The future of work is telecommuting.
Gone are the days when everyone marked time cards and logged in. In those days, managers spent part of their day monitoring employee attendance, while employees wasted productive hours making sure they were accounted for.
“Face time” was not an application on his phone; rather, it was a way that you pledged allegiance to a biweekly paycheck. “Be seen and counted” was the mantra before digital and cloud technology, before remote work was seen as more than just a lazy employee banging on his computer in his pajamas. Now, technology has made working from home easier while staying on top of what’s going on at work.
The growth of flexible work
According to a study jointly sponsored by Global Workplace Analytics and FlexJobs , the number of teleworkers (not including the self-employed) in the U.S. has skyrocketed 115% in the last decade, and 40% more employers have offered flexible work options for the past five years.
Telecommuting isn’t just reserved for the younger, tech-savvy generation – the average age of a virtual employee is 46, and industries span forestry and agriculture to social, health and administrative, financial and legal services. In fact, five of the fastest growing remote work categories in 2017 were therapy (including social workers, rehabilitation coordinators, and occupational therapists), virtual administrators, clients and client services, mentoring, and jobs in state / local government offices.
Cost savings for both employer and employee
Virtual staffing has been a boon for small businesses. If workers in the US worked half their time at home, national savings would be more than $ 700 billion a year, according to an analysis by Global Workplace Analytics . Businesses could save $ 500 billion in rent, utilities, absenteeism, cleaning services, equipment, supplies, and lost productivity – more than a whopping $ 11,000 per employee per year. Nothing says happiness in the bottom line like cost savings, generating dollars that can be reinvested in your business.
Employees also gain a lot by saving on transportation costs that pay back both hours and dollars a day. Remote work has provided a financial lifeline for parents who need flexible hours, the disabled, and talented staff who cannot find the right job locally. Happy employees are productive.
Five interview questions to ask
If you have the type of business where scheduling flexibility – from offering employees one day a week to work from home to working completely remotely – makes sense, here are the five questions to ask when interviewing prospects. candidates. These questions will give you a better idea of the person you are interviewing and whether they have the appropriate discipline, experience, and organizational intelligence to work virtually.
1. Have you ever worked off-site, in any capacity, during your career?
You want to know if they understand the difference between an occasional WFH day and running their own virtual office. You don’t want your virtual employees to be lazy, but you also don’t want them to burn out and be left with nothing.
If they haven’t actually worked remotely, you can ask them how they have managed a work day from home.
2. If he has extensive remote experience, ask him how he has structured his day.
The candidate’s answer to this question will determine if they have actually done it before and if they have a plan ready to structure and organize their tasks over the course of a day. Do you have a project management system (from using a simple Word document to create your daily to-do list, to free software tools like Trello and Asana) to prioritize urgent tasks and get work done?
- Can you organize your day in such a way that you can manage your team interactions, calls, and meetings with the blocks of time needed for “thinking” work?
- How do you hold yourself accountable for the great things that need to be done while making sure your day-to-day work doesn’t get lost?
- How do they stay connected with team members for motivation, brainstorming, and human connection?
3. How often did you receive feedback on your work and what has that experience been like?
Here, you want to know how they have grown in their roles. In person, it
‘s easy to sideline an employee and provide feedback on the job; however,
working remotely can give you less access to your face-to-face employees.
If, instead, you could rely on something closer to virtual performance reviews, you want to be sure that the candidate has received feedback and has grown as a result.
- How have you managed personal and professional growth from a distance?
- Are they a solid communicator and connector?
- More importantly, how have they been able to structure a plan to take their performance to the next level?
4. Ask for an example of when they took the virtual lead on a project or played an important role in one.
Were they assigned to the project or did they volunteer? Ask them to tell you how they followed your project to completion and the real challenges they faced along the way. This will indicate if your candidate is a motivated entrepreneur or someone who needs to be managed.
5. Give them a real situation of your business where an urgent request came to the team.
Ask the candidate how they would handle urgent requests and look for solutions virtually. Here, you’re looking for creativity, agility, and someone who can get the job done regardless of location, location, or location .
Digital technology has transformed watch watchers into productive personnel. Telecommuting provides employers with a greater talent pool and incredible savings in fixed and operating costs. If virtual work makes sense for your business, whether it’s work-from-home days or with completely remote staff, prepare yourself with the right questions to determine if your future employee can get the job done without setting a clock.