Screening applicants is an important and critical challenge a true business leader must confront. After all, they could potentially be one of the future ambassadors of your brand. It’s only reasonable to oversee new team members who would affect your business culture and ethics.

In its traditional roots, there are other ways to read an applicant beyond his resume and employment history. You can read his body language upon interview, his arising personality when speaking, or his way of handling the situational challenges you present during the interview.

What about the qualities to look for when hiring a remote employee? Do you look for a potential hire with a timid personality or a daring character? Are you looking for a team player or an independent worker? Will you be willing to give every “promising” employee a job offer after one online interview? Your leverage as an employer instantly diminishes if you can’t perform a good background check on an offshore candidate.

These small differences have been reasons why most businesses look for a full-time employee. Outsourcing from freelancing websites alone can cost much more than necessary. In addition to that, screening applicants take longer as qualified applicants are harder to find at freelancing sites.

Listed down are the most common errors in hiring remote employees in the financing industry. Stop being blindsided and learn what you should avoid when hiring a remote employee.

Remote Recruitment Mistakes when Offshoring

Lack of Job Analysis

In case of expansion, do you know what job position needs to be filled? Understanding the company’s requirement before recruiting remote employees is vital.

Remember, manpower investment is an important aspect of a company’s growth. Invest in an employee that plans to stay long in your company. In order to do that, the company must perform an in-depth analysis of its demands first. Resources should be evaluated critically to measure the company’s needs moving forward. The gaps should help create the skills, the tasks, and responsibilities that would define the role.

To accurately define the role, consider the dynamics of the existing team. Adding personnel who fail to meet the requirements set above can cause resistance and affect the team’s productivity.

Advertising an Incomprehensive Job Description

Fact is working with an offshore staff means lower overhead costs with equal to better productivity. It’s only natural for businesses across the financing industry and other industries to be attracted to the thought upon knowing this fact. Hence, the great deal of global competition in finding the perfect remote employee.

Posting a job listing isn’t the only homework you should complete. Before publishing a job post, you need to guarantee that the job description is not inclusive or difficult to understand. A bad job description could easily scare away candidates.

Creativity in composing a simple job description may be the key to attracting good talents. Make sure it is thorough and definitive with the specific qualities you are looking for. Furthermore, touch base with your company’s culture, goals, and the ways an applicant can fit in your brand.

Let’s say your accounting firm is looking to outsource a Senior Accountant. The key is to not overload the job description with qualifications but still fill it with the important requirements for the role.

Looking for Candidates from One Generic Source

Studies show that over 63% of deployed workforce to Australia are not actively looking for better job opportunities. This means you are missing more than half of the big fishes in the sea when you use freelancing websites.

You’re basically throwing away talent by depending on generic freelancing sources. There are other tools to tap into remote workforce across the globe like local job listing websites which are available to all hiring companies – local or international.

Another option is to go with recruiting agencies working alongside BPO companies. These agencies have worked with and will keep working with foreign-owned companies looking to hire remote workers. Therefore, these recruiters are more reliable as they know local talents and what hiring managers are looking for.

Thinking Remote Work is for Everyone

Let’s be frank: there are tons of cultural standards and differences that need to be considered if you’re looking for the perfect remote staff for your business. First-time remote workers may find it difficult to deal with a completely different market with an equally different principle. Hence, the unforetold barrier.

Not all great employees make equally great remote workers. Not all professionals can fit an offshore staff’s place. In some cases, candidates without any offshoring experience are not ready to be deployed to a long-distance employer relationship — regardless of how good of a skill set they have.

The challenge for you is to identify if the first-time offshore candidate is committed to meeting your business culture. A sudden turnover can be expensive and counterproductive if the qualified remote staff decides to end their term in the long run.

Say you recently hired a tax accountant without any remote experience nor experience working with foreign-owned accounting firms. The probability of having the candidate terminate the contract is high due to the lack of knowledge in Australian tax accounting laws and cultural differences.

Lack of Background Research on a Candidate

Expect that every candidate has a unique professional history. Their employment footprint is a good preview of their work ethics, behaviour, achievements, and weaknesses if you know how to look.

As aforementioned, this doesn’t necessarily mean solely relying on their resume and on your quick candidate assessment after an online Skype meeting.

It’s always best to consider using every means available to collect optimal information from a promising candidate. This means extending your reach by contacting the applicant’s network, his previous employers and colleagues, and his professional connections.

Background research is enough to turn the tables. IT can be surprising to learn about the applicant’s history from their professional network. Testimonials and reviews are proven to be of greater value than a sales pitch after all.

This rings true especially for people working in the financing industry. Most employers need to investigate the applicant’s professional history to review their performance. A good performance review means the company is investing in the right person.

Haggling Rates

You may have to re-analyse your strategy if you think you’re making a wise move by limiting your budget regardless of your candidate’s skills. The value added to your company after a couple of months will soon be the basis of what you’ve been paying for. Set KPIs and goals to evaluate the performance of the remote employee. Is there an improvement in sales during her first three months at work?

Partner with someone who knows the ins and outs of an offshoring country. This can give you a great advantage when it comes to finding the right candidate and offering the right salary range for their skill set. It also diminishes the possibility of finding yourself stuck in difficult rate negotiation.

Keep in mind that though offshoring generally costs less, highly qualified professionals still expect to be compensated appropriately. For instance, compensating a bookkeeper is generally less expensive than compensating a tax accountant. To determine the salary range of a job position, visit multiple job listing sites and payscale sites.

It’s also noteworthy to mention that in-demand positions that require specific skills may cost more. Say you’re looking to hire a professional outside of Australia with experience in Australian Tax Accounting. You’ll likely need to pay more than the average salary range in the Philippines as it’s a skill that’s scarce here.

Lack of Onboarding and Training

The lack of onboarding and training leaves employees unprepared and demotivated to work. It can create friction between new hires and existing employees as proper introductions are failed to be done.

The onboarding and training processes are valuable for new employees transitioning to the company. The business owner should take this time to establish company rules and regulations to the employee, introduce the new employee to the rest of the team, and outline the set expectations of the company from the employee.

Training also unproductivity from the employee’s end. A series of training allows the employee to develop his skills and improve professionally. It also enables the employee to learn the standard processes and procedures set by the company.

As an illustration, imagine offshoring accountants. Without proper training and onboarding, they’ll likely fail to openly communicate and work well with the bookkeepers of your accounting firm. This is the reason it’s as important to give new hires proper onboarding and training.

These are just a few of the most common mistakes we have personally seen our clients make in their previous attempts to hire offshore employees. Said mistakes could be avoided with the help of our expert recruitment team.

Looking at offshore employees for your accounting firms? Contact us now!