Hiring Remote Teams: The 10 Tools You Need

With more companies embracing remote work, building a productive distributed team presents unique challenges. How do you hire top talent and collaborate effectively when employees are scattered across the globe? The right tools are critical. In this article, we highlight the 10 essential software solutions for sourcing, screening, interviewing, onboarding, and managing remote workers. 

From streamlining the hiring process to facilitating communication and collaboration, these tools empower organizations to assemble high-performing virtual teams. Read on to discover the must-have technologies that will set your remote workforce up for success.

LinkedIn Recruiter: Talent Sourcing and Networking

Features and Pricing

LinkedIn Recruiter offers recruiters a robust platform to source, engage and manage top talent. At its core is an advanced search engine to identify prospects based on location, skills, experience and more. Recruiters can filter by specific criteria like years of experience, education history, companies worked at and required hard and soft skills. Talent pools help organize prospects and candidates, allowing recruiters to save and tag them for current openings or future roles. Pools can also be shared and managed across a team.

Seamless integration with InMail gives recruiters direct access to prospects to spark conversations. InMail credits allow sending customized messages to passive candidates open to new opportunities. Analytics provide insights into source of hire, recruitment funnel drop-off and other metrics to optimize efforts. And with LinkedIn Jobs integration, recruiters can easily post roles and accept applications without ever leaving Recruiter.

LinkedIn Recruiter is offered in three pricing tiers based on features and number of user seats. Recruiter Lite starts at $599 per month for a single user. Premier plans begin at $4,999 per month with a 5 user minimum, providing additional analytics and coordination features. For larger scale hiring, Enterprise pricing starts at $17,999 per month (10 user minimum) adding predictive analytics and premium support.

Best Use Cases

LinkedIn Recruiter truly shines for high-volume recruitment and passive sourcing at enterprise companies. The powerful search makes it easy to identify "silver medal" prospects that aren't actively job hunting but have the right skills and experience. This allows recruiters to get ahead of the competition for in-demand roles requiring niche skills.

The organized talent pools also lend themselves perfectly to proactive, ongoing sourcing. Instead of starting from scratch, recruiters can continuously add prospects to relevant pools. When openings arise, they have a ready shortlist to engage. And pools can be shared across recruiters and hiring managers, keeping everyone aligned.

Lastly, Recruiter helps recruiters harness existing employee networks. Engaging prospects connected to current staff surfaces qualified, recommended candidates much faster through trusted referrals.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

• Advanced filtering and search to surface quality prospects that align to specific hiring criteria

• Organized talent pooling to support continuous, coordinated team sourcing

• Actionable analytics providing visibility into recruiting funnel and performance

• Unified candidate management via integration with LinkedIn Jobs

• Leverage existing employee networks and referrals

Cons:

• Premium pricing puts it out of reach for many small companies

• Passive sourcing requires more work to engage and nurture candidates

• InMail limits ability to automate outbound messages at scale

• Predictive analytics only available to Enterprise customers

• Steep learning curve compared to more intuitive tools

The premium pricing and focus on passive sourcing do present challenges, especially for smaller companies and those hiring for more generalist roles. But for data-driven, high-volume recruitment of niche talent, LinkedIn Recruiter is the gold standard. The precision targeting and talent intelligence make it possible to surface and engage high-quality prospects at scale.

HubSpot Marketing: Marketing Automation and Lead Generation

Features and Pricing

HubSpot Marketing brings together robust marketing automation, email marketing, landing pages, CRM, and analytics into one integrated inbound marketing platform. The tool allows you to attract and nurture leads through customized experiences based on their engagement and behavior throughout the buyer's journey.

Key capabilities include building intelligent workflows that deliver personalized content to leads via emails, web pages, ads and more. Workflows can be automated based on actions prospects take, like downloading an ebook or visiting specific pages. The drag-and-drop landing page creator makes it easy to quickly optimize conversion pages. And the email marketing features help segment contacts and send targeted sequences or promotions to nurture them further.

