This post discusses the benefits of remote work, factors to consider before hiring remote software developers, action steps to hire remote software developers, and how companies can build their engineering dream teams in the cloud in just a matter of days.
Factors to consider before hiring remote software developers
How to hire remote software developers?
Step 1: Identify the right channels to find suitable candidates
Step 2: Start screening your candidates
Step 3: Call the candidates for the soft skills interviews
Step 4: Conduct technical interviews
Step 5: Conduct thorough technical evaluations
Step 6: Make an attractive offer
Step 7: Onboard smoothly
Interview questions to ask when hiring remote software developers
What is Turing? How does it help in hiring remote software developers?
Why choose Turing for hiring remote software developers?
Who are Turing’s customers?
What do the customers say about Turing?
Introduction
In 2020, most companies suspended their business operations due to the pandemic. Preventive measures, including social distancing and nationwide lockdowns, made commuting to the office impossible. But remote work provided these businesses with an escape.
A few months into the pandemic, Twitter announced that its employees could permanently work from home. But it’s not just multinational companies; small and medium enterprises have also benefited significantly from remote hiring. However, building a remote workforce is a challenging task.
So in this comprehensive remote hiring guide, you’ll learn everything there is to know about hiring remote software developers.
Benefits of remote work for businesses
Remote work lowers business expenses Even before the pandemic pushed companies into remote work, Dell realized that remote work reduces business expenses. For example, Dell has saved around $12 million every year since 2016 in real estate costs alone due to remote work policies. According to the Remote Workforce survey conducted last year by the Capgemini Research Institute, 88 percent of companies have said that they have realized the benefit of real-estate cost savings that come with remote work.
Companies hiring remote software developers can save money on expenses like onsite business operations, including rental space, work equipment, and travel reimbursement. Global Workplace Analytics reported that a single business could save up to $11,000 per remote employee every single year, assuming they telecommute 50 percent of the time.
Remote work provides access to a global talent pool and easier recruitment Remote work removes several employment barriers associated with traditional working environments. This way, companies hiring remote software developers can expand their recruiting net and hire employees based on talent regardless of their location. Organizations are not limited to hiring software developers locally; therefore, they can find developers with the exact skills and experience they need with remote hiring. The removal of this geographical barrier empowers businesses to build a diverse workplace. Furthermore, remote work policies are an excellent attraction for talented remote developers. According to research by Gallup, 54 percent of employees said that they are ready to quit their current job for one that would allow them to work remotely.
Remote work brings a surge in productivity and improved performance Companies hiring remote software developers saw a positive impact on productivity. According to Forbes, remote workers are 30 to 45 percent more productive on average than their traditional office-working counterparts. Remote work culture reduces distractions that developers may otherwise face within an office setting. They have the freedom to set up their workspace wherever they want and engineer the best working conditions to enhance their productivity. Remote work also gives developers a stronger sense of autonomy via location independence. This freedom has resulted in a 40 percent reduction in quality defects in the remote workers’ output. The increase in productivity is primarily because remote workers have the autonomy to fix their schedules and work from their most productive locations. Another study reported that while remote workers took a lot of breaks throughout the day, they also devoted significantly more time to their tasks.
Remote work promotes disaster preparedness Companies hiring remote software developers can create an effective contingency strategy in an emergency like a natural disaster, a local or national lockdown, or even a disease outbreak. Remote work helps companies quickly adapt during an emergency and ensure that their business is stable and their employees are safe.
Remote work provides high employee satisfaction and morale Flexjobs’ 10th Annual Survey revealed that 58 percent of participants wanted to work remotely full-time even after the pandemic. Additionally, 39 percent wanted to work in a hybrid work environment. That’s around 97 percent of respondents who desired remote work in some form! The survey also revealed that 24 percent said that remote work is critical. Further, respondents said they were willing to sacrifice 10 to 20 percent of their current salary for remote work’s flexibility. Twenty-one percent of workers said they would give up some of their vacation time for flexible work! The monetary, time-based, and lifestyle benefits of remote work directly impact employee satisfaction and morale.
Remote work results in increased employee retention and lower absenteeism A big reason businesses lose employees is when workers have to relocate to someplace far from the office. However, employers don’t have to let go of their job with a remote workforce. Additionally, the company’s operations aren’t affected by the location where the employee chooses to work. Absenteeism is a big problem for businesses with traditional work models. Companies hiring remote software developers deal with this situation effectively. Since it’s much easier to turn on your laptop than travel to the office, there is a significantly lower absentee rate within a remote workforce.
