13 Remote Hiring Best Practices and Tips for 2025

Companies hire freelancers for several business-boosting reasons, like increasing creativity and productivity while saving money.

The thing is, most independent professionals work remotely.

So if you’re planning to leverage the benefits freelancers provide, here are a few remote hiring best practices to consider. Implementing them may improve how smoothly your projects run and increase the quality of the work you receive.

‍1. Determine the work to be done by freelancers

With more work being offered to freelancers, managers must be skilled at:

• Breaking work or a large project down into chunks,
• Determining what skills are needed to complete them, and
• Deciding who the best person is to complete each parcel of work.

Sometimes, the decision is straightforward, such as when you need to quickly scale a team up or when you only need a certain skill for a project.

Other times, the decision may be more nuanced, such as when you may be able to do the work in-house, but it may not be the best use of an employee’s time.

For example, when the engineering team at PGA of America has a new idea, they contract independent developers to test proof of concept. Not only is it an efficient and cost-effective way to prove whether an idea is worth pursuing, but also their full-time employees can remain focused on higher-value projects.

When you’re not crystal clear on whether a project should be done by employees or independent professionals, ask yourself these questions:

• Is the required skill available in-house?
• Is this work the best use of the employee’s time?
• What work will be sacrificed if the employee stops what they’re doing to handle the project?
• How will the additional project affect the employee’s workload balance?
• Can the employee execute the work at the quality required?

Related: Why Companies Hire Freelancers: 15 Top Benefits

2. Clarify the caliber of talent required

In the past, many people thought of freelancers as people who did mainly entry-level administrative work. That’s just part of the talent available.

Nearly half (47%) of all freelancers provide skilled services such as computer programming, marketing, IT, and business consulting.

Most of them have degrees and update their skills more often than non freelancers. For instance, independent professionals are 2.2 times more likely to use generative AI tools in their work.

The ideal match is out there, especially if you look in marketplaces with a wide and deep global talent pool, such as Upwork. So ask for everything you want in an ideal match.

For instance, one Upwork client needed help building a food data ontology, a model consisting of types, properties, and relationships. The ideal freelancer had to have a rare blend of knowing how to build ontologies, a detailed understanding of food, and an understanding of how to build software. The client found the exact person within two weeks on Upwork.

Remember to consider what soft skills (e.g., creativity, communication, problem-solving) the freelancer should possess too. Will they need to communicate with executives? Will they be explaining complex information to team members? Thinking through project scenarios can help you determine the soft skills required for them to deliver great work.

3. Write standout job descriptions

When hiring for any job, whether remote or in-person, you must convince someone to enter a relationship with you. So just as much as talent must make efforts to convince companies to hire them, companies must convince talent to work with them. This courtship of sorts begins with your job post.

Note that for project-based work, which is how most independent talent are engaged, you don’t need a full job description; those are only needed when you’re hiring employees. This video shows an example.

Your project description doesn’t need to be long. The article How To Write a Job Description provides ideas on what to include. Here are the basics:

• Title. Make it detailed so that it grabs the attention of the ideal person you’d like to reach.

Example
Generic title: Blog writer
Detailed title: Fashion blog writer to write five posts per month

• Description of work you want performed. The more clearly defined your description, the better the chances you’ll attract qualified people. And the more details talent have upfront, the more accurately they can provide cost and time estimates. Some helpful details to include are:some text
  • Project goals, deliverables, and milestones,
  • Examples of related work to show the work quality expected
  • Any documents related to the project

• Qualifications. List must-have hard and soft skills, experience, and knowledge. List nice-to-haves as well. Just make sure to discern between the two lists so talent know if they qualify.

• Project specs. This may include project start and end dates, budget, and payment terms (fixed price or hourly).

4. Hire for cultural add vs. cultural fit

Numerous studies show the business case for building diverse teams, which makes sense, right? If you’re hiring people with the same background, mentality, gender, culture, and experience as you, you’re going to get the same thoughts, biases, and output.

An advantage of working with remote talent is that you can add diversity to your hiring best practices even when you have homogenous local talent pools. When you’re able to contract a freelancer who could be located in another state or country, you immediately have access to people with different mindsets, experiences, and backgrounds, all of which can greatly benefit your business performance.

Moadh Bukhash, Chief Marketing Officer at Emirates NBD, celebrates the diversity he gains by working with independent professionals through Upwork. In a Fortune article, he said that having the ability to access diverse talent increases his chances of success.

