Prior to the pandemic, tech companies could easily gain a recruiting edge by offering remote roles, especially when recruiting engineers. That has since changed dramatically, with tech workers of all stripes and specialties now expecting the ability to work remotely. While some companies have struggled to adjust to the new normal, many see it as the key to hitting ambitious hiring goals.
Take SpotOn, for example. The mobile payments company plans to make 200 hires in the next year. Although SpotOn has offices in tech hubs across the country, Melissa Goodwin, director of talent acquisition, told Built In that most of its jobs will be open to remote workers.
In addition to allowing companies to cast a wider recruiting net, remote hiring has also improved the candidate experience at some companies. Gary Schikman, an engineering manager at DFIN, said the company’s hiring process has become faster and more efficient since going entirely virtual.
“We try to have all the interviews on the same day when possible,” Schikman said. “After all the interviews have been completed, we have a meeting to discuss the feedback and decide whether to proceed with an offer. The turnaround time is no longer than a few days after the candidate’s final interview.”
It’s still too early to say whether remote work is the way of the future or just the best way of dealing with the challenges of the present. However, after speaking with Goodwin and Schikman, it appears that remote hiring is here to stay.
Which teams are expanding the most at your company? What proportion of your open positions are available to remote workers?
DFIN engineering is growing! We have open positions for every part of our engineering org, including open roles for software developers in test, multiple levels of software engineers, software architects, engineering managers and project management. All our roles are available to remote workers, too.
We ensure new employees have the tools and access they need on day one, which shows how excited we are for them to join the team and cognizant of their new hire experience.”
What did you change about the hiring process to better accommodate remote applicants?
We have streamlined and refined the hiring process to be faster, more efficient and 100 percent virtual. We have a rotating pool of interviewers who assess different skill sets that we value. We conduct an initial phone or Zoom interview to screen candidates and ensure a high-level fit for the role in consideration. Our recruiters try to find a time that works for both the candidate and interviewers, and we try to have all the interviews on the same day when possible.
After all the interviews have been completed, we have a meeting to discuss the feedback and decide whether to proceed with an offer. The turnaround time is no longer than a few days after the candidate’s final interview.
How has the onboarding process shifted to ensure offsite employees feel welcomed and engaged?
We make sure new employees have the tools and access they need on day one, which shows how excited we are for them to join the team and cognizant of their new hire experience. We take great care in making sure everyone on the team feels comfortable sharing their experience, knowledge and solutions, enabling newcomers to contribute from the start. We also make sure to have a one-on-one video call to get acquainted and provide an overview of the product, our technology stack and find out what help they need to get up to speed.
The new employee is paired up with one or two team members to accomplish their first set of tasks and collaboration is encouraged every step of the way. We have other meetings on a cadence and will break into smaller groups when it feels right. For local employees who thrive on face-to-face collaboration, we try to meet in-person for detailed design or planning work. I will personally always make time to ensure we spend some non-working time together for lunch or dinner, if feasible.
Which teams are expanding the most at your company? What proportion of your open positions are available to remote workers?
We just closed our Series E round of funding and are now valued at $3.15 billion, so we’re really focused on growth right now. As we continue to innovate and introduce new products, we’re actively seeking stellar engineering and product talent. We are poised to hire about 200 people for those teams in the next year, in addition to many more corporate and sales roles.
Most of our jobs are open to remote workers, and we currently have a large portion of our employees working from home. We also have amazing offices in Chicago, San Francisco, Denver and Detroit.
This year we formed an onboarding committee to solicit employee feedback and optimize our program.”
What did you change about the hiring process to better accommodate remote applicants?
Because we’ve always had a substantial number of account executives working remotely, it wasn’t a huge pivot for SpotOn. We also have offices in Mexico and Poland, so welcoming candidates into our interview process via Zoom has always been second nature for us.
How has the onboarding process shifted to ensure offsite employees feel welcomed and engaged?
We’re focused on offering the same culture for everyone regardless of their location. It begins with orientation and continues throughout our employees’ careers with regular touchpoints like optional social events, engagement surveys and all-hands meetings.
This year we formed an onboarding committee to solicit employee feedback and optimize our program, which has helped us welcome not only individual new hires but also several hundred employees via our recent acquisition. Even as we continue to get bigger, we still introduce every new hire through a company-wide Slack channel so everyone can say hello.