Remote work builds a healthier workforce Employees experience work-related stress for various reasons like long hours of commuting, workplace politics, frustration with their work, etc. Remote work offers employees the flexibility to deal with these issues without disrupting their responsibilities. According to Hubstaff, 84 percent of workers agree that the flexibility with remote work has helped them better deal with their mental stress.
Remote work allows a flexible 24-hour work cycle Companies hiring remote software developers can adopt a 24-hour work cycle with ease. Most businesses have a traditional 9 to 5 setup where the business only operates during these hours. However, with people working from multiple time zones, organizations can have a 24-hour operational cycle where the company is active 24/7.
Remote work ensures a quicker onboarding process Remote onboarding is quick, easy, and relatively straightforward than traditional onboarding because of the lack of tedious paperwork. Remote onboarding helps integrate new recruits into the organization swiftly and gets them started with their duties. On a side note, companies hiring remote software developers save costs because of the absence of physical contracts, agreements, and other papers.
Remote work reduces carbon footprint While remote work doesn’t completely negate a company’s carbon footprint, it significantly reduces greenhouse gas emissions. However, this is not just great for the environment; but it also impacts your business considerably. If customers realize that you’re a company hiring remote software developers keeping in mind the environment, it’ll strengthen your reputation in their eyes. A recent Neilsen survey reflected that the environmental actions from businesses heavily influence the customers’ decisions. This trend demonstrates that people want companies to be more environmentally-friendly and spend more with environmentally responsible companies.
These statistics are an excellent indicator of how remote work and remote software developers can uplift the company’s productivity as a whole. Now that you’ve acknowledged the benefits of hiring remote workers, let’s understand how you can hire remote software developers.
Hiring remote software developers? Here is a step-by-step guide.
Pandemic or no pandemic, remote work is here to stay in one capacity or another. Therefore, it’s imperative to understand the best ‘hiring remote software developer’ practices.
Let’s look at the factors hiring managers must consider before hiring remote software developers.
Factors to consider before hiring remote software developers
Factors To Consider Before Hiring Remote Software Developers
Set project requirements before hiring remote software developers Before you take any steps toward hiring remote software developers, identify the company’s software development needs. These needs decide the kind of resources you will require. You can either outsource the entire project to a remote team, work on a contract basis with remote freelance developers, or take advantage of platforms like Turing to build your software development team. Have an estimate of how experienced and skilled you want your developers to be so that you can complete your project efficiently within the assigned time frame. Also, decide your project timeline to plan your budget for hiring remote software developers.
Build a screening process before hiring remote software developers As we’ve already mentioned, remote hiring increases the talent pool available for companies. However, this alone doesn’t make remote hiring easy. Have a system in place to gauge the actual competence of the remote software developer. Two of the best ways to do this are multiple technical interviews and live coding challenges. These practices will help you analyze and evaluate a potential remote software developer’s capabilities.
Create technical skill tests before hiring remote software developers The skills and experiences of the developers are undoubtedly some of the top things remote hiring managers need to take into consideration for hiring remote software developers. After reading so far along, you must know that developing software needs multiple programming languages. Therefore, depending on the kind of projects you’re recruiting for, you need to clearly understand the expertise you’re looking for when hiring a remote software developer.
Check experience thoroughly before hiring remote software developers Remote hiring managers should remember that experience doesn’t always translate to expertise. For example, a developer may have worked with Python for quite a few years and still not be good at it. Don’t be swayed by shiny resumes if a developer fails to back up their experience with the right expertise while passing through your vetting process. Additionally, ensure that your sourcing efforts are focused on remote software developers who have real-life experience working on projects similar to your requirements. Also Read: Turing Leaders Explain How They Built the World’s Most-Advanced Vetting and Matching System
Don’t ignore culture and values before hiring remote software developers When you hire remote developers, even if they’re freelancers, they become a part of your team and represent your organization and its values as long as they work with you. Therefore, your remote hiring strategy should consider how well a remote software developer resonates with your company’s ethics and work culture.
Evaluate communication skills before hiring remote software developers Communication impacts productivity and performance. Effective communication is the spine of a remote workforce. Even if you find excellent developers, they may not be valuable to your team if they can’t communicate efficiently. Find and hire remote software developers who are proficient (and versatile) communicators so that communication barriers don’t disrupt the workflow of your software development team.
