The COVID-19 pandemic has forced an unprecedented number of individuals to work from home and the business landscape has shifted to adapt to their needs. The relationship between employers and employees is transforming rapidly with the advent of 4-day work weeks and remote-only businesses. This scenario presents both problems and opportunities for all businesses.

Organizations and their HR departments have had to rethink their onboarding procedures due to the increasing prevalence of hybrid workplaces and remote employment. The lack of direct physical contact with coworkers and supervisors can intimidate new employees. It can be tough to get to know an organization’s culture and the environment if you don’t meet face-to-face. When you don’t get a chance to get to know your coworkers, it’s easy to feel like an outsider in your new position.

However, with suitable methods and technologies in place, businesses can assure a seamless and effective onboarding process. Your new hires will feel more connected to their positions, teams, and your company if they are properly onboarded. If you want your new hires to be happy and well-adjusted to their new responsibilities, here are some remote onboarding tips and remote hiring tips you can use to make the most of the onboarding process for remote employees.

Remote hiring and remote onboarding best practices

Research shows that 31% of new employees leave within six months after starting a new job. Your company’s attrition rate and long-term growth could be significantly improved by ensuring a seamless onboarding process for new employees. Here are some ideas for onboarding remote employees in more depth:

Digital signatures for online contracts

Documentation during onboarding can help resolve disagreements, provide resources when necessary, and answer critical questions about a company’s operations. The new employee will likely be required to sign some paperwork as a precondition to employment. It’s a good idea to use virtual documents when you can’t use physical documentation. Legally binding electronic signature services, such as DocuSign and HelloSign can help.

Provide tools to get the job done, without delays

You should offer your new remote personnel the necessary gadgets such as computers and mobile phones a few days ahead of time. . It’s time wasted and the company’s image may be impacted too as a consequence. Keep an eye on non-delivery days like weekends and holidays so that you can choose premium shipping services that ensure fast arrival.

Make induction easier to manage

The productivity and sense of belonging of a remotely professional, especially a new hire, can be jeopardized by isolation. A distant worker cannot participate in team-building activities that foster communication and camaraderie. As a result, remote inductions necessitate a virtual introduction. The entire team can participate in short video conferences and individual meetings with supervisors. You may make meetings more engaging by using an ai powerpoint maker to craft informative introductory presentations for the participants. A team’s structure, objectives, and passion can all be communicated through these introductions. Slack or Google Chat are great options for sending a “welcome to the team” message to all new hires as well. Once they’ve met their coworkers, encourage the new employees to build a rapport with their coworkers in the rest of the company.

Introduce them to the responsibilities of their new positions

Your remote hires’ onboarding and acclimatization are slower because they are not in the office. They will be more comfortable if you plan and organize meetings with agendas, video links, and other supporting resources. You need to ensure that they are familiarized with all the people, and procedures they will need to complete their tasks properly. A clear strategy for the first 30, 60, and 90 days should be developed in conjunction with the new hires so that everyone is clear on what is expected of them in their roles.

Initiate more honest conversations

New employees may be reluctant to ask questions via email or instant messaging since it is more difficult to establish rapport and feel at ease in a virtual setting. As a result, being proactive and discussing an onboarding plan in advance is essential if you want to know exactly what to expect. You may want to create a checklist for your new remote staff that breaks down tasks and goals by day or week. Such a checklist will encourage a more transparent guide to set and meet expectations.

Onboard in small batches

Small-group onboarding and training are great ways to save time and effort when onboarding and training new employees. It also helps your new hires feel like a part of the team. Small batches of new employees can be brought up to speed in this manner. New employees can get to know each other better in a smaller group.

Take a listener’s perspective and act on them

When it comes to managing a remote team for the first time, you’re likely to face some challenges. For each new remote employee, you should ask for honest feedback regarding the process and how it worked or didn’t work for them. New employees’ onboarding can be improved with the help of the information the new hires provide you.

Encourage a sense of community

Although it may not always be realistic, you should attempt to incorporate remote employees into your team activities whenever possible. They will feel a sense of belonging by just receiving an invitation. In addition, try to throw in informal conversations and fun ice-breakers in your business sessions. For instance, you can request your senior personnel to reach out to the new hires, introduce themselves, and create a rapport. Employees that work remotely but are content, cohesive, and feel connected are valuable assets to any business. Do this and your company’s productivity will rise, employee morale will improve, new employees will flock to the company because of word-of-mouth recommendations, and the company’s culture will deepen.

