Remote Job Platforms For HR Professionals

There exist other categories of remote job platforms and in today’s post, in continuation of the series on “My Experiment Of Working in The Gig Economy”, I will take a look at platforms dedicated to fulltime and/or part-time remote jobs.

To read the first two blogposts of this series – go here:

What is Remote Work?

Remote work refers to an employee/contractor working for a company from a remote location, and not in the company’s office – remote and/or home-based.

The advantage of working remotely is that you save not just costs on transportation, but you also save yourself the time it would have taken you to get to a company office.  Working remotely also affords you the opportunity to work in different locations according to your needs – become a digital nomad – like myself.

Remote Work vs Freelancing

Remote work is similar to freelancing in a few ways; it involves the worker working from any part of the world, as far as he/she has Internet access. These jobs are not just particular to young people, or stay-at-home moms; the demographic is extending well into people above sixty.

Remote jobs are different from freelancing in the sense that the employees are employed (usually on a contract basis) by an employer; it involves them working from anywhere they/the employer choose; and not necessarily from the company office. This type of employment can be on a fulltime or part-time basis depending on the agreement with the employer.

There are several profiles for people seeking remote work, the differences between these profiles are:

• the fulltime employee does his/her job full time from a remote location – external to the employer’s workplace;
• the contractor is not employed, but contracted to work for the employer remotely;
• the hybrid worker is an employee of the company that spends some of his time working from the company’s office and the other part working from a remote location.

It is important to note, that not all jobs can be done remotely!

For example, the majority of the remote jobs are knowledge-based jobs, mostly based around the online world of work – digital marketing, software design etc.

This is where it becomes difficult for Independent HR consultants to find remote roles. Remember that the majority of employers in the corporate industries are just not ready to work 100% remotely (or they are changing their home-based policies, like Yahoo and now IBM).

So, focus on the smaller to medium-size organisations that are looking for online and/or remote support.

Some of the websites that offer remote jobs include:

• We Work Remotely
• Remote OK
• Flex Jobs
• Remotive
• Remote
• Jobbatical – local jobs in countries around the world.

The most popular jobs offered on these platforms include software, marketing, operational roles and as said before – you have to be lucky to find a People Management / HR job that is 100% remotely (and worthwhile).

I once had an interview for a remote Compensation and Benefits role with Automattic (the founder of the WordPress technology on which newtohr.com is build) – one of the only companies hiring online and remote HR professionals at that time.

The whole interview process was much more personable than any corporate interview I have ever had, as their company is build on remote work and team collaboration. For me, the excitement of working for this amazing company (and one of the only opportunities to work remotely online at that time) and my Dyslexia got the best of me and I screwed the interview up  – big time!

So, be ready to adapt your interview style – online interviews are structured differently – and it is not the same to being interviewed in a  room with a corporate interviewer…

But you know what – if you focus hard enough, there will be opportunities to support organisations from home or remotely, just keep checking the sites!

[Note: Employers from many countries can post an online People Management remote opportunity – but be cautious – many only allow locals/nationals to apply (due to labour and taxation agreements)]

Disadvantages of remote jobs

Remote work involves YOU, most of the time working on your own without support of a team. Although, collaboration tools like Slack, Asana, Freedcamp do help.

It can be difficult for some people to work remotely/online, especially when you may need the expertise of fellow employees on a task or when you need a physical resource from the employer.

You must be able to work autonomous as working online, does deny you the chance to meet with people and form networks/relationships as you are “isolated” for most of the time.

[For people that are comfortable working remotely –  it is possible to build a great remote people network by working online AND it is possible to keep up networks and relationships!]

In the next post, I will focus on individual gig platforms, such as People Per Hour and Upwork – which can be used to earn a little extra pocket money or a full freelance wage.

© New To HR