Compare location and time zone differences before hiring remote software developers With the modern world making it easier to communicate across the globe, companies have no qualms hiring remote software developers from any corner of the world. In fact, that’s one of the primary benefits of remote hiring. However, remote software developers who operate out of a similar time zone will make communication more efficient because other team members wouldn’t have to wait hours for a response. This one doesn’t have to be a hard and fast remote hiring criterion. You can have designated overlap hours (typically 4 hours) when the entire team has to be available.
Consider different options before hiring remote software developers
Freelance developers If you have a small project and need an expert to manage it, freelance developers could be a perfect choice. Freelance developers are usually less expensive than in-house developers as you don’t have to pay for office space or equipment. This option allows you to grow the development team based on the project’s needs. However, freelance developers can be challenging to manage.
In-house developers Hiring in-house developers can be a good option if you want a full-time staff to work remotely as part of your firm. Also, if you have a lot of projects to work on and want to be in charge of the entire development process, in-house developers are a good choice. However, managing an entire team is a time-consuming and challenging task requiring continuous participation.
Outsourced developers Outsourcing is the best option if you want to save yourself from hiring and managing hassles. Outsourced developers work as part of your team and assist you with any stage of your project or its component. Outsourcing is ideal if you want to hire remote developers efficiently and want the flexibility to scale the team up or down anytime.
Does outsourcing software developers sound like a good idea to you? If yes, try Turing. Turing, a data-science-driven deep jobs platform that helps companies spin up their engineering teams in the cloud at the push of a button, can help you get the best software developers and engineers.
How to hire remote software developers: Seven simple steps
Step 1: Identify the right channels to find suitable candidates
In today’s age, there are numerous ways to find and hire software developers. Here are the best ones:
Ask for referrals while hiring remote software developers
According to a report published by LinkedIn, up to 50 percent of companies in the US get talented workers through employee referrals.
If you already have a remote workforce, ask and encourage employees to refer eligible candidates to fill your company’s job vacancies. You can incentivize and create a solid system to source and recruit skilled developers globally.
Post in niche communities while hiring remote software developers
Networking is an integral part of sourcing and hiring remote software developers.
Take advantage of social networking, but be smart about how you use it. For example, different countries use different social media platforms. So while Instagram and LinkedIn may be platforms people in a specific country use, that doesn’t imply that these platforms are the most in-demand.
Find unique platforms to post job vacancies depending on which country you want to source and hire remote software developers. Understanding how a country functions in a virtual space is vital for finding talented remote workers easily.
Look for talent in the right markets while hiring remote software developers
Posting on job portals is one of the most widely used strategies to hire remote software developers. In addition, you can take advantage of job boards like Indeed and more to promote your remote positions.
However, while these platforms may promise to find remote workers, it isn’t easy to find experienced and skilled developers.
Therefore, instead of using generalized platforms like Upwork and Indeed, you should look for specialized platforms, like Turing, that have a precise focus.
Step 2: Start screening your candidates
Resume screening helps to find the most suitable candidates. This process involves matching the job requirements with the qualifications of the candidate along with the following factors:
Work experience
Educational qualifications
Skills and knowledge
Competencies
Personality traits
You might have to spend most of your time sifting applications if you wish to efficiently hire remote software developers. And so, many HRs prefer resume screening software to screen candidates quickly.
Here are the five popular resume screening software:
Newton
Ideal
Recruiterbox
Freshteam
Big Biller
Step 3: Call the candidates for the soft skills interviews
Once you’ve completed the screening process, you’ll need to interview each candidate separately to make an informed decision. The focus of soft skills interviews is finding whether a candidate is a good fit for your firm or not.
Many HRs frequently ask behavioral questions to learn more about the employee’s attitude, personality, and value system when building remote teams.
Here are five popular behavioral interview questions:
How do you get things done when working on a tight deadline?
What do you do when your to-do list becomes too long to handle?
How would you handle a conflict with your coworkers?
What should you do if a team member refuses to work or cooperate?
Give us an example of a time when you had to adjust to a new and unexpected change at work.
Step 4: Conduct technical interviews
Once you are through with the soft skills interviews, call the candidates for the technical interviews.