Remote hiring and you

Hire the best

Limiting your recruiting to a specific location might severely limit your options. Remote hiring platforms are a terrific method to improve workplace diversity with several benefits. Companies can reach rural communities or connect with talent irrespective of where they are located. The option to hire from a bigger talent pool without compromise can free you from the challenges of acquiring the best talent. All in all, remote hiring and onboarding allows you to build a truly global team with the perspectives, ideas, and creativity of people from all over the world.

Optimize costs

Remote onboarding can save you the cost of expensive on-location orientation programs. Dedicated trainers for each new employee? That’s a thing of the past. You can provide virtual training and online learning through a dedicated portal for your employees. Another advantage of remote hires is that it saves money on office expenses like new desks or workspaces – all you need is a decent internet connection and the necessary tools for new personnel.

Flexibility gain

Flexibility has become a norm for workers in most businesses since COVID-19. According to USA Today, working from home saves an average of $4,000 per year. 80% of workers believe remote choices help manage their mental health better. According to an Upwork survey, 68% of recruiting managers feel remote work is easier now than it was at the start of the pandemic. Remote hiring empowers you to seek out recruits that are looking for flexibility and convenience which traditional hiring cannot provide.

Hire and onboard employees with HackerEarth

If you don’t have the time to go through a series of interviews, you can use hackathons and coding assessments to evaluate possible employees. It’s cheaper for companies to locate and hire top-notch talent right where the action happens. Hackathons and coding assessments inspire creative problem solving, drive innovation and build brand exposure.

Hackathons are also a great means of ramping up employee engagement while encouraging teamwork. HackerEarth, a remote hiring platform, is a great resource for companies to conduct hackathons and coding assessments with ease. With HackerEarth, you can create a leaderboard for each code assessment to quickly and easily identify the best developers to hire for open positions. These events allow you to build very accurate code assessments even with very limited technical knowledge.

At HackerEarth, our mission is to help organizations of all sizes adopt strategies that help you evolve. Our unique approach can help you accelerate your growth while eliminating bottlenecks. Get in touch with us to learn how you can benefit from remote hiring and onboarding for your business.

Finding the right talent to fill a vacancy always poses a unique set of challenges. Most hiring processes and coding assessments, while having their advantages, are inherently flawed. There are many talented individuals who may never receive the right opportunity. Conversely, there are also many job posts that are filled with people that are unsuitable for the role.

Resumes can’t always be trusted, which is why it is important to have interviews and assessments. This way, you can accurately gauge the level of skill and expertise possessed by a potential candidate for hire.

When it comes to the technical hiring process, the importance of a coding assessment cannot be understated. Coding assessments are a way of evaluating the technical talent of an individual. The challenge of how to test coding skills needs to be solved as it can negatively impact the entire hiring process if it’s not set up correctly.

What is a coding assessment?

A coding assessment is a structured evaluation process where individuals are tested on their programming skills and problem-solving capabilities. It typically comprises coding challenges, algorithms, and real-world problem scenarios that aim to gauge the candidate’s proficiency in writing, analyzing, and debugging code.

These assessments are prevalent in technical hiring processes, where companies aim to measure the competence of prospective candidates in specific programming languages or tools, and in education settings where students’ understanding of coding concepts is evaluated.

In essence, coding assessments provide a more objective means of evaluating technical talent. Rather than relying solely on a candidate’s credentials or self-reported skills, recruiters and educators can gain a firsthand view of their actual coding prowess.

How to conduct a successful coding assessment

Be concise – It is impossible to test every area of a candidate’s knowledge of coding. This means that employers must prioritize certain skills and knowledge over others to arrive at an accurate assessment. High-level candidates are aware that they have plenty of opportunities, which is why they typically do not concern themselves with taking lengthy assessments.

Maintain objectivity – Creating an in-house coding assessment platform is something that many companies that are hiring, are willing to do. It is a common practice to design a custom coding assessment process that can’t even be solved by members of the hiring team! Custom coding assessments generally create more problems than solutions.

