A Guide to Hiring and Managing Remote Developers | by Honeypot

If there’s one thing we’ve learned from COVID-19, it’s that working from home has actually proved very manageable, and the cloud of assumptions surrounding distributed teams have been set straight. This pandemic has already defined the future of work, and while the crisis will surely end, the trend towards remote work will not.

In light of recent events, we’ve created a five-part series on remote hiring and management. Each part documents the best practices from the tech community and a few of our own, and we’ll take you through the processes: from sourcing and interviewing, to hiring and onboarding, to managing and engaging teams. You’ll find the links to the series below and a quick snapshot of what you can expect to learn. Enjoy the read, amigo!

Honeypot’s Guide to Hiring and Managing Remote Developers

Part 1: How to Source and Screen Developer Remotely

Part 2: How to Interview Developers Remotely

Part 3: How to Onboard Developers Remotely

Part 4: How to Manage Remote Developer Teams

Part 5: How to Engage Remote Engineering Teams Teams

Part 1: How to Source and Screen Developers Remotely

Welcome to the first part of our series! In this article we discuss how you, a tech recruiter or hiring manager, can source and screen talent remotely. While online recruitment has technically been around for years, 100% remote recruiting is probably new for you, presenting some unfamiliar elements. We’ve designed this article to help you brush up on a few practices which will serve to amplify your online recruitment strategies going forward.

From posting your job advertisement to painlessly turning down candidates, we discuss everything that you need to know to attract and process qualified candidates to your tech positions.

What you’ll learn:

• How to create a great candidate profile
• How to post a great job advertisement
• How to source candidates through your network and other online communities
• How to source candidates using the Honeypot platform
• How to identify potential candidates for your roles
• Background checks and skill tests
• How to hold a screening call
• What to ask and what to say in a screening call
• How to properly evaluate candidates
• HR screening tools
• How to painlessly turn down a candidate
• How to move candidates on to the next stage of hiring

Read Part 1 → How to Source and Screen Developers Remotely

Part 2: How to Interview Developers Remotely

As tech companies, we put in a great deal of effort to create an excellent candidate experience; furnishing our meeting rooms with the latest technology and rounding it out with fresh bottles of sparkling. Unfortunately the government wasn’t thinking about our interview processes when they implemented social distancing and quarantine rules: no more face-to-face interviews, no trial days, no more office tours :(

But it’s not all doom and gloom. In Part 2 of our remote hiring and managing guide we’ll talk you through the entire remote interview process, from how to prepare for the interview to what you’ll need to do afterwards, and towards your next successful remote hire.

What you’ll learn:

• How to prepare for a remote interview
• How to conduct a remote interview
• Remote interview agenda
• What happens after the interview

Read Part 2 → How to Interview Developers Remotely

Part 3: How to Onboard Developers Remotely

It’s no secret that developers love remote work 一 they, along with most workers, actually prefer it! But where most companies fail is with the onboarding process. A recent Gallup survey found the majority of respondents were not happy with their company’s onboarding process!

Now our onboarding processes have been taken online, and in that transition there’s plenty of room for error and improvement. In this part of our series we’ll share some remote onboarding practices which will help to create a smooth and memorable experience for your new remote workers.

What you’ll learn:

• Organising a new employee’s first day
• What great onboarding processes look like
• Communication practices
• How to build and maintain your online community

Read Part 3 → How to Onboard Developers Remotely

Watch Honeypot’s Webinar for Part 1, 2 & 3

Part 4: How to Manage Remote Developer Teams

Hiring and onboarding team members is one thing, but there’s still a whole job of managing your remote team. Maybe you’ve got some reservations about this whole distributed thing (don’t we all!) 一 you may even feel nervous not having the control and structure you’re used to.

Don’t worry, you’re not alone! In Part 4, we discuss managing your newly remote engineering teams, and what it entails to successfully quelch those fears and lead your team towards a successful, productive and collaborative workplace.

What you’ll learn:

• Successful remote communication
• Managing team conflict remotely
• Development practices
• Some great collaboration tools
• How to get a team to be more productive
• How to combat productivity blockers for your team

Read Part 4 → How to Manage Remote Developer Teams

Part 5: How to engage remote engineering teams

We all know how important our company’s culture is 一 a healthy culture leads to a proactive and successful workplace while attracting great talent. But when we suddenly remove the office, the desk-buddies, the team lunches, the parties and all the team events we enjoy so much 一 what happens to our culture? Well, it suffers, it changes and so does employee productivity and satisfaction.

The strength, productivity and success of your team hinges on the connections its members have with one another. We need to answer the question: how can we continue to build relationships in our new online workplace? In the final episode of our 5-part series we’ll be talking about engaging remote engineering teams, breaking down the ways in which you can cultivate and encourage participation.

What you’ll learn:

• Understanding why engagement is challenging when remote
• How to communicate to engage your remote team
• How to encourage participation
• Some creative ideas from Honeypot
• Dealing with team isolation
• How to show appreciation
• How to measure remote team engagement

Read Part 5 → How to Engage Remote Engineering Teams

Honeypot’s Guide to Hiring and Managing Remote Developers

We hope you’ve enjoyed Honeypot’s Guide to Hiring and Managing Remote Developers! If you’d like to watch our team discuss the processes and methods in the articles, make sure you check out our first webinar on Part 1-3, our second webinar on Parts 4 & 5, and feel free to join the conversation. Thanks for reading!