april2022 - 23

THE STAFFING & HR ADVISOR
How to Craft a Remote-Friendly
Recruitment and Retention Strategy
PAUL McDONALD
Senior Executive Director
Robert Half
paul.mcdonald@cpapracticeadvisor.com
But COVID-19 lingered, people
adapted, and then they thrived. In
a survey for the 2022 Salary Guide
from Robert Half , 75% of workers said
they wanted to work at least part of
the time remotely, and one in three
(34%) would quit a company that
didn't allow remote work. After the
anywhere worker, meet the anywherebut-the-office
worker.
With 7-in-10 (69%)
finance and
accounting managers keen to continue
offering remote work to support
their employees' work-life balance, the
remote work revolution isn't about
workers vs. bosses. The real battle
is with your competitors. How can
you attract the remote workers you
need to give your firm a competitive
advantage in a talent-scarce hiring
market? And once you have them,
how do you keep them?
WHY HIRE REMOTE
WORKERS?
It'll be an uphill battle to craft a
remote work recruitment strategy for
2022 if you view the practice through
the lens of 2020. Different types of
remote working roles have evolved
since then, including:
■ Local remote workers who telecommute
full-time but are close enough
to the office to come in for training
days, social events or client meetings
■ " Anywhere workers " who may join
and leave a firm without ever setting
foot in the office
■ Hybrid workers who divide their time
between home and the office
Some leaders may wonder
whether the pros of managing such
IT WAS HARDLY a foregone conclusion that professionals would embrace remote working
after the pandemic struck. Many people struggled through the early days of improvised
desks and work-life conflicts. If COVID-19 had come and gone in a matter of weeks, few
would have dreaded a return to the office.
a diverse range of roles outweigh the
cons. But in addition to the need to
protect employees from COVID-19,
there are other distinct advantages
to a remote-friendly recruitment
strategy.
One is that it widens the talent
pool - significantly. More than a
third (35%) of finance and accounting
leaders polled by Robert Half said
they had expanded their hiring search
geographically to find the candidates
they need. Another advantage of distributed
work is increased coverage,
particularly if you have employees
in different time zones. Rather than
working late, an auditor on the East
Coast who receives an urgent query
at 5 p.m. can " hand over " to a Seattlebased
colleague, who still has three
hours left on the clock. In an age when
work-life balance is a top employee
priority, using remote teams to relieve
pressure in this way could also be a
powerful staff retention tool.
HOW TO HIRE GREAT
REMOTE WORKERS
Here are some of my suggestions for
attracting the most talented remote
workers.
■ Tap a broad range of resources - Job
search websites enable you to post
open positions quickly, but you risk
being flooded with applications from
under-qualified job seekers. For a
more targeted approach, ask current
team members to recommend people
they know. Employees get a morale
boost when their manager shows trust
in their judgment, and it's unlikely
your staff would recommend people
who would underperform. Finally,
working with a talent solutions firm
like Robert Half gives you immediate
access to highly-skilled, remote-ready
professionals.
■ Offer perks and benefits that attract
remote workers - If your remote job
postings tout your sleek new office
gym, don't be surprised if you get a
lukewarm response. Consider adding
perks that employees can actually use,
like remote learning opportunities.
■ Learn how to evaluate remote working
skill sets - Beware the otherwise
perfect candidate who just isn't cut
out to work from home. Remote
workers need soft skills like initiative
and the ability to work under minimal
supervision, plus the technical savvy
to navigate cloud-based collaboration
and finance tools. When interviewing
potential remote hires, ask about
telecommuting experience and their
strategies for staying focused and
connected when working from home.
■ Accelerate the hiring process - It's a
candidate-led hiring market right now,
which means professionals may end
up fielding multiple offers. Almost half
of applicants (43%) lose interest if they
don't hear back within two weeks,
so keep in touch with promising
candidates and don't dither about
making them a competitive offer.
HOW TO RETAIN REMOTE
WORKERS
Remote work has razed the geographical
barriers to talent. But it can also
erect new barriers within your workforce
if you don't (forgive the paradox)
make remote workers feel at home.
If some of your workforce has
returned to the office, avoid creating
a two-tier system where remote and
hybrid workers feel more isolated and
less valued than their office-based colleagues,
which is a recipe for increased
turnover. Try to:
■ Give equal access to training
resources - Many remote workers
feel like the pandemic put the skids
under their career development. If
you host seminars and workshops at
the office, invite local remote workers
to join their on-site colleagues. Give
those farther afield the chance to
attend such events virtually, or at
least have access to a good-quality
recording of the workshop.
■ Don't overlook remote workers
for bonuses and promotions - To
ensure fai rness, ensure that
performance reviews and any other
triggers for rewards and promotions
are standardized across your team.
■ Give shout-outs to remote workers
- It's easy to spot on-site workers who
put in extra hours during tax season,
but remote workers do this too - and
often invisibly. Make sure you give
public shout-outs on team calls to
remote workers who make valuable
contributions.
The " new normal " may be something
of a cliché, but it does describe
how arrangements
like
remote
working have become routine in a
pandemic-changed world. The challenges
of leading dispersed teams are
real, but not having a remote-friendly
recruitment policy may leave you
playing catch-up with your competitors.
■
APRIL 2022 ■ www.CPAPracticeAdvisor.com
23
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