{"id":36036,"date":"2022-06-06T13:59:41","date_gmt":"2022-06-06T17:59:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/centricconsulting.com\/?p=36036"},"modified":"2022-06-07T09:34:56","modified_gmt":"2022-06-07T13:34:56","slug":"interviewing-for-remote-jobs-a-guide-to-evaluating-whether-a-company-has-great-remote-culture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/centricconsulting.com\/blog\/interviewing-for-remote-jobs-a-guide-to-evaluating-whether-a-company-has-great-remote-culture\/","title":{"rendered":"Interviewing For Remote Jobs? A Guide to Evaluating Whether a Company Has Great Remote Culture"},"content":{"rendered":"
As the Great Reshuffle churns on, employees continue to look for new opportunities that better align with their desires for work-life balance and flexibility.<\/p>\n
According to the 2022 ADP People at Work report<\/a>, 64 percent of employees would seek out a new job if they were forced back to the office full time. More than half of employees would accept a pay cut rather than give up flexibility and at least some time working remotely.<\/p>\n As the Great Reshuffle churns on, employees continue to look for new opportunities that better align with their desires for work-life balance and flexibility. The recent Microsoft Word Trend Index<\/a> found that employees highly value positive culture, mental health and wellbeing benefits, flexible work hours and generous paid vacation time.<\/p>\n So how do you ensure you land at an organization that has a positive remote culture and truly supports remote work? Here\u2019s what to look out for during the recruiting process:<\/strong><\/p>\n A lack of enthusiastic support from company leaders could be a huge red flag \u2014 the last thing you want to do is land a new job only to suddenly have to go back to the office full time or on company-mandated days. During interviews, be sure to ask why a company offers remote work. Does it sound as if they offer it begrudgingly because employees demand it? Or are they happy to grant employees the flexibility because they believe it\u2019s a better way of working?<\/p>\n If the job listing specifies employees must be within a small radius of the company\u2019s headquarters, that could be a warning sign. While requiring employees to be in a certain area isn\u2019t a guarantee the company hasn\u2019t fully embraced remote work, it does mean you\u2019ll want to ask some questions about its approach to remote work.<\/strong><\/p>\n When Covid-19 sent organizations into remote mode overnight, most just winged it, doing their best in the face of an unprecedented crisis.<\/p>\n Well, that was more than two years ago. If companies are going to permanently embrace remote work, they\u2019ve had plenty of time to intentionally build policies to support remote workers.<\/strong><\/p>\n Some signs that a company has a well-thought-out hybrid workplace strategy<\/a>:<\/p>\n During interviews, ask what a typical day looks like as a remote worker. Nonstop virtual meetings could mean the company hasn\u2019t effectively transitioned into a more asynchronous mode of working. Employee exhaustion caused by too many meetings is a pervasive issue \u2014 the 2022 Microsoft Work Trend Index found that meetings are up 252 percent since March 2020<\/a>.<\/p>\n Remote collaboration tools also provide insights into a company\u2019s comfort level with asynchronous work. Has the company invested in quality tools and training to ensure remote workers know how to use them? Do they use one suite of tools for all their remote work needs, or have they overwhelmed employees with numerous tools with overlapping capabilities?<\/p>\n Without strong relationships, remote workers can easily become disconnected and disengaged. Does the company have strategies or policies in place for ensuring remote employees occasionally get together in person? Do they value employees connecting on a human level? How do they facilitate employees building their internal network?<\/strong>\u202fDoes being remote effect promotion criteria?<\/p>\n A company\u2019s values only mean something if they actually live those values daily.\u202f Turn the tables on the interviewers and ask for some recent examples of their company values in action.<\/strong> If they can\u2019t answer this question, employees most likely don\u2019t really know the values, and the platitudes posted online aren\u2019t a true reflection of the culture.<\/p>\n Be sure to ask this question of everyone you talk to throughout the process. If the stories all align and the culture sounds healthy, it probably is. If there are culture issues, you\u2019ll hear discrepancies.<\/p>\n Finally, you can learn a lot by paying attention during any video interviews. I recently gave a virtual talk to a company. I saw dogs and babies briefly on laps and the team started the call with a brief kudos moment. From this quick observation, I could tell they have a caring and supportive culture and make it OK for personal life to intersect with work-life \u2014 a reality of working from home.<\/strong><\/p>\n As employees continue to reevaluate their priorities and plan their next steps, they\u2019ll be looking for opportunities that will let them live a more balanced life with greater well-being. Before accepting a job offer, it\u2019s important to evaluate whether a company has truly committed to remote or hybrid work and has put the resources and policies in place to ensure remote workers thrive.<\/p>\nRemote or hybrid work has full buy-in from the C-suite.<\/h2>\n
Candidates aren\u2019t excluded based on geography.<\/h2>\n
The company has established remote work policies.<\/h2>\n
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The company is skilled at working asynchronously.<\/h2>\n
The company treats remote workers as valued, human members of the team.<\/h2>\n
The company lives its core values.<\/h2>\n
The company accepts that remote work means life and work won\u2019t always fit in neat boxes.<\/h2>\n