This is a great post! Our entire team is fully remote all over the world, with 31 people in 22 different cities in each major continent. I'm quite glad the OP wrote this because it talks about the very first thing I try to say when people ask about what it's like for remote working: Remote working doesn't work for everyone. Some are energized by an office environment with face-to-face time, and others are more productive by self-managing and lots of focus time. I feel like it's key to recognize which camp you're in.
We've had to construct our hiring and on-boarding process to gauge in so many ways whether someone is a good culture fit and is also energized by remote working. We feel like there's no way to truly tell unless you work with them under a contract period, which is what we do for everyone that's hired. Generally we've found about 30% who enter this period aren't quite a fit for either remote or culture for us.
This. You can't just hire anyone remote. You have to hire people who want to be remote, embrace the isolation, and moreover, fit well into the culture you already have.
I don't think I necessarily agree with any of this.
First:
If you're hiring for a remote position, I think hiring people who "want" to be remote is obvious.
Second:
Hiring remote doesn't mean that you have to "embrace the isolation." There are plenty of people that do like the isolation, but I've worked with plenty of remote developers (I'm remote as well) that aren't isolated. We stay on hangouts/chats, work from coffee shops, meet up to work with colleagues/friends, or even work from someone else's office.
It's quite easy to meet other people in the same scenario (remote workers) that are more than happy to meet up to work, even if you're working with different companies. Just to have casual chat throughout the day or to bounce ideas off of.
Third:
I think "fitting will into the culture you already have" should be a requirement in general. Just because I worked on site wouldn't mean that I'd want to sacrifice culture anymore than I would if I worked remotely.
We're completely remote as well and have a very similar approach to hiring and on-boarding. It's definitely tougher to find the right candidates but it's a fun challenge for sure!
We've had to construct our hiring and on-boarding process to gauge in so many ways whether someone is a good culture fit and is also energized by remote working. We feel like there's no way to truly tell unless you work with them under a contract period, which is what we do for everyone that's hired. Generally we've found about 30% who enter this period aren't quite a fit for either remote or culture for us.