not checking how prepared employees are in remote working routine
When we are talking of independent professionals, they happen to have sufficient experience, resources, and tools for accomplishing tasks. While selecting remote developers, you should understand some of the remote developers might be as prepared as the professionals.
Remote working routines should consider the tools and software required for the tasks involved. The working space also controls the productivity of the employees. The connection of the employers should be fast and reliable to meet the work expectations.
6. Not using the right conference tools
Not having the correct communication tools can affect how productively your remote developer can perform. The right communication tool can be really crucial. Choosing the right communication tool for your web development team can depend on different factors like cost, the scale of the organization, supporting technology, secrecy, etc.
Experts recommend blending both synchronous and asynchronous communication models. Synchronous communication channels include communication using real-time calls like video calls.
Asynchronous communication channels may make use of emails etc. Restricting one type of communication tool can result in tech burnout. Hence it is recommended to opt for different communication tools.
Wrapping It Up
In the tech domain, remote working was already prevalent. Covid played a major role in raising the number of remote developers. Regardless of what benefits remote working has to offer, it can never replace offices. Business of Information Technology, online services, etc., can take place in a remote atmosphere. But there are different businesses that require office hours. If we are strictly talking of software developers here, we can say it never was something novel. With carefulness, the hiring of remote developers can be the easiest task.
You must log in to post a comment.