Technical interviews cover technical excellence and core competencies. Assess your candidates’ technical principles, problem-solving skills, and ability to think strategically. Usually, a senior engineer, team head, or technical architect conducts technical interviews.
They may ask the following technical questions during the interview:
How many programming languages do you know?
What are the various types of operating systems you are familiar with?
How many different development tools have you used in the past?
What is the significance of a solution design document?
Have you utilized any source code analysis software? If yes, please explain.
Step 5: Conduct thorough technical evaluations
This is the final stage of the evaluation in hiring remote software developers. Give your candidates a few tasks such as case studies, situation-based problems, coding challenges, etc., to complete in a limited time.
This way, you can assess their technical skills and the following other abilities:
Analytical and logical reasoning ability
Creativity
Numerical and verbal reasoning
Problem-solving ability
Time management
Presentation and communication skills
Here are a few examples of a few case studies and situation-based problems:
A multinational manufacturing company is experiencing flat sales, and the IT department is under pressure to find cost-cutting opportunities. How should they proceed if they are asked to design a cost-cutting roadmap?
To support their new mobile video application, a very large sports league has to shift their whole data center onto the cloud in six weeks. What are the first challenges you anticipate encountering?
A progressive, tech-savvy regional hospital chain’s director is concerned that their company’s profitability is half that of the market leader. Using your IT knowledge and business expertise, what would you suggest to increase the hospital chain’s net income?
Describe how you would tackle a situation in which your present project is slipping behind schedule due to a lack of contributions from a client’s team members.
As coding challenges comprise questions based on different tech stacks, there can be millions of questions. To find such questions, visit the link mentioned below.
Making a job offer to a candidate may look simple: you write the offer letter, have it approved by management, and send it to the candidate. However, this is one of the most crucial steps in hiring remote software developers. These activities need time, work, and great coordination and care.
Include job title, compensation, benefits, and expected start date in your offer letters. Agree upon all other factors such as salary, availability, tenure, etc., beforehand. This way, you will be able to send the offers quickly.
Here is an offer letter sample:
Dear [name],
We are pleased to offer you a job as a [role title] at [company name]. We think that your experience and skills will be a valuable asset to our company.
If you accept this offer, you will be eligible for the following, in accordance with our company’s policies:
Up to xyz percent of your annual gross salary
Up to xyz percent of performance bonus
Standard benefits include:
N days of annual paid time off
N days of sick leave
Medical and dental insurance
Xyz retirement plan
Xyz percent of tuition reimbursement
Childcare
[more benefits]
To accept this offer, please sign the letter and return it to us by 2024.
Your expected hire date will be 2024. [Supervisor’s name] will be your immediate reporting manager. We are excited to have you on our team. If you have any queries, please contact [recruiter’s name].
Sincerely,
[Sender Name]
Apart from an offer letter, you should also extend a privacy and security agreement to safeguard your company’s data, information, and intellectual property.
Step 7: Onboard smoothly
Even though the formal ‘hiring remote software developer’ process is complete, you still need to take one more critical step – Employee onboarding.
Establishing communication channels, introducing members, extending a review schedule, and fixing initial project meetings are all part of the employee onboarding process.
Make a comprehensive list of everything the new employee needs to know about the organization. You can also appoint a competent in-house staff to engage with remote workers and respond to their questions.
Interview questions to ask when hiring remote software developers
Interview Questions To Ask While Hiring Remote Software Developers
Do you have prior experience working remotely? The skills needed to work remotely are entirely different from in-office skills. Additionally, people who haven’t worked remotely may have an idealistic view of working from home, and the reality may not always be what they expected.
What were some of the challenges you faced while working remotely? This question will help you understand if the developer understands the complexities of remote work and whether they can deal with them.
Where do you prefer to work? This question will give you insight into your candidate’s ideal workspace and whether they have access to everything they need to do their job efficiently.
How do you schedule your workday? This question lets you know how well your remote work candidate manages their time. What are their peak productivity hours? Do they need the office routine and a manager, or do they manage their time well independently?
Have you worked with a global remote team? How did you make it work? Working in an office setting makes it easy to communicate with your colleagues. However, communication is tricky when working with a team that operates in different time zones. If they were a part of a distributed workforce, ask them how they dealt with communication challenges.
How have you used different communication tools while working in a remote team? Remote teams use different tools like Zoom, Slack, Google Drive, Asana, and more to stay connected and work on projects. With this question, you’ll be able to gauge their fluency with different virtual tools.