“Marketing is a game of diversity: The more diverse mentalities you have, the more ideas you’ll have, and the better stories you’ll tell. The better the stories, the greater the impact will be on your brand. When you have access to millions of talented freelancers and small agencies around the world, you’re increasing the probability that you’ll come up with something great, something unique, that will cut through the noise.”  —Moadh Bukhash, CMO, Emirates NBD

5. Overcommunicate with your hiring partners

Improve the quality of interviewees by working closely with your hiring partners to identify what a great fit looks like before they begin their search.

What you consider an intermediate-level 3D animator, for instance, may look different to you than it does to a recruiter. And you may know some of the obstacles or challenging conditions the person will work under that a recruiter has no way of knowing.

For better matches, you may want to:

• Explain the tasks the person will do. Don’t just say you need a web developer. Say you need one to redesign a Shopify site for higher customer conversions, for example. The work they’ll do may impact where your partners look for talent and how they determine who qualifies for the work.
• Help design the screening process. Show how to identify and vet qualified people. This may include designing assessments and suggesting interview questions.
• Tell them you’re open to diverse backgrounds. If appropriate, ask them to consider people from different backgrounds that they may have delivered in the past. Your flexibility may widen your talent pool, which may enable them to find your ideal person sooner.
• Give clear and timely feedback. Be responsive during every stage of the hiring process. The more you communicate, the better your outcomes will be.

6. Establish an interview process for hiring remote freelance talent

One of the main reasons businesses hire remote freelancers is speed. Upwork clients fill job posts within three days on average. 

But having a shorter time to hire doesn’t mean you must shortchange the interview process. In fact, having less time requires that you have a well-designed process so that you can determine the right fit faster.

How you design your interview process depends on your unique business needs. The marketing team at Singularity University uses Upwork regularly and designed a process that balances speed and stability at scale. For instance, team members are so accustomed to contracting talent that they can fill projects within 24 hours. However, they prefer that potential talent undergo two to three days of interviews to ensure they pick someone whom everyone approves.

7. ‍Leverage technology for efficient screening

Reduce the time and effort spent on screening remote talent by using the many HR tools and apps available. Here are a few tools you may want to add to your process:

AI-powered chatbots. Automate initial screening tasks by using chatbots like XOR, Olivia, and Radancy. Use them to ask basic questions, analyze responses, and rank potential hires.

‍Applicant tracking systems (ATS). Systems like Bamboo HR, Workable, and Greenhouse Software make light work of tracking, managing, and keeping talent engaged throughout the hiring process.

Video interviewing software. These AI-enabled tools record videos and then analyze the interviewees’ body language, emotional intelligence, and communication skills. Examples include HireVue, CodeSignal, and VidCruiter.

Project management platforms. If your business uses tools like Asana and Trello, you can also use them to help hiring managers share notes and track an interviewee’s progress.

Freelancer platforms. Leading platforms offer built-in tools for shortlisting and interviewing talent. For example, Uma™, Upwork’s Mindful AI, helps you draft a job post in seconds. Once your post goes live, Uma analyzes your post and then serves up potential best matches.

8. Ask targeted interview questions

You’re not going to learn much about the person’s qualifications by asking close-ended, yes/no questions like, “Do you like what you do?” and irrelevant questions like, “Where do you see yourself in five years?”

In the article 16 Remote Interview Tips for Hiring Managers, the author suggests asking a mix of questions to better assess the interviewee's competencies while keeping the conversation flowing naturally. 

Throughout an interview, you may want to ask a mix of:

• Technical questions to assess hard skills and overall knowledge
• Behavioral questions to assess soft skills
• Hypothetical questions to assess how they would react in a given situation

Consider asking questions that give insight to their:

• Communication skills. Having someone who communicates clearly and respectfully, both asynchronously and synchronously, may help avoid miscommunication risk. Asynchronous communication happens over time, like email, and synchronous is immediate, like video meetings.
• Enthusiasm for the opportunity. Do they seem genuinely interested in the project? If they’re lukewarm about the opportunity, it may reflect in their quality of work.‍
• Technical aptitude. Do they seem comfortable with all the tools the project team regularly uses?

9. Assess technical proficiency

Sometimes reviewing a remote worker’s portfolio may not be enough to determine if they’re qualified to handle the tasks and deliver at the quality level you expect. You may want to assess their technical proficiency by:

• Defining technical requirements. Specify required skills including programming languages, tools, and frameworks. Do you need someone who is a beginner, intermediate, or expert for each of the requirements?
• Testing their skills. Use platforms that offer skill-specific tests like coding challenges and simulations or give problem-solving exercises that mimic real-world situations.
• Asking technical questions. Ask each interviewee a set of questions that reveal their depth of knowledge in specific areas.
• Pairing them with a team member. Have team members evaluate potential remote hires by having them work on a fake scenario or test project together. Remember that freelancers are business owners. Consider paying them for their time.