The CRM component gives sales teams visibility into marketing interactions and analytics help identify high quality leads based on engagement metrics. This allows for close alignment between marketing and sales, with lead scoring to suggest which prospects sales should prioritize.

HubSpot Marketing starts at $50/month for up to 1,000 contacts, with pricing tiers based on number of contacts and advanced features. The platform scales from small business to enterprise.

Best Use Cases

HubSpot Marketing is purpose-built for inbound methodology and works best for companies adopting a content marketing approach. The workflows make it simple to deliver personalized content to prospects visiting your site or engaging with resources. Lead nurturing via email helps move prospects through the buyer's journey.

By tracking prospect engagement and behavior, HubSpot also generates actionable analytics to optimize your campaigns and channels. This allows you to double down on what's working and improve areas with lower ROI. The end-to-end software automates the top-of-funnel process, generating and nurturing marketing qualified leads all the way from initial attraction through to conversion.

Pros and Cons

HubSpot Marketing comes with numerous pros and cons given its comprehensive nature.

On the positive side, HubSpot truly excels at marketing automation, integrating email, CRM, analytics, and other core features into one platform purpose-built for inbound. Workflows deliver personalized experiences based on engagement and CRM aligns marketing and sales. The landing page creator and blogging features make it easy to implement content marketing. And the platform scales from small business to enterprise needs.

However, there are challenges as well. The breadth of features creates a steep learning curve to master. Native social media tools are limited compared to specialized apps. The contacts pricing model can limit usage for larger databases. And templates tend to look generic without custom CSS.

Overall, while the platform does have a learning curve, HubSpot Marketing provides a complete stack to attract and convert strangers into customers. For businesses committed to inbound methodology, the marketing automation and seamless integration capabilities make HubSpot an essential toolkit.

Glassdoor: Company Reviews and Salary Insights

Features and Pricing

Glassdoor is a popular site for job seekers to research companies and salaries. Job seekers can read anonymous employee reviews and see salary ranges for specific roles and locations. Glassdoor also has an employer branding product that allows companies to actively manage their profile and reputation.

With Glassdoor for Employers, companies can promote their employer brand by sharing photos, videos, mission statements and employee quotes. They can also respond to reviews, analyze workplace insights based on ratings, and get alerts when new reviews are posted.

Pricing for Glassdoor starts at $299 per month for the basic employer dashboard. The premium package is $999 per month adding employer branding features like enhanced profile management and review response assistance. There are also customized enterprise plans.

Best Use Cases

Glassdoor is extremely useful during the hiring process for both candidates and companies. Candidates rely on Glassdoor to vet potential employers, looking at ratings around culture, leadership, compensation and work/life balance. This helps them evaluate company fit beyond just a job description.

For employers, Glassdoor lets them monitor and manage brand perception and reputation. By encouraging employees to leave reviews, companies can highlight their strengths. Responding to negative reviews also shows that leadership takes feedback seriously.

During the interview process, candidates will be checking Glassdoor to confirm salaries and benefits. Proactively keeping salary ranges accurate ensures candidates have transparency into compensation.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

• Allows companies to actively manage brand reputation and respond to employee feedback

• Provides candidates transparent insights into culture, leadership, salaries and benefits

• Valuable metrics around employer branding perceptions and ratings

• Surfaces potential areas of improvement based on employee reviews

Cons:

• Can be difficult to control negative reviews or disgruntled employees

• Represent employee opinions which may not always reflect reality

• Expensive premium plans required for full employer branding features

• High volume of reviews can be challenging to monitor and manage

Overall, Glassdoor is incredibly useful for both job seekers and employers during the hiring process. Candidates rely heavily on the transparent reviews and salary data when evaluating companies and job offers. For employers, monitoring Glassdoor provides valuable brand reputation insights while allowing them to highlight strengths as an employer. While managing reviews does require effort, the platform enables companies to directly engage candidates during their research process in a unique way.

