Are you a business owner looking to hire a remarkable offshore team member? You’re not alone.
Our CEO Fiona Kesby has been outsourcing offshore since 2007 and built a track record in international recruitment before that, and she has led our recruiters through the many ways this process changed in 2020.
These 4 tips are drawn from her experiences and are meant to help business leaders who now need remarkable team members offshore, which would mean having more skills and more dedicated support for their onshore team.
Tip 1: The Profile. Look for candidates who have stayed for 2 or more years with each previous employer. Each candidate’s resume is the first place to start.
We supplement this by asking qualified candidates to go through a personality assessment platform, which reveals their personality types. This helps clients understand the ideal qualities and behaviors for each job role they are recruiting for, and how well each candidate stacks up.
This profile will also be useful for the onboarding and training of each newly hired team member. Your chances of building rapport and trust will be vastly improved if you and your team (both onshore and offshore) understand your personality types and communication styles. We recommend that you take the time to do this right from the start, during the recruitment and hiring process.
Tip 2: Test for English comprehension, attention to detail, and the ability to complete the tasks you’ll expect your new offshore team members to do.
“Many people have excellent spoken English. The key is comprehension,” Fiona points out. “Do they really understand what you are asking of them? The higher the comprehension, the faster a person can be trained. Set the standard high for both these tests.”
If you’ve never worked with an offshore or virtual team before, keep an eye out for candidates who have worked overseas or have worked previously with foreigners.
This is optional, as we have many talented team members who haven’t lived or worked abroad, but it is a detail worth looking out for. It shows they can step outside their comfort zone and probably won’t be shy to ask questions.
Other things to consider when testing:
- Have the candidate do a task that you will expect your offshore team member to complete daily. Keep this short, about 15 to 20 minutes. If you want to test someone and it takes a couple of hours or half a day, be a good human being and pay for their time.
- Email questions in a Word document and ask the candidate to send their answers back. This gives you a chance to see formatting, punctuation, sentence construction, grammar, as well as their general knowledge.
Tip 3: Use hobbies and interests as a benchmark.
Choose someone with similar interests to yourself and run a mile if the applicant tells you their main hobby is “surfing the internet ” because that means they will be spending their work time doing just that and watching YouTube videos.
Fiona’s advice: “Look for a healthy all-rounder. My favourite is to find people who are avid readers and ask them about the last book they have read. I’m looking for people with a love of learning.”
You’ll want an offshore team member who is as committed as you are to growing better.
What we can promise you is that GoTeam will encourage your team member’s professional growth.
Discovery and humility are among our core values, and we have found it inspiring to see how the tribe has gained new skills and responded to what we’ve shared around productivity and cultivating a growth mindset, even amid this pandemic’s uncertainty and other challenges.
Tip 4: Set the bar high on quality.
“And I mean on everything from did they turn up early for the interview, offer a well-formatted resume, and have high results on tests, to their appearance (meet them online and interview them), and their written and verbal communication skills,” Fiona recommended.
“Don’t compromise—ever! It is a marathon, not a sprint. Take your time to find the right person—I mean in the search—but when you find the right one, offer fast,” she added.
When you do meet online with candidates, it’s a good idea to take some time to tell them about your business’ culture. What values have helped you lead your business, especially during challenging times?
A remarkable culture is a part of what will draw the top talent to your business. Think of your initial interview with each candidate as a two-way street: they’re trying to get to know you and your business better, as much as you’re learning about them.
If you would like to know more about starting your global team, let’s talk!
About GoTeam (formerly Go Virtual Assistants)
GoTeam, formerly GO Virtual Assistants (GO-VA) Inc. is a registered Australian-Filipino owned company growing in the heart of Cebu City, as well as a growing number of key cities in the Philippines.
Our HQ is situated in an IT complex with modern facilities, although since March 2020, more than 70% of our team members have been working from home.
Our enhanced operations and streamlined services provide scalable opportunities that spell sustainability, growth, and success for any business venture. As your global team members, GoTeam’s goal is to create winnable games and strategies across all the work that we do, knowing that your success is our long-term fulfillment.
We help Australian, NZ, US, and UK businesses increase revenue, reduce costs, and scale through outsourced offshoring. This also creates for us the opportunity to be a catalyst for people to exceed.
AU (+61) 2 7227 8809
US (+1) 302 207 2767
PH (+63) 032 238 7448
9th Flr, i1 Bldg, Jose Ma. del Mar St, IT Park,
Cebu City, Philippines 6000
Website: https://go.team
Careers: https://go.team/ph
Email: sales@go.team
Email: careers@go.team