Telecommuting or remote work is a highly valuable and desirable working arrangement, but not everyone works well on their own. Zapier points out the five skills or traits that make great remote workers.
In its free ebook, The Ultimate Guide to Remote Work, the app-automation service advises companies to hire employees who have these characteristics:
Great remote workers have a few traits that make them successful:
Propensity towards action: This is the type of person that devoid of a task list given to them, they will find something meaningful to do.
Able to prioritise: Often times, important tasks can be unclear when working remotely (especially at a startup). An individual who can focus on the right tasks and know to ignore others will do well.
Proficient written communicator: Most communication in a remote team happens via text — email, team chat, or one-on-one private messages. If someone struggles to write clearly and concisely, they will struggle in a remote team. Equally as important is being able to show tact in written communication, too. It’s all-to-easy to come off as curt via text. Liberal use of emoticons can go a long way.
Trustworthy: If you can’t trust the person, then not being able to see them every day is going to cause you to lose sleep. Make sure you trust who you hire.
Local support system: If the only support system someone has is their work one, then being in a remote environment will likely make them go crazy. You need people who have outside support systems so they have people they can interact with on a daily/weekly basis.
While the advice is for those hiring for remote work positions, these are also good traits to demonstrate to a company when vying for one of those jobs.
Check out the full chapter and the other chapters of the book. It’s a good read.
How to Hire a Remote Team [Zapier]
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