Workable: Applicant Tracking and Talent Acquisition

Features and Pricing

Workable provides an end-to-end applicant tracking system and talent acquisition platform tailored for SMBs and growing enterprises. The software centralizes the hiring process into one location to manage job postings, sourcing, screening, interviews, offers and more.

Key features include customizable career sites, one-click job board posting, intelligent pipelines to organize candidates, structured interviews and assessments, candidate relationship management, and robust analytics. Workable integrates seamlessly with Google and Outlook for calendar scheduling.

Pricing starts at $39 per month for a single user including two active job postings. Packages scale up based on number of users and active postings, with enterprise options available.

Best Use Cases

Workable shines for companies that hire regularly for similar types of roles. The structured hiring workflows and pipelines lend themselves well to high volume recruiting across multiple departments. Bulk actions make it easy to progress or reject candidates in batches.

The tool also suits fast-growing companies that need to scale up recruiting quickly. The job board integrators and customizable career sites help attract candidates at scale. And features like structured interviews and assessments help screen applicants efficiently.

For distributed teams, Workable provides transparency and consistency in the hiring process across locations. Everyone involved can monitor pipelines and collaborate within the platform.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

• Structured pipelines and workflows optimize hiring process

• Bulk candidate management actions save time

• Customizable career sites and job board integration

• Tools to screen, assess, and interview candidates

• Reporting and analytics around time-to-hire and source of hire

Cons:

• Steep learning curve for some features

• Additional costs for integrations like skills testing

• Limited candidate relationship management capabilities

• Talent network tools require higher tier plan

• Primarily focused on hiring workflows rather than candidate experience

Workable hits the sweet spot between being user friendly for hiring managers yet customizable for recruiters. While it does have some limitations around candidate engagement, the structured workflows make Workable an efficient choice for high volume, recurring hiring across an organization. For rapidly scaling companies, Workable provides the process and pipelines to support growing recruiting needs.

Indeed: Job Search and Company Reviews

Features and Pricing

Indeed is one of the most popular job search engines, providing job seekers access to millions of career opportunities aggregated from thousands of company career sites and job boards. For employers and recruiters, Indeed lets you easily post jobs to reach relevant candidates actively looking for work.

Key features for job seekers include searching for roles by title, location, company and keywords. Advanced search filters like salary range and job type help narrow results. Job seekers can save searches and get email alerts for new matching jobs. They can also apply directly on Indeed in many cases.

Indeed also provides insights into company culture and reputation through anonymous employee reviews. Job seekers can research what it’s like to work at a company and see ratings on areas like work-life balance, management and compensation.

For employers, Indeed offers affordable job posting packages starting at $299 per month for a single 30-day job. Bulk discounts are available for high volume hiring. Postings can be targeted locally or to broader regions and syndicated across Indeed’s network.

Analytics provide data on job posting performance and applicant sources. And for an additional fee, employers can add screening questions to applications and access dashboard analytics.

Best Use Cases

Indeed is beneficial for both active and passive job seekers at any career level. The massive volume of postings and smart search makes it possible to quickly find open roles matching your needs. For researching companies, the employee reviews offer transparent insights into workplace culture and satisfaction.

On the employer side, Indeed job postings reach a huge pool of active candidates open to new opportunities. For high volume recruiting across multiple roles, Indeed provides an efficient and cost-effective channel to source relevant applicants at scale compared to niche job boards.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

• Massive volume of job postings in one place

• Advanced search and filters for job seekers

• Company research via anonymous employee reviews

• Inexpensive job postings starting at $299/month

• Broad reach and distribution across network

• Metrics on job performance and applicant sources

Cons:

• Can feel overwhelming with too many low quality listings

• Lacks specialized tools of niche job sites

• Less candidate screening capabilities than other boards

• Duplicate or outdated job listings

• Focus on active over passive candidates

• Steep fees for added screening features

Indeed excels as a high volume aggregator for active job seekers and employers focused on reaching a wide applicant pool quickly and affordably. While niche sites offer more specialized tools, Indeed provides an unparalleled central hub to search for and post jobs across nearly any field or location. For both individuals and employers seeking to cast a wide net, Indeed remains a go-to resource.

