The Difference in Recruiting Online and Traditional Employees

Virtual work is becoming a more frequent practice in today’s world. Online workers have some characteristics that make them different from traditional employees. Employers should be aware of the differences between virtual and traditional positions to ensure they recruit the best match. 

Online employees work with higher levels of autonomy and are either very specialized in skill or highly educated in their fields. The work they complete is intellectual by nature and requires a person to be highly focused on their tasks. Such workers are capable of meeting goals on their own. 

Even though online employees must have sufficient verbal communication skills they rely more heavily on electronic mediums.  This means that online workers must be able to communicate and work with others who may be located across the globe. Face-to-face interaction is less often while written communication is more common. 

Online employees also need to be more autonomous and self-motivated than traditional employees. They won’t have a boss standing over the top of them encouraging and guiding them. Instead they will need to have higher levels of internal motivation to keep their work moving forward at a sufficient pace. 

Online workers have slightly different characteristics than your traditional employee. The virtual environment is naturally different and requires higher levels of written communication skills as well as internal levels of motivation. Recruiting managers should consider these difference and adjust their selection criteria based upon the new work models.