MyBusiness Manual - January/February 2010

The Ideal Candidate

Look for specific traits before hiring a flex worker

by Judy Artunian

About three years ago, A.J. Lawrence, owner of The JAR Group Inc., a Brooklyn, N.Y.-based online marketing services firm, hired a group of professionals who worked as telecommuters and had worked previously for a colleague. It wasn’t long before Lawrence noticed that these employees were difficult to reach. He soon learned why: They were busy working on projects for other companies. "This was something that I initially did not think about as a hiring manager," Lawrence says.

That’s just one of many issues that employers could overlook when considering telecommuting job seekers.

According to Roberta Chinsky Matuson, president of Human Resource Solutions in Northampton, Mass., the five qualities of a strong telecommuting candidate are:

1. They appear disciplined and well-organized.

2. They have strong communication skills. This helps reassure you that they will communicate with you if they’re experiencing a problem with the work.

3. If they’re working from home, they’re willing to dedicate a space where they can work without interruption.

4. They have a strong track record that proves they can work as a telecommuter.

5. They work well independently. Workers who need to be around a lot of people are a poor fit for telecommuting.

Matuson recommends asking behavioral-based interview questions to determine if a person has those five traits. For example, to help confirm that a job candidate is as disciplined and well-organized as he or she seems, ask:

• Tell me about a time when you were assigned several large projects.
• How did you prioritize your workload?
• What specifically did you do to ensure nothing fell through the cracks?

To gauge candidates’ communication skills, ask them to describe a time when it appeared they wouldn’t make a deadline for an urgent project. To assess their sense of urgency, ask how quickly they informed their boss of the delayed, and how they communicated the delay.

Ultimately, Matuson says, "it’s not so much what job candidates say as how they say it." Lethargic answers mean that they probably downplayed the importance of the situation. If they were somewhat animated when responding, it’s likely that deadlines and communication are a priority to them.

Today, five of Lawrence’s 14 employees are telecommuters. When evaluating job candidates, he now looks for experienced telecommuters who are self-motivated. His screening process includes talking to people who have worked with the candidate. That can include coworkers and clients, but not necessarily former employers.