BambooHR: HR Software for People, Payroll & Benefits

Features and Pricing

BambooHR offers a cloud-based human resources information system tailored for small and mid-sized businesses. The platform centralizes employee records, payroll, time tracking, benefits, performance reviews, and other critical HR tasks into a single, secure hub accessible from anywhere. 

Key capabilities include customizable employee databases, automated time off tracking, new hire onboarding workflows, compensation benchmarking, applicant tracking, and robust analytics. With over 100 integrations, BambooHR makes it easy to build a tailored HR tech stack connecting to payroll, learning, and other systems. Pricing starts at $99 per month for up to 50 employees, scales up based on features and number of staff members, with enterprise options available.

Best Use Cases

BambooHR works well for growing SMBs that need to transition from manual spreadsheets to an automated HRIS. The centralized database provides visibility across a remote workforce. 

Self-service and automation remove manual HR tasks from managers. Customizable onboarding checklists and applicant tracking optimize hiring and recruiting. For solo HR professionals supporting multiple departments, BambooHR enables consistency while adapting to specific needs. The platform scales from early stage startups to larger enterprises as headcount grows.

Pros and Cons

BambooHR offers numerous advantages along with some limitations:

• Intuitive interface - The platform provides an easy-to-use, clean interface for employees, managers and HR to access data and complete tasks.

• Customizable setup - Dedicated implementation specialists help tailor BambooHR to your workflows and processes.

• Robust mobile access - Mobile apps enable remote and hybrid teams to access the system on-the-go.

• Award-winning support - BambooHR is renowned for outstanding customer service.

• Built-in LMS limited - The learning management system is basic compared to specialized LMS platforms.

• Addon costs - Some features like eSignatures require additional fees.

• Reporting needs expansion - Custom reporting functionality could be more customizable.

BambooHR strikes a balance between affordability and robust features for SMBs. While not as sophisticated as enterprise-grade suites, it delivers core HR capabilities at a reasonable price point. For growing mid-sized companies, BambooHR is an ideal choice to transition from manual to automated HR processes.

Slack: Productivity Platform for Team Communication

Features and Pricing

Key capabilities in Slack include group chat rooms called channels, direct messaging between individuals, video calls, file sharing, app integrations and bots. Users can send messages, share files, make voice and video calls all within Slack without switching between apps. Channels give teams dedicated spaces to communicate about specific projects, topics or departments.

Slack offers several pricing tiers. The Free plan includes limited message archives and app integrations. The Standard plan is $6.67 per user per month billed annually and adds features like group video calls and guest accounts. Plus and Enterprise plans offer more administrative controls, security and integrations. Custom enterprise pricing is also available.

Best Use Cases

Slack shines for ongoing communication and collaboration across distributed teams. Channels facilitate topic-based discussions searchable by keyword. This replaces long email threads with organized real-time chat.

Integrations with apps like Google Drive, Salesforce, Trello and Zendega allow teams to collaborate without leaving Slack. Bots can automate tasks like notifying team members, gathering feedback and managing workflows.

The platform is ideal for agile software teams coordinating sprints and standups. Ad/creative agencies brainstorming campaigns. Or support teams providing customer assistance. Any team that needs to communicate frequently across multiple projects benefits from Slack.

Pros and Cons

Pros of Slack:

• Real-time messaging for faster team communication vs email

• Organized channels to segment discussions by topic or team

• Robust integrations with business apps and bots

• Customizable notifications and statuses

• File sharing and video calls built-in

Cons:

• Can be distracting with too many notifications

• Free version lacks key features like unlimited history

• Steep learning curve for some users

• Not ideal for non-team focused communication

• Can fragment team discussions across too many channels

While it does take some effort to curate channels and train teams on best practices, Slack has become the dominant team chat app for a reason. The seamless integrations and real-time messaging accelerate collaboration across organizations. For distributed teams that rely on constant communication, Slack provides a flexible hub to work together efficiently.

