What Companies Need to Know to Hire High-Performance Virtual Leaders
Hiring your company's next leader is hard enough when you can bring them into the office, but remote and virtual hiring is even more difficult. Ideally, you’ll be able to gauge how well candidates performed in prior remote or hybrid roles through the right digital interview questions. You also want to find someone with a commanding on-screen presence, which is crucial for making personal connections and increasing employee engagement during video calls.
Knowing the right digital interview questions to ask is the first step in successful virtual hiring. Finding virtual leadership with plans and tactics in place to build relationships in a virtual setting, and someone who can prioritize not just productivity but mental and physical well-being for your staff, can help your company thrive with a remote or hybrid workforce.
Find Virtual Leadership With a Screen Presence
It’s easy during an in-person interview to watch a person’s body language and get a feel for their presence, charisma and confidence. It’s harder during a video call to make judgements based on mannerisms and posture.
However, a good virtual leader should know how to present a commanding presence on-screen and also understand video conferencing and webcast best practices. When you’re conducting virtual interviews, look at the lighting, background and how the candidate positions themselves in front of the camera. How they act during the virtual interview reflects how they will interact and engage with virtual employees, too.
Digital Interview Questions To Ask During the Virtual Hiring Process
While gestures, posture and clothing can speak a thousand words, the right digital interview questions can help you find the best virtual leadership. Here are some questions to ask that will provoke discussion and give a feel for a candidate’s background in remote leadership.
- Have you worked in virtual roles in the past?
- Share a success story of overcoming obstacles while working remotely.
- Share an example of engaging your team remotely.
- What methods do you find most comfortable and most effective in communicating with remote teams?
- In the past, how did you structure your day as a remote leader?
- What do you view as the greatest challenge to virtual work — and how have you overcome that in the past?
- What are your greatest strengths and weaknesses as a virtual leader?
Create a Plan for Building Relationships With a Virtual Team
Ideally, these questions will spark discussions and a brainstorming session between the hiring team and the candidate. It’s important that whoever you hire has a broad plan and understands some of the best tactics for building relationships with a virtual team.
In a second or third interview, it’s a good idea to discuss 30-, 60- and 90-day plans to build relationships, including key performance metrics to evaluate success. Virtual leadership should have clear goals for relationship building and understand the objectives they want to achieve.
- Leaders should have a 30/60/90-day plan of building relationships in a virtual setting.
- How have leaders been successful in past virtual roles and if they have not had a virtual role, what do they plan on doing to overcome the barrier of being virtual/what are their goals for relationship building and sharing objectives that need to be understood?
Create a Communication Cadence for Engagement
High-performing virtual leaders should have an idea of the ideal communication rhythm, including communication methods and frequencies, to keep employees engaged and measure their performance. A combination of pulse surveys, virtual brainstorming sessions, messaging and one-on-one calls can give employees the guidance they need without the appearance of micro-management.
It’s also important that virtual leaders understand that employees have different communication styles and can meet people where they are to communicate in ways that will help them absorb the message best. Some people will shine in the center box of a multi-person video call, while someone else may prefer to have a quiet, one-on-one follow-up to address any questions and concerns. Good virtual leadership can adapt their styles to best connect with remote workers.
Find Virtual Leaders Who Put Employee Well-Being First
The COVID-19 pandemic placed a new emphasis on employee well-being, both mental and physical. According to one recent study, 80% of global organizations called employee well-being “important” or “very important” for success.
Good virtual leaders will exhibit high emotional intelligence, which can help in the mental well-being of remote workers. This might include understanding when an employee needs a short-term, flexible schedule to take care of children home from school or when an employee needs a face-to-face call to hammer out concerns.
Emotional intelligence also means leaders know how to take care of themselves, perhaps through techniques such as meditation, mindfulness and self-awareness, if they are beginning to get angry or stressed.
Innovative Virtual Leaders Find Ways To Connect Remote Workers
Virtual leaders should also play a role in developing innovative ways to help employees improve their mental and physical health, such as spearheading fitness contests or scheduling virtual team-building activities that can promote a sense of connection and camaraderie even if employees aren’t in the office together.
Hiring virtual leadership presents new challenges, but when you dig deep with the right digital interview questions to find the best person for a specific role, the pay-off could be company growth and innovation beyond what you have imagined.