Narrow it down – When conducting a general coding assessment, ask yourself whether algorithmic knowledge is really required for a given role. If yes, can you measure the extent of knowledge that is required for the job? Also, try to understand the demographic that you are trying to target. Is it an industry-experienced coder you need, or a graduate fresh out of college? Answering these questions will give you a broad view of the qualities you want in a candidate.

Cover a range of topics – The tech stack required for any role keeps morphing constantly. Coding assessment platforms should cover new and pre-existing programming languages, advent in technology, and skill requirements to tackle the modern coding battlefield.

Avoid time sinks – Most candidates will not have a huge chunk of time to spend on coding assessments. This is why it is better to use assessments that can be completed within an hour. It is also beneficial to frame direct questions so that candidates can focus on how to answer them, as opposed to spending too much time deconstructing what the question implies.

Benefits of selecting candidates based on coding assessments

Optimal use of organizational resources – The recruitment process in any industry generally proves to be lengthy and arduous. This is because of the numerous steps procedures to be followed, as well as the fact that at the end of it all, landing the perfect candidate isn’t a given. Using the right technical screening tools can help you reduce the burden on your workforce by creating a more efficient recruitment process.

Retention of skilled individuals – Employees that possess a highly specialized skill set are aware that there is no lack of opportunities for them. A well-constructed coding assessment platform ensures that the skills of a potential candidate are noticed early on. Based on this assessment, recruiters can accurately gauge the right compensation and incentives for the role.

Scientific hiring process – Coding assessment practices ensure that the selection you make is based on hard facts and data. This means that there is a proper, structured method of finding the right talent by doing away with haphazard methods that do not paint an accurate picture.

Unbiased selection – It is all too common for managers and employers to select candidates based on favorable interactions, smooth communication, and shared interests. Unfortunately, this can lead to organizations choosing the wrong individuals to fill vacancies, as the selection is done solely based on the positivity of interaction between employer and candidate, and not much else. Coding skills assessments go a long way in aiding companies to make better choices when it comes to handling their hiring processes. It is essential that organizations select the right coding assessment platforms.

Choosing a coding assessment platform—What should you look for?

Diverse question library: A rich set of questions spanning various difficulty levels and categories ensures that you can tailor assessments to the specific skills you’re looking to evaluate.

Customization: The tool should allow you to create custom challenges that reflect real-world scenarios relevant to your industry or specific job role. On HackerEarth Assessments, engineering managers can add their own custom questions in the tests to make the process realistic and relevant to their industry.

Automated code evaluation: Immediate feedback is vital. Choose tools that can automatically evaluate code for correctness and efficiency, delivering instant results. On HackerEarth, for instance, the code submissions are automatically evaluated by our AI-driven engine and the results are benchmarked against previous submissions. This helps interviewers shortlist candidates easily and provide necessary feedback on their performance.

Plagiarism detection: Ensure the tool has robust plagiarism-checking features to maintain the integrity of the assessment. With the advent of ChatGPT, companies also have to look out for candidates using AI tools for answering test questions. HackerEarth Assessments has a new feature called Smart Browser which prevents this from occurring.

IDE (Integrated Development Environment) Features: An intuitive IDE with features like code auto-completion, syntax highlighting, and error prompts can enhance the candidateexperience. Most coders use an IDE to create code on a daily basis and are familiar with it. Providing the same during and assessments puts them at ease, and allows them a fair shot at the test.

Multi-language support: Given the diverse range of programming languages, it’s essential that the tool supports assessing candidates in multiple languages.

Reporting and analytics: Comprehensive reports detailing candidate performance, areas of strength, and areas needing improvement can be invaluable for making informed decisions.

Scalability: If you’re assessing large numbers of candidates simultaneously, the tool should be able to handle the load without any glitches or slowdowns.

Integration capabilities: A good coding assessment tool should seamlessly integrate with your existing HRM (Human Resource Management) or LMS (Learning Management System) solutions.

Security: Ensure the tool maintains high standards of data privacy and security, adhering to relevant regulations and best practices.

Mobile compatibility: In today’s digital age, many candidates may opt to take assessments on mobile devices. Ensure the tool offers a smooth mobile experience.

Customer support: Reliable customer support can be a lifesaver, especially when dealing with technical issues or requiring guidance on best practices. HackerEarth offers 24*7 support across all geographies so that recruiting teams can hire faster and easier.

How to Create the perfect coding assessments with HackerEarth

HackerEarth is an online coding assessment platform and technical screening tool that allows organizations to design specific tests and evaluate candidates to find the right individuals to employ.