Trello: Project Management and Task Organization

Features and Pricing

At its core, Trello utilizes cards and lists to map out project steps in a highly visual manner. Tasks and milestones are represented as cards that can be dragged across lists to indicate progress. Cards can have checklists, labels, attachments, and comments added for deeper organization and context.

Boards provide a 30,000 foot overview of a project, breaking it into actionable stages using list columns. Multiple boards can be used for different projects or departments. Cards on boards can also link to one another to indicate connections or dependencies.

Trello offers a free forever version with unlimited boards, lists, cards and basic features. Paid plans start at $10 per user per month for Trello Business Class, adding timeline views, advanced checklists, board permissions and more administrative controls. Trello Enterprise scales up capabilities for large teams.

Best Use Cases

Trello works exceptionally well for agile software development teams. The Kanban-style boards lend themselves perfectly to mapping sprints, tracking progress on features, and collaborating across squads. Trello's flexibility also allows it to adapt well to Scrum workflows.

For marketing teams, Trello can optimize campaign management and creative workflows. Lists can represent campaign stages while cards detail specific tasks, approvals, and launches. The visual nature makes it easy to align efforts across many moving parts.

Across business functions like HR, finance and product, Trello brings transparency to cross-functional projects. Checklists and comments keep everyone on the same page. Boards provide helicopter views of initiatives spanning multiple departments.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

• Highly visual and flexible workflows

• Intuitive card-based system

• Easy to add members, comments, attachments

• Affordable free version available

• Scales up or down seamlessly

Cons:

• Can feel overwhelming as projects grow

• Reporting and analytics lacking

• Steep learning curve for some users

• Enterprise version expensive

• Not built specifically for complex PM needs

While Trello won't replace full-scale project management suites, its versatility and ease of use make it a fast favorite for organizations embracing agile workflows. The intuitive drag-and-drop Kanban interface brings together distributed teams and breaks down cross-functional initiatives into transparent, actionable steps. For ad-hoc collaboration or recurring workflows, Trello delivers outstanding value.

Asana: Work Management, Projects & Tasks

Features and Pricing

Asana is a flexible work management platform for teams to plan projects, organize tasks, and track progress in one centralized location. Key features include customizable workflows, dashboards to visualize work, robust search and filtering, and project templates to get started quickly.

Asana utilizes lists, boards, calendars, and timelines to break down initiatives into actionable steps. Tasks can be assigned to individuals or teams with due dates for tracking. Comments and file attachments bring discussions and relevant documents together. Project progress can be monitored through list and board views.

Powerful workflow automation allows you to create rules based on things like due dates, custom fields, and task assignments. For example, overdue tasks can automatically be reassigned or escalated based on custom criteria. This helps streamline coordination across large teams.

Asana offers four pricing tiers. Basic is free for up to 15 team members. Premium starts at $10.99 per user/month billed annually and adds features like custom fields, milestones, and advanced search. Business and Enterprise plans offer additional controls and support. Custom pricing is available for large organizations.

Best Use Cases

Asana excels at managing agile workflows and recurring tasks. Marketing teams can map out campaigns in Asana using boards, calendars, and custom fields to track statuses.

Software teams can plan sprints and user stories in Asana lists, assign tasks to developers, and gain visibility into which features are on track for delivery.

Cross-functional initiatives like product launches are also a great fit for Asana. Workflows can be automated to coordinate handoffs between teams as launch milestones are completed.

For any recurring projects and processes, Asana provides oversight into who is responsible for which tasks and what needs to be completed by when. This brings order to collaborative work across organizations.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

• Highly customizable workflows tailored to any team's processes

• Boards, lists, calendars provide different views into work

• Powerful search and filtering to find tasks instantly

• Project templates enable consistent structure

• Automated workflows enforce dependencies between tasks

• Affordable pricing options compared to other platforms

Cons:

• Can be overwhelming to organize large projects

• Steep learning curve for some users

• Reporting and analytics capabilities limited

• Email and mobile notifications can be excessive

• Free plan lacks many key features

While it does take diligence to set up Asana properly for each team's needs, its flexibility and seamless workflows make Asana a go-to platform for coordinating any kind of recurring work across an organization. Features like task assignments, due dates, and project templates provide the structure teams need to execute consistently and effectively. For distributed teams especially, Asana brings much needed transparency and organization.

