Traditional hiring processes have long since passed their prime! Corporate hiring procedures have undergone radical reform thanks to technology, software, and digitization. From virtual conferences to online hiring processes - increasingly replacing them with computer-simulated software called "virtual platforms," global recruitment now occurs via this digital revolution. Let's delve deeper into virtual recruitment to understand this topic better.
What is Virtual Recruitment?
Virtual recruiting refers to hiring processes that take place remotely without face-to-face interactions between candidates and recruiters, using technology for remote evaluation of level of talent such as virtual events, interviews, surveys, or assessments. E-recruitment (or electronic recruitment), simply put, refers to hiring candidates through online resources and resources available online. E-recruitment strategies resemble in-person recruiting methods but with added advantages due to technology. Some companies combine in-person with online recruiting practices - known as hybrid recruitment - for recruitment and selection processes online. This practice may help companies streamline this process faster. E-recruitment software can help your company reach more candidates more efficiently. E-recruitment saves recruiting managers time by accelerating the hiring process, resulting in reduced staffing needs for hires and reduced turnover rates.
Virtual recruitment refers to hiring processes conducted online via a virtual platform, typically for large-scale recruitment initiatives by multiple employers and remote job seekers. Employers advertise job vacancies through this method, while remote job seekers sign in at job fairs online to apply for them directly. Recruitment technology assists employers throughout all recruitment steps, from resume screening guide candidates through virtual interviews and onboarding. Hiring managers then use matching algorithms to find the ideal match for their position.
Virtual Recruitment in Four Steps
Traditional hiring processes and virtual recruiting processes are comparable, so download our hiring checklist to ensure everything runs smoothly! Here are four key ingredients of virtual recruitment.
1. Finding Talent Online
Step one of virtual recruitment involves finding applicants interested in applying.Before advertising their services, recruiters must carefully define their ideal candidate and target audience. A thorough job description includes duties, qualifications, and benefits as part of its entirety.Next, recruiters must determine an online platform for reaching their targeted talent pool. Social media pages such as LinkedIn or Facebook could serve as viable avenues for marketing to prospective applicants; other popular options are Indeed and Monster search engines.Once a position description and advertising platform have been finalized, it's time to post and recruit team members formally.
2. Assessing Candidates
Screening CVs to find potential candidates is critical in selecting the ideal person for any position. Some employers prefer screening candidates through application questionnaires and tests. In contrast, others rely on information found on a CV to shortlist applicants. It depends on your position's needs; recruiters should decide beforehand on baseline qualifications before shortlisting potential applicants.As they screen reviewing resumes, recruiters should remain conscious of unconscious bias towards applicants' race, gender, and sexual orientation. To prevent name, age, or appearance discrimination from happening accidentally or otherwise, consider adopting a blind CV policy for maximum fairness.
3. Interviewing
How should an interview be conducted? The critical elements for successful interviews include professionalism, friendliness, and candidate research. Background appearance and environment become particularly essential during online discussions. Start an interview process by briefly introducing yourself and the company, helping ease tension while giving applicants a favorable impression of you both. From there on out, you should explain their position within the company culture as you ask questions through computer cameras, ensuring eye contact through eye-gaze technology is made during structured interviews.While interviewing candidates, one must obtain a good grasp of their experiences and training before interviewing.
4. Hiring and Onboarding
Once an ideal candidate has been found, the next step in making an offer should be writing up an employee offer letter template to expedite this resume process. Hiring managers may use employee offer letter templates to streamline this task and save time during recruitment meetings. Once an offer has been accepted, employees can proceed with the last hiring stage: onboarding. Employers understand how crucial employee onboarding can be in making newcomers feel welcome in their organization's culture and creating lasting employee relations. New hires will benefit significantly from an overview of company policies and the organizational structure, so take time to go over an onboarding checklist for a smooth transition.
The Advantages of Virtual Recruiting
Face-to-face remote interviews should be considered because they foster honest and personal connections; however, virtual recruitment strategies have become increasingly popular for enforcing social distancing measures. Let us consider some advantages associated with virtual recruiting strategies.
Ensuring Recruiting Continuity Even Under Challenging Situations
As stated before, COVID-19 has intensified the need for virtual hiring strategies . Many teams have had to shift work remotely due to this pandemic; having an established virtual recruitment process will enable you to continue hiring and onboarding staff members as usual.As long as you and your applicants have reliable internet connectivity, it should be easy to continue guiding prospective job candidates through your recruitment funnel.
Saving Time, Protecting Schedules
Virtual recruiting makes screening more candidates in less time possible - particularly with one-way video interviews and online assessments; even traditional conversations can be scheduled more flexibly to fit around busy schedules.
Reducing Recruitment Spending and Interview Expenses
Virtual recruiting makes screening more candidates in less time possible - particularly with one-way video phone interviews and online assessments; even traditional conversations can be scheduled more flexibly to fit around busy schedules.
Minimize Bias and Open More Doors
Implementing an organized virtual recruitment approach provides an even playing field between candidates. Doing this ensures they all stand on equal ground while decreasing common hiring biases; furthermore, many worthy applicants might otherwise slip through your grasp without you ever realizing them!
The Limitations of Virtual Recruiting
Virtual recruitment offers unique benefits, yet many still prefer face-to-face digital interviews over remote recruitment due to COVID-19 pandemic