“Don’t hire idiots”: Why its not that easy to find remote-ready talent

If only it was that simple. Earlier this month, Mike Cannon-Brookes told the room at Atlassian’s Team24 conference in Las Vegas that the secret to hiring successful remote work candidates is to not hire idiots .

?

He makes the point that if companies hire those who are unmotivated and don’t want to do their jobs, there’s a higher likelihood they will 'goof of' while working remotely.

?

This is something most organisations already screen for with their recruitment process. When hiring talent, they are checking that they are self-sufficient, self-motivated, and accountable. This happened well before the pandemic, and the shift towards a remote-first world.?

?

But, even with all of those qualities, I’d argue this doesn’t make talent “work from home fit”.

?

There’s a grey area in Mike’s assessment; talent that was previously productive in an office-led workplace are now not as resourceful in a world where more companies don’t operate an office.

?

This could be due to a number of reasons. Perhaps they thrive on social interaction or are motivated by seeing their peers perform. Moreover, high performers in certain roles, such as jobs that require a lot of social interaction (Sales, Human Resources, Customer Service) may not be naturally suited to a remote-only environment.

?

It takes a certain personality type to be able to work from home consistently. It’s why I argue that we need to add another category to those traits that we screen for with the recruitment process. Depending on the extent your company values remote work, we need to measure for the personality type that precipitates an excellent remote work candidate.

?

This shouldn’t be guesswork either. At Sapia.ai , we’re using our data to measure what personality traits enable better remote work habits. The weight that companies place on these traits should vary depending the extent they need the worker to be productive without an office environment.

?

Back to Mike’s point: While his comments are likely taken out of the context of a broader argument on remote work, I don’t think companies accidentally hire idiots. Especially not with all the screening and focus we now put on the hiring process. We just need to adapt what we’re looking for in talent in a remote-led world.

?

What do you think? Should we screen for the traits that determine an effective remote worker? And what should that look like?

Let me know in the comments.?