Nowadays, it’s getting harder and harder to hire, especially for specialized roles and upper management positions.
And, as bad as the COVID-19 pandemic was, it taught the business world something interesting — remote work is a legit strategy for building a workforce. Remote work comes with a bunch of benefits for both employers and employees. In this article, we'll not only explore those benefits, but we'll also teach you how to hire remote employees in five easy steps.
Let’s begin.
Why More Companies Are Hiring Remote Employees
The appeal of hiring remote workers is that it helps businesses solve a specific problem, rather than competing for the same local pool of candidates.
Ultimately, businesses that decide to operate from an office can really only boast about improving collaboration (and even that is dubious). For businesses with a remote work strategy, they get to:
- More access to more talent
- Lower their fixed costs, like overhead
- Improve output
- Improve retention
- Increase operational resilience
COVID-19 changed the way we all work, and business owners and employees alike now understand the benefits of remote work, which has increased demand for remote positions.
For example, large enterprises have now begun incorporating remote work into their operations to create a hybrid workflow, while smaller, startup businesses are starting to embrace remote work as the standard, as it allows them to keep costs low and stay flexible.
But let’s explore how hiring remote employees is becoming more of a focus for businesses in a little more detail.
Access to a Global Talent Pool
Globalization took over almost every aspect of running a business, but curiously enough, not for hiring workers.
But by freeing your business from the restrictions of borders, you’re suddenly recruiting for the best available candidate as opposed to the best nearest option, which is especially important for hiring for specialized roles, C-suite executives, or remote closers, as these positions tend to be the most in demand. So, let’s explore how hiring a remote worker is beneficial for filling your positions.
According to research published by Owl Labs, 25% of workers recently changed jobs, and another 9% are actively seeking new opportunities.
Combine this research with data released by Go Hires, which has tracked a 30% rise in international applicants for remote work postings, three times the rate for roles that require in-office attendance. With so many people looking for work and looking specifically for remote working opportunities, you can swoop in and steal these candidates from your competitors with the introduction of remote work policies. And if you’re operating internationally, you can also hire employees across your markets to (theoretically) have work and people available 24 hours a day.
Did you know? According to an article published by FOMO.Observer, Estonia’s population has decreased, and its net migration has turned negative. This isn’t a problem specific to Estonia, as many countries are facing a similar trend. By learning how to hire remote employees, you can overcome a broader macro problem affecting your hiring.
Lower Overhead Costs
An office space is cool and all, dressing up and marching around a business doing important business stuff — but as fun as that is, it comes with costs:
- Rent
- Utilities
- Purchasing physical supplies (which seem to run out faster than expected…)
According to a study published by Global Workplace Analytics, companies that shift half their work to remote arrangements save roughly $11,000 (approx. €9,600) per employee every year — for a small business or start-up, that’s a considerable amount of money which could have otherwise been redirected into growth initiatives.
Higher Productivity
As COVID-19 has become a distant memory, a trend has emerged with thought leaders around the world all claiming that remote work wasn’t good for business, with employees staying in their pajamas and moving a mouse every once in a while to create the illusion of being active.
Sorry to disagree with those saying remote work was bad — but the data suggests otherwise.
And a study published by Stanford University disproves this smear campaign against remote work, finding that remote workers were 13% more productive than their in-office counterparts. Why were they more productive? First, it depended on their tech stack — if they had the proper infrastructure (Loom, Google Docs, and Jira), they were able to stay aligned with asynchronous communication practices, so workers faced far fewer distractions and could keep to their schedules without real-time coordination (aka. pointless distractions).
Stronger Retention and Lower Turnover
Another thing you’ll learn as you figure out how to hire remote employees is how much those employees love working remotely.
A Forbes report showed that 97.6% of workers want some form of remote work policy from their employer (even if it’s just a day or two). And returning to Owl Labs, it found that office workers are 44% more likely to leave their current employer for remote work opportunities. But, besides the fact that employees want to work remotely (and that they’re better at their jobs for doing so), companies that offer commuting stipends or other in-office perks can save $2,000 to $7,000 (approx. €1,750 to €6,100) a year per employee by shifting that role to remote work, in addition to saving money from fewer resignations and lower recruiting and training costs tied to replacing staff.
Business Continuity
Having your business centralized to one location means that if something happens, then your business is at risk of being completely disrupted.
This includes things like:
- Natural disasters
- Political instability
- Public health emergencies
Remote working means you can have employees spread across different regions, and if something unfortunate happens at an office, your business still has the resources to keep operating.
Now that we know the benefits, let’s get into the nitty-gritty and learn how to hire remote employees.
Pro tip: If your business has limited capacity or resources for recruiting, you can always turn to recruitment agencies to help manage your hiring processes. Check out our guide on How to Find European Recruitment Agencies.
How to Hire a Remote Employee: A Step-by-Step Process
Before we delve into how to hire remote employees, the first thing you need to know is that it’s not as simple as posting some job listings and waiting for applications to start flowing in.