What’s the one thing you can do to make a project successful when you’re working remotely? With this question, you can understand how your candidate approaches a project in a remote setting. For example, do they gain as much insight as they can by asking many questions upfront, or do they stay in constant communication with their team leader and fellow developers to ensure everyone stays on the same page?
Describe a conflict you’ve faced with a remote coworker. How did you resolve it? Resolving conflicts in a remote setting is trickier than in an in-office environment. With this question, you can understand how proactive the developer is about addressing workplace problems and how well they can get things back on track.
How do you focus on your work when you’re working from home? Working from home comes with many distractions. Find out what strategies your remote developer has in place to stay productive in the face of everyday distractions.
How do you switch off from work? Working from home can blur the line between personal and professional life. If your candidate doesn’t have a proper system to switch off after they finish their tasks, it will affect their work-life balance. This behavior can negatively affect their performance and lead to severe burnout issues.
What is Turing? How does it help in hiring remote software developers?
Turing helps companies spin up their engineering dream teams in just a matter of days. With Turing, firms can hire pre-vetted, Silicon Valley-caliber remote software talent across 100+ capabilities. The Palo Alto-based company democratizes career opportunities for remote developers worldwide by providing high-quality software jobs at leading US companies.
Turing’s Intelligent Talent Cloud employs artificial intelligence to find, vet, match, and manage over a million developers worldwide. Simply put, Turing helps companies unleash the world’s untapped human potential.
Why choose Turing for hiring remote software developers?
Half the cost: You can hire the top 1% of 1 million+ developers from 150+ countries who have applied to Turing.com.
100+ skills available: You can hire React, Node, Python, Angular, Swift, React Native, Android, Java, Rails, Golang, DevOps, ML, Data Engineers, and more.
No risk: You pay nothing if you decide to stop the subscription within two weeks.
5+ hours of tests and interviews: Turing’s vetting is more rigorous than Silicon Valley job interviews. Tests include 100+ skills like data structures, algorithms, systems design, software specializations & frameworks, etc.
Seniority tests: We select excellent communicators who can proactively take ownership of business and its objectives without micromanagement.
Daily updates: Turing’s Workspace gives you visibility into your remote developer’s work with automatic time tracking & virtual daily stand-ups.
Easy to manage: High visibility makes Turing developers easy to manage.
Match your timezone: Turing developers match your time zone and overlap a minimum of 4 hours with your workday.
Who are Turing’s customers?
Turing’s clients come from various industries, including banking, finance, healthcare, information technology, fast-moving consumer goods, media and entertainment, and more.
Turing has helped hundreds of businesses in their search for on-demand software expertise. In addition, hundreds of firms, ranging from Fortune 500 companies to fast-growing startups, rely on Turing company to extend their offshore engineering teams with ease.
More than 200 companies, including enterprises funded by Google Ventures, A16Z, Bloomberg, Disney, Pepsi, and Khosla Ventures, among others, have hired Turing’s pre-vetted developers.
What do the customers say about Turing?
Turing has helped 200+ Fortune 500 companies and fast-scaling start-ups hire pre-vetted developers on-demand. Here’s what the customers have to say about the company.
Turing reviews:
We’re thrilled to say that the Turing developers we hired have given our team some much-needed strength. Despite having just been onboarded for a month, they’ve already made significant contributions. Thank you, Turing, for assisting us in quickly finding such high-quality developers.
HR Manager of a NY-based, multimillion-dollar employee rewards app
We’d like to congratulate Ward and Sateesh on their adaptability and desire to learn new skills and take on new responsibilities. They’ve also added a lot of value to our design and backend efforts. In addition, both are superb communicators who have consistently created working production-level engineering from the ground up.
Product Manager of a multimillion-dollar, NY-based hospitality platform
It’s been a fantastic first week with Gaston! We have nothing but positive things to say about our interactions with him thus far. He’s been outstanding at completing his allocated duties, and he is an excellent communicator. Thank you, Turing team!
HR Manager of a renowned virtual event hosting firm backed by Underscore VC
Tell us the skills you need and we'll find the best developer for you in days, not weeks.
Good content!
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Excellent post!
Who does the actual onboarding of remote workers? Does Turing provide that, or do you work with partners? Will be curious to explore this further…