These reasons set HackerEarth apart from its competitors:

• Versatility – Create customized tests in just a few minutes
• Wide reach – Scale the hiring process over a large region by enabling multiple recruiters to hire candidates
• Futuristic – Automate the evaluation process to screen for the best candidates
• Economical – Reduce the burden on the organization by bringing down manual effort and repetition
• Scientific – Create reports on the performance of candidates for further analysis and evaluation
• Diversity – Design and implement assessments using over 35 programming languages

Streamline your recruitment process with HackerEarth

HackerEarth enables recruitment teams to streamline their processes, thus bringing down turnaround rates drastically. Performance reports further allow recruitment teams to break down and analyze micro-details, such as the time in which the assessment was completed, replaying the keystrokes used while coding, and so much more. Organizations that use HackerEarth as a coding assessment platform observe a marked rise in the quality of candidates ready for hire. The interview-to-hire ratio was drastically improved in these cases.

Why choose HackerEarth?

HackerEarth has one of the largest databases of questions to choose from when it comes to designing coding skills assessments. The platform also supports international languages making it easier for recruiters to hire across geographies

Additionally, HackerEarth secures the privacy of candidates by masking personally identifiable information in video interviews. Going by these features, it is easy to see why HackerEarth is one of the most highly-rated and trusted coding assessment platforms on the market today. Get in touch with us to learn more.

The pandemic has reshaped the global workforce area dramatically, causing tech companies to hire more remote developers. According to a recent Eurofound report, 34% of employees residing in the EU worked exclusively from home as of July 2021. Compared to pre-COVID statistics from 2018, that’s a whopping six-fold increase.

The numbers are similar in other regions around the world. In the IT sector, telework had been the norm before the coronavirus crisis broke out, let alone the current circumstances. At some point, many software engineering companies run into difficulties filling job positions in their area and turn to the workforce overseas. In August 2021, 77% of job offers posted on a popular social news website for computer science professionals mentioned remote work.

That being said, HR departments often face a nontrivial dilemma when trying to bridge the talent gap with local coders: to hire remote developers from offshore locations or relocate employees so that they work in your office. For a start, let’s dwell on the differences between these two options.

In the relocation scenario, a programmer moves to another place (city or country) to work onsite. The employer typically assists with work permits, visas, transportation, and accommodations. The whole process extends over several months.

Contrary to this approach, remote developers enhance your office team from another location. This tactic is much more cost-efficient than relocation as long as the software engineering or web design workflow is backed by proper administrative support, digital infrastructure, and the security of collaboration at a distance.

India is one of the world’s fastest-growing remote developer hubs

Companies based in Europe and North America are increasingly hiring remote developers from South Asia. India is dominating this ecosystem due to the high level of education and long-running track record of its IT professionals. Furthermore, the country is exhibiting a booming growth of developer population.

Some may argue that being in different time zones will put a spanner in the works, but well-thought-out management and coordination of efforts between onsite and remote teams can smooth the edges in this context. Another important thing to consider is that most Indian developers speak fluent English, which facilitates the interaction considerably.

Things on the plus side of programmer relocation

The ability to communicate in person and collaborate side-by-side is the fundamental advantage of relocating personnel to your locale. It underlies effective teamwork, quick decision-making, and instant feedback. The following aspects make a difference in this case:

• Keeping corporate culture high. Having all employees under the same umbrella is the pillar of some companies’ culture. These enterprises spare no expense to turn their offices into oases for synergy between team members.
• Face-to-face communication. Beyond all doubt, being able to discuss work issues in the same office is important. It is a prerequisite for problem-solving in real time without the need to give someone a phone call or type a message and wait for a reply.

81% of professional developers are employed full-time, a decrease from 83% in 2020. The percentage of professional developers saying they were independent contractors, freelancers, or self-employed increased from 9.5% in 2020 to 11.2% in 2021 – indicating potential job insecurity or a shift to more flexible work arrangements.

– StackOverflow

Challenges of relocation

The bitter truth is that developer relocation is a bumpy road. You will have to tackle a handful of bureaucratic obstacles, incur significant costs, and spend a lot of time addressing all the accommodation nuances. Ultimately, these hurdles may eclipse the advantages and discourage company executives from carrying through with their original intentions.