Microsoft Teams: Collaboration, Meetings & Calling

Features and Pricing

Microsoft Teams brings together video meetings, calling, chat, and file collaboration into a single unified platform. Key capabilities include group chatrooms, video conferencing for up to 250 participants, screen sharing, channel discussions, document co-authoring in real-time, and integrations with Office 365 apps.

Teams offers customizable roles so admins can control permissions. Built-in security protects sensitive data and conversations. The search functionality allows users to easily find messages, people, files and more across the platform. For regulated industries, Teams complies with GDPR, HIPAA, and other standards.

Microsoft Teams comes bundled with certain Office 365 plans or can be purchased as a standalone application. The plans for SMBs start at $5 per user per month for the Basic version, adding features like group analytics and advanced administration controls at $12.50 per user per month for the Standard version. Enterprise plans unlock up to 10,000 users and enhanced analytics. Custom pricing is also available for large organizations.

Best Use Cases

Microsoft Teams shines for distributed teams that need to collaborate and communicate frequently across multiple projects and workflows. The ability to create custom channels by topic, team, or initiative keeps conversations organized. Within channels, Teams replaces long email threads with searchable chat visible to everyone involved.

Teams is also great for agile software development squads. Developers can easily host daily standups, sprint planning, and retrospectives using video meetings and screen sharing. Channels dedicated to features or code repositories centralize discussions.

The integrated document collaboration makes Teams a versatile hub for real-time co-authoring across departments like marketing, HR, finance and more. Contact centers often rely on Teams for screen sharing and video chat with remote customers. Non-profits, schools and volunteer groups use Teams to coordinate efforts and share files.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

• Integrated chat, video, calling and file sharing in one platform

• Real-time co-authoring and collaboration on Office docs

• Customizable channels to organize discussions by topic or team

• Scales up to 250 video meeting participants

• Affordable pricing options included with Office 365 plans

Cons:

• Can be overwhelming with too many notifications

• Free version limits capabilities for multiple teams

• Steep learning curve for some non-tech savvy users

• File storage caps could constrain media-heavy teams

• Advanced customizations require developer support

Microsoft Teams brings unparalleled integration of collaboration capabilities like group chat, video meetings, document sharing, and workflow automation into one hub. While it does take training and effort to get teams adopted, the ability to centralize key conversations and content in Teams can transform productivity and transparency across organizations. For companies relying on Office 365, Teams provides tremendous value by extending real-time co-authoring and communication beyond individual documents into team workflows.

In Summary

The talent acquisition landscape offers recruiters and hiring managers an extensive array of technology solutions to make recruiting and hiring more strategic, data-driven, and scalable. LinkedIn Recruiter and Workable streamline high-volume recruitment with precision targeting, structured pipelines, and analytics. Trello, Asana, and Microsoft Teams centralize team collaboration around recruiting workflows. Glassdoor and Indeed enable companies and candidates to tap into transparent workplace insights during the hiring process. And platforms like BambooHR, Slack, and HubSpot integrate critical tools to attract, engage, hire and onboard top talent.

While evaluating HR tech stacks can feel overwhelming, the fundamental needs of your organization should guide adoption. For enterprise companies focused on niche, high-volume hiring, tools like LinkedIn Recruiter and Workable prove invaluable. Startups and SMBs often benefit most from affordable, intuitive platforms like Trello, Slack, and BambooHR. Organizations that embrace remote and hybrid work should consider Asana, Microsoft Teams, and HubSpot to unify distributed recruiting and onboarding.

Regardless of size and industry, investing in technology that removes friction from finding, engaging and hiring top talent pays invaluable dividends. Purposeful tech adoption aligned to clear talent acquisition goals will transform any organization into a destination workplaceknown for recruiting excellence.