Remote working requires a structured process to manage the demands of a distributed workforce. And you’ll also have to reimagine how you write job descriptions and update your onboarding checklist, ready for when you hire your remote workers.
To help you reduce the risk of hiring the wrong person, shorten time-to-productivity, and scale your team to operate remotely, follow these five steps to get everything up and running.
Step 1: Define the Role and Your Hiring Framework
Start with a detailed job description that specifies core responsibilities, required skills, and performance metrics, while calling out the traits that matter most in a remote setting:
- Self-motivation
- Strong written communication
- The ability to work effectively across time zones
Be explicit about logistics that remote candidates need up front: required working hours or time zone overlap (CET or EST, for example), whether the role is open to candidates anywhere or restricted to specific regions for legal or tax reasons, and the tech stack and collaboration tools they'll be expected to use.
Alongside the job description, settle your hiring framework.
This means deciding whether the position is better suited to a contractor or a full employee based on the control and commitment tradeoffs already at play in that distinction, and — if you're hiring internationally — whether you'll use an Employer of Record to manage local payroll, tax, and benefits compliance, or set up a compliant international contractor agreement instead. Settling this early prevents legal exposure down the line and shapes how you write the offer.
Step 2: Source and Attract Candidates
Cast a wide net using channels suited to remote-specific hiring rather than relying solely on general job boards.
Specialized remote job boards attract professionals already experienced in and actively seeking remote roles, such as:
- We Work Remotely
- FlexJobs
- Remote OK
Freelance marketplaces like Upwork and Fiverr work well for project-based or short-term needs and typically include built-in contract and payment tools.
LinkedIn remains a strong option for targeted sourcing, letting you filter by skill, location, or industry and promote postings to a global audience. For companies that want sourcing and compliance handled for them, staffing and outsourcing agencies can vet and connect you with international talent, and certain regions (the Philippines, South Africa, and Latin America, among them) have become known hubs for skilled professionals available at competitive rates.
Whatever channels you use, build your application process to start testing for remote-readiness immediately with things like short-form application questions, which are a simple way to assess written communication before a candidate ever reaches an interview, and use an applicant tracking system to organize incoming resumes and filter out candidates who don't meet baseline requirements.
Step 3: Screen and Interview Candidates
Remote hiring requires evaluating candidates specifically on their ability to work independently outside a shared office, not just on their resume.
Conduct video interviews using tools like Zoom or Google Meet, and ask situational questions about time management, self-accountability, and how the candidate has handled remote-specific challenges in the past. Follow strong interviews with a paid, take-home assignment or small trial project — this gives you a direct look at actual output quality rather than relying on how well someone interviews. Where team fit matters, add a step to assess cultural alignment, since remote hires who integrate poorly tend to disengage faster than in-office hires with the same issue.
Step 4: Extend the Offer and Finalize Compliance
Once you've selected a candidate, use secure contract management and e-signature tools (such as DocuSign and PandaDoc) to quickly finalize the offer letter and employment agreement.
This is also the point to close out any remaining legal and compliance work:
- Confirming adherence to international labor law where relevant
- Settling tax obligations and worker classification
- Making sure contracts include adequate intellectual property protection
Step 5: Standardize Onboarding
A structured onboarding program is one of the strongest levers for remote retention.
At minimum, this should include shipping any necessary hardware and setting up software licenses before the start date, providing a digital employee handbook along with recorded video tutorials for core tools like Slack, Notion, or Asana, and scheduling virtual meet-and-greets so the new hire can begin building relationships with their team from day one.
Regular check-ins in the early weeks help surface problems before they become reasons for someone to disengage or leave.
And that’s it! Everything you need to know to learn how to hire remote employees. As you’re probably already guessing, remote work hiring is a lot more challenging than hiring people who are just nearby. That’s why businesses use RPO (Recruitment Process Outsourcing) to find and manage their remote hiring.
How TalentHub Helps You Hire Remote Employees Anywhere in the World
TalentHub acts as an embedded recruitment partner for companies building distributed teams, having supported over 100 businesses hiring across technical, leadership, and non-technical roles since 2019.
TalentHub’s All-Inclusive Recruitment service manages the entire hiring process end-to-end, from sourcing through offer negotiation, and includes a free replacement guarantee if a hire leaves within four months. For companies that primarily need pipeline volume, Sourcing delivers a curated longlist or shortlist of vetted, ready-to-engage candidates, with a response rate above 70%. Recruitment Process Outsourcing takes over day-to-day hiring logistics such as screening, scheduling, and administration, for companies scaling quickly or hiring across multiple roles at once.
Across all three services, TalentHub's recruiters work as an extension of the client's team, bringing market insights, access to hard-to-reach talent, and a consistent candidate experience that reflects well on the hiring company's brand — giving you everything you need to start recruiting remote workers globally.
Want to move from learning how to hire remote employees to having a workforce comprising the best people from all over the world? Book a call, and we’d be more than happy to explain how we can help your business find and employ the very best talent.