Let’s get the lowdown on these gotchas:

• A cumbersome hiring process. It’s hard to find a competent developer and get them on board these days, and even more so if the candidate resides in another country. This is doable, though. If you are successful in your scouting endeavors and recruit the right professional, that’s half the battle. Keep in mind that you will additionally need to prep and file paperwork for visas and work permits. Sorting out all these technicalities gobbles up your time, which means you may have to postpone your next major project.
• Costs. Moving has never been cheap. If you are planning to cover your new employee’s relocation expenses, be ready to pay a few eyebrow-raising bills for the travel, temporary or corporate housing, and other services. You may additionally need to pay for language lessons. If the employee is moving with their family, assistance with schooling and childcare may be necessary, too. All this expenditure is particularly frustrating if it eventually turns out that the person is not the right fit.
• Low flexibility. With relocation, it is problematic to align the size of your dev team with your current programming needs down the line. After investing funds and a ton of effort, such a decision can be tough.
  Also, there are several caveats on the employee’s end. Culture shock, social integration difficulties, and a strain on family relationships due to the dramatic change are common problems encountered in light of relocation.

The benefits of recruiting remote developers

IT firms can get a lot of mileage out of working with remote coders. This method of cooperation is more cost-efficient and more flexible than the relocation approach, with today’s top-notch technologies helping you ruin communication barriers that used to be a serious concern. Here is a summary of arguments in favor of this move:

• Less time, less spending. If you choose to cooperate with a remote development team, relocation costs won’t be draining your budget. Also, neither your company nor the employee has to go through the fuss of moving and finding an apartment near your office. At the end of the day, you save a great deal of time by extracting this tedious part out of the equation.
• A competent crew. According to a SkillValue report, developers from India have a decent score index (78.13 out of 100), which means they are competent enough to meet your company’s programming needs. Their qualification stems, in part, from an increasing level of education in the country. Many of these coders have a wide spectrum of skills in both mainstream and rare programming languages. Most of them can easily communicate with foreigners owing to their excellent English, both written and spoken. Plus, diligence is part of their mentality.
• Flexibility. Sometimes, software engineering businesses need to upsize or downsize their teams based on current projects and the state of the market niche they are in. A recruitment model involving remote devs allows you to adjust the size of your team to different circumstances quickly. As a rule, this can be done with a month’s notice.
• Corporate culture. There is no denying that an in-house team is the best environment for nurturing your company’s values. With remote workers, you can fill the void by having a dedicated HR manager who is responsible for continuous communication with an overseas team. This is also a great way to gather feedback from remote colleagues and address their concerns in real time.
• Plenty of secure communication channels. There is no need to reinvent the wheel here. Specialized platforms such as Slack and Zoom will help you maintain permanent communication with your staff working from another place. These services provide end-to-end encryption of your video conferences and chats to keep sensitive information intact. Although Zoom dealt with a series of security and privacy scandals last year, it has since addressed those vulnerabilities and is now a reliable tool to stay in touch with your teleworkers.

Are you up to hiring remote developers? HackerEarth is here to help

HackerEarth is a company headquartered in San Francisco, US, that specializes in assessing and screening software developers to help organizations make informed, data-driven hiring decisions. Boasting a decade of experience in this area, it provides enterprise software that accurately evaluates candidates for more than 12 roles and 80 skills across all levels. The company has conducted over 1,000 virtual hackathons over the years.

With HackerEarth’s automated tools, you can easily set up a real-time remote programming or video interviewing session with your candidates. Frictionless integration with the world’s top applicant tracking systems (ATS), such as Zoho, Workable, and Greenhouse, further facilitates the hiring workflow. This platform is used by hundreds of high-profile customers around the world, including Amazon, Barclays, Intel, VMWare, and Zalora.

You can hire remote developers, grow, and build strong teams with the company’s flexible assessment as well as learning and development plans. If you want to enhance your business with remote development talent, outsourcing the hardest part to HackerEarth is a sure-shot way to give your recruitment effort a boost.

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This article is contributed by David Balaban. David is a computer security researcher with over 17 years of experience in malware analysis. He is also a regular contributor to 500+ high-profile tech and security websites. David regularly covers topics related to the cyber threat landscape and has a strong track record as an investigative journalist.

You can find some of his guest articles here OR connect with him at David Balaban Security.

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