4 Types of Remote Hiring Models

Excerpted from a webinar facilitated by MATRIX in December 2020. Click here to watch the full recording of the webinar.

For better or for worse, remote working has permanently altered the hiring landscape. Hiring managers must face new realities when it comes to sourcing, interviewing and hiring top candidates.

Justin Thomason, VP of Recruiting at MATRIX, and Tamara Davis, VP of Talent Acquisition at Brinks Home Security, took a deep dive into the benefits and obstacles they have encountered in this new hiring landscape and offered tips on how hiring managers can function better within the world of remote work in 2021 and beyond. Below they focus on remote hiring models and four different types they see companies employing today.

JT: We're now into the tenth month of remote hiring. It seems that to an extent, our processes have stabilized and matured. If you're using Microsoft Teams or Zoom for interviews, you know exactly how long it's going to take to procure a new laptop. And job candidates have learned that taking a virtual interview from their car or bed is probably not going to result in an offer.

Many industries have been hit by massive layoffs, while others like mortgage, nursing and tech continue to not be able to find enough talent to meet the demands of the business.

One thing, however, has remained constant and that is people are looking for new jobs and they want those jobs to be remote.

A recent study by Indeed showed that 80% of people in the U.S. are either currently looking for a new job or “open to new opportunities” as our friends at LinkedIn like to call it.

AT MATRIX, we saw a 26% increase in job applicants in Q3 over Q2. Additionally, there's a 300% increase in our internal jobs looking for people who are open to remote work. If you look specifically at software development, that number goes up to 400%, so there's no question about it. People are changing jobs and if your organization is not offering fully remote capabilities, you're missing out on great talent.

TD: Remote work has changed things a lot. Pre-COVID, the views of work from home were slim to none in many areas. Everybody was in the office, especially help desk, call centers, and things of that nature.

Now, remote flexibility is in every position we have. Software development and some of those more niche roles, they're demanding it and we need them. So, we are open to being flexible and adaptable. The views on it are completely different now than before.

JT: My role at MATRIX gives me insight to how hundreds of our customers are doing this remotely. And so, what we have seen evolve are four primary models of remote work:

• Fully Remote
  The first type of remote work is fully remote with no expectation that you'll ever have to come into an office. So that is kind of the ideal situation for candidates today. And if you are looking to hire the most in-demand skillsets (cloud positions within technology, DevOps, application development, even some product type roles), you've got to have that option because there are too many companies out there who are trying to hire that same talent that are paying aggressively and will allow them to work remote.

• Fully Remote for Now
  The second trend is fully remote right now, but the expectation would be in the future you will relocate or work in the local market once COVID is over. This applies mostly to manager and director roles, which gave them a very flexible work schedule.
  Prior to COVID, they're not coming to the office five days a week. They know what they've got to do to be there for their team, but on more of a flexible work schedule. This model has proven interesting because we've been able to expand our candidate pool since these individuals seem to be more open to relocating once COVID is over.

• Regional Remote
  With regional remote, you either must live in a certain hub or in one of a few cities around an area. This seems to be more prevalent around the main type of technology roles (e.g. project managers and developers). Hiring managers want people who aren't necessarily going to have to be in the office every, but in a location close enough to an office to attend certain meetings or sessions in person.

• Back in the Office Post-COVID
  This model is remote now and then you're back in the office, five days a week post-COVID. This work model typically applies to lower-level positions (e.g. admin, call center). This is probably the least desirable of the four options that we're seeing companies offer now.