Avoid repeating mistakes
Bad previous experiences will create an unwillingness for companies to hire a remote worker. Before ruling it out entirely, highlight the reasons why that bad experience was a failure and making informed decisions in your current hiring process.
Do your due diligence
You have to acknowledge that there are good and bad developers out there. They're all over the world. Skill doesn't have a home country. Look closely at the qualifications of the developer, review their portfolio and examples of code in the languages they say they know.
Check with their clients. Check any professional platforms you can. Speak to them personally and make a connection. Ensure they're genuinely interested in the company and the role.
Don't be afraid to be critical.
Listen to trusted sources
A lot of good hires will come from referrals. This is a solid way of confirming the credibility of your potential hire. Even if they have a great referral from someone you trust, always check their experience.
When you're hiring a developer from within the open-source community, you should be able to look at their contributions on GitHub. It'll give you an insight into their technical ability as well as what they enjoy doing.
Luckily for us at Code Enigma, the Drupal community is wide and international. We can tap into that.
Find their passion
Interest is a key factor. Knowing what a person is passionate about will help you go a long way, not just during that first turbulent couple of weeks. Finding out what someone cares about will help you sustain their motivation. They'll be a productive, proactive member of the team.
If you're hiring a remote developer, this is especially true. Not having face-to-face interaction means it's down to the individual to get stuck in with their new team and the challenges they're creating solutions to. If you can harness someone's passions and give them room to work on it, they'll eagerly bring their expertise.
Get everyone involved in hiring
Get your current team involved in the hiring process. If your team size allows it, the inclusion of a project manager and other employees can prove really valuable. It encourages confidence in the hire, team collaboration and smooths the way for the later onboarding process.
Having utter transparency in this process can calm any potential anxiety within the existing team. Meeting the new member allows current employees to get to know them and remove any sense of threat.
When people know one another before the new hire officially starts, it'll speed along the process of becoming an integrated member of the team.
These tips should help you avoid any nasty surprises.