5 Interview Questions to Ask Potential Remote Employees

The process of interviewing to fill a remote position is not that different than a regular interview. It might just be that interviews with potential remote employees will be carried out over some form of video conferencing.

However, to get a good insight into how a candidate will work as a remote employee there are some questions to ask which would not normally crop up in an interview.

5 Interview Questions to Ask Potential Remote Employees

1. Have you ever worked remotely before?

Having someone with experience of being part of an offshore team communicating with a local one is definitely an advantage. The candidate knows what they are getting in to and you know that they have previously been managed from a distance.

2. How do you keep track of your work?

Working remotely requires good organisational skills to keep track of tasks without having to continually ask what is the next job. If your potential employee has good, established methods of personal organisation, that is a great indicator. And you can see how well their methods mesh with your company organisational tools.

3. What projects have you worked on in a team, and what projects have you done alone? Did you adjust your working style at all?

Although a remote employee might be the only person in their immediate environment, they will likely still be working as part of a team on a regular basis. Individual projects and team projects have differences and should be approached differently in terms of working style. It is important to ensure that they are flexible in their approach.

4. How do you prefer to communicate?

Communication is the backbone of successful outsourcing. Therefore, it is important to get a sense of how the candidate prefers to manage their communications – Is their communication preference compatible with the methods you use in your office? Is the candidate wholly reliant on email, where you would like regular video chats?

5. You hit a major problem, but no one who can help is online – what do you do?

This is a common occurrence in remote staffing, so you need someone who can confidently handle it. The ideal answer would be “Having talked to my manager about this possibility, I do what we agreed to do in this situation,” or similar. Beyond this, it’s good to get an indication of how the candidate will react. Immediately ask for help, attempt to solve the problem, or continue with other work?

When you outsource with Deployed, we carry out the candidate search for you, so you only see the most qualified applicants. We can also help you create interview questions to maximise the likelihood of finding an employee who fits in with your company. By asking the right questions you can be sure of getting the right employee for your business.