4 Ways To Recruit Digital Nomads With Video Interviews

Convenience, the desire for work/life balance, and widespread public safety requirements have increased the number of remote employees, or digital nomads, in the U.S. by 50 percent in 2020. 

These numbers are set to increase as workers have adapted to remote work and are less willing to return to the office. With that in mind – you need to be thinking about how you can best recruit digital nomads if you want your company to remain competitive in the new employment market. 

The shift to remote employees presents a new set of HR challenges. Notably, how to tap this vast pool of job seekers who are no longer attached to one city but potentially work worldwide? 

The answer is increased adoption of video interviewing platforms, specifically one-way and two-way video interviews. Read on to discover more tips on recruiting digital nomads and efficiently guiding them through your hiring process

How to Start Recruiting Digital Nomads

1. Know The Best Sites To Find Digital Nomads

If you are specifically looking for remote employees, try sites like:

• FlexJobs (ideal for freelance/part-time employees)
• Contena (if you’re looking for writers/editors)
• Angel List (for startups – mostly tech positions, marketing, sales, and operations)

These sites are a great place to start because you’ll reach a highly targeted audience of digital nomads. Additionally, most of the candidates on these sites have worked remotely before – so there won’t be a learning curve when they start. You can also post on a regular job board, like LinkedIn or Monster. If you do, make sure to specify the position is remote!

2. Reach Out Quickly And Efficiently Through An Interview Scheduler

Digital nomads, much like any candidate, expect prompt responses to their applications. Once you review their application, have them schedule their screening interview with an interview scheduler. This technology allows candidates to schedule their own interview by simply selecting an available time from your calendar that works best for them.

As a way to save time, consider sending candidates an invite to complete a one way video interview as the first step of their process. In this candidate-driven market, the key to hiring is speed. This is especially true when it comes to recruiting digital nomads. 

If they’re located on the other side of the country or world, finding a free spot in both the candidate and recruiter’s schedule is near impossible. However, with one-way video interviews, the candidate can record and send within days, enabling the recruiter to review the interview in record time.

3. Send an Invitation for a One-Way Video Interview to Rapidly Assess Candidates

It can be challenging to determine a person’s values during a phone screen. Hiring managers may struggle to take notes in real-time and compare applicants across a deep talent pool. With a one-way video interviewing platform, managers submit pre-recorded questions and receive recorded responses for a quick, seamless process that yields results. 

It’s a great way to first meet your candidate – they’re able to complete the interview whenever they have a free moment, and you can review 10x more applicants in the time that it would take to call one or two.

Recruiters can share, replay, and take notes on candidates’ recorded responses, making it easy to compare two or three applicants when deciding who moves on in the interview process. Once you have decided who makes it to the next round, you can invite them to a two-way live video interview (and as a bonus, you can also review, share, and comment on these).

4. Assess Work Ethic and Cultural Fit With Behavioral Interview Questions in a Two-Way Video Interview

Once you have decided to move forward with a candidate, make sure you have the right questions to gauge whether they’ll thrive in a work-from-home environment with little supervision. Past experience working remotely is a plus, but we believe any employee with drive and the ability to work independently can be an asset. 

We recommend asking these questions in the first interview:

• How do you plan to communicate effectively with team members while working remotely (or – how have you communicated with team members in the past)?
• Give me an example of a time you worked successfully with a distributed team – what do you think made it successful?
• Could you give me an example of a time you found it difficult to stay motivated at work? 

Soft skills, like time management and organization, are just as important as hard skills, and it’s essential to weed out any candidates that won’t fit in with your company culture by asking these behavioral questions. During a two-way video interview, you’ll also get the opportunity to see how your candidate interacts on camera – which is crucial as most communication will be digital.

Contact Us For More Information On Best Practices In Hiring Digital Nomads

With interviewstream’s suite of video interviewing tools, it’s never been easier to attract top applicants from this vast, competitive group of mobile candidates. Digital nomads expect a fast and simple recruitment process – so ask us how to implement interviewstream in your organization to get started today.

About The Author

Caroline Chessia is the Marketing Operations Specialist at interviewstream. She loves color-coordinated graphs, hiking in the mountains, and every dog she meets—especially the Golden Retrievers.