The past year has seen a global boom in remote work that shows no signs of abating. In fact, analysts predict a significant upswing in demand to work from home as more people experience the benefits of remote working and employers' worries about lost productivity continue to evaporate.

This creates a unique but exciting challenge. Remote work has significantly expanded the pool of potential job candidates; companies can tap into talent all around the world, not just in certain regions, resulting in a field of billions of people. But how do organizations narrow that universe and find the right people for the right roles?

Traditional Recruitment Methods Fall Short

It’s certainly not through traditional recruitment methods, which are profoundly flawed even in traditional work environments. Many HR departments don’t even know what kind of skills and experience hiring managers are looking for, particularly when hiring talent for very specific technology positions. Head hunters may not accurately represent the company, its culture, or the work involved in those positions. Good candidates can be driven away by inaccurate or overly complicated job descriptions, and even when they aren’t, many companies rely too heavily on what they see in resumes, what they hear in interviews, and who the candidate knows. The result? Ill-fitting candidates and costly attrition rates, with an estimated 20% of employees leaving organizations within their first days of employment.

When hiring a remote workforce, the problems with traditional recruiting become even more pronounced. Companies are dealing with global candidates whose language, culture, education, and work experience may be different. They’re also not meeting face-to-face—which means hiring decisions are often made based on gut feel.

At Crossover, we know this hiring process is flawed. So, we take a different approach with our clients.

Meet Our “Organization Builders”

Instead of hiring recruitment directors, HR managers, or head hunters to pull in good candidates, we’ve assembled a team of “organization builders.” These experts in remote work and the principles of asynchronous communication aren’t charged with combing through resumes and role openings to find the right match. Instead, they work with companies to create infrastructures that allow them to effectively find, filter, evaluate, and hire the best possible people from all over the world.

They start by identifying the basic criteria for a position. Instead of making the role generic and appealing to everyone, they clearly describe the core of the role (deliberately leaving out the unimportant aspects that can deter candidates), focusing on what is different and desirable about the position. In this way, the content pulls in good candidates and pushes away those that aren’t a good fit.

As applications come in, organization builders don’t evaluate candidates based on what they put on their resume and how they perform in an interview; they evaluate based on how they perform real work assignments. These assignments are derived from actual work that a candidate would be doing but are simplified into a structured format that gives the applicant first-hand experience of what to expect “on-the-job.”

Finally, organization builders assess how candidates perform against key real work benchmarks; for example, a person’s ability to create a specific type of software feature. If these standards are met – and the candidate is happy with the work, is a good cultural fit, and comfortable with the company’s remote working model – the hiring process can begin.

Making a better remote worker is our goal and our interview success rate of between 80-100% proves it’s something we excel at. It also drives retention. Studies show 69% of candidates who have a great onboarding experience are more likely to stay with a company for three years. We strive for that, and more. 

Always Raising the Bar

The shift to remote work has opened up a wealth of possibilities for organizations. They can pick and choose the talent they want, wherever that talent is located.

But this model only works if companies can find the right people – in a sea of candidates. That requires a framework for effectively screening and hiring the best and most appropriate talent for a remote workforce model. A framework that ensures the correct fit, improves the candidate experience, uses data to continue to raise the performance bar, and sustains a pipeline of quality candidates.  

Organization builders are the architects of this framework. They create opportunities for organizations to take advantage of all of the benefits today’s open, expansive, and remote work culture has to offer.

Learn more about Crossover’s vision for remote work and our available opportunities.