10. Evaluate remote work experience 

Not everyone thrives in a remote work environment. Even if you’re hiring the person for a quick project, their performance may be subpar if they don’t know how to successfully work alone. Here are a few ways to evaluate their remote work experience:

• Check out their resume. See how long they’ve worked in a fully remote or hybrid environment. If they’ve worked remotely for several months or years, it may show vital soft skills such as adaptability and project management.
• Ask about their tools and tech. How familiar are they with collaboration tools like Slack and GitHub? Note that freelancers are business owners, so it’s their responsibility to have a reliable internet connection, computer, and necessary apps to get the job done well.
• Gauge their communication skills. Throughout the interview process, see how responsive and clear they are when answering emails and explaining ideas.
• Look for adaptability and problem-solving skills. Ask about challenging situations from past projects. Listen for how they solved the problem, their initiative, and how they worked with others to create a win-win solution.
• Get a sense of their day-to-day work style. Ask how they approach work and manage multiple projects. You’re trying to gauge how disciplined they are and how they maintain balance and well-being when working in isolation.

11. Establish a freelancer-specific onboarding process

Independent talent are accustomed to jumping into projects and getting started right away. But that doesn’t necessarily mean they want to work in a silo. As with any other worker, the more freelancers feel welcomed and valued for their contributions, the better their engagement and willingness to share new perspectives and ideas.

You can help them feel welcomed and get to work sooner by implementing a well-designed onboarding process. Here are a few remote onboarding basics:

• Complete paperwork online. Have a way to securely complete and sign the required paperwork before they start work. If you contract talent through Upwork, a contract is automatically generated between the company and talent based on details from the job post.
• Set up IT. Prevent project delays by ensuring all systems permissions and security are set up before the person starts.
• Explain the company and business objectives. One of the main reasons professionals freelance is so they can work on projects they enjoy. When freelancers see how their work supports a larger initiative, they may be more enthusiastic or be able to offer new insights.
• Set communication standards. Avoid misunderstandings from the start by defining which communication tool to use for which situations (e.g., Slack for quick questions, email for longer responses). And share the speed of responses they can expect from you. Independent professionals may work with several clients at a time, so have them share what you can expect from them too.

12. Practice strong communication when hiring remote freelance talent

You can work with the same remote employees every day and still have occasional communication issues. Imagine what it’s like when you’re working with remote freelancers whom you’ve never met and will work with for only a short term.

A lot can be misinterpreted. Someone may misread the tone of an email, think silence means they’re being ignored, or feel no one cares, so they don’t speak up when an issue arises.

Miscommunication or a lack of communication can derail a project and potentially affect talent and employee morale in numerous ways. You can avoid such a fate by practicing strong communication with the talent and project team. 

Begin with the hiring process, continue throughout the project, and keep it up until the project is completed. One of the most critical remote hiring best practices to remember is that you can’t overcommunicate. 

These articles provide more ways to communicate effectively:

• How To Create a Project Management Communication Plan
• 14 Ways To Improve Remote Team Communication

13. Develop a strong culture for remote independent talent

The most successful companies believe that working with remote independent talent is as natural as working with employees. 

That’s because these growth-driven companies (what Upwork researchers call Work Innovator Companies) want the best person for a task.

These companies realize that it doesn’t matter if that person is an employee or a freelancer, or whether they work on-site or remotely. They just want the best talent for the task, period. And they treat everyone, employees and freelancers, as a valued team member. 

At Upwork, remote freelancers have always been as much a part of project teams as employees. This video shows how the creative team at Upwork churns out award-winning work with freelance help.

Find the ideal remote talent within 3 days

Upwork intentionally designed our work marketplace to help connect the ideal talent with the ideal clients with greater ease and speed. It’s so easy to hire and work with independent professionals through Upwork that clients find their ideal people within three days on average.

Or you can start a project the same day. If you’d rather not post a job and interview talent, browse Project Catalog™. There, you’ll find often-requested projects offered at set prices. Visit Upwork to get started.

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Upwork is not affiliated with and does not sponsor or endorse any of the tools or services discussed in this article. These tools and services are provided only as potential options, and each reader and company should take the time needed to adequately analyze and determine the tools or services that would best fit their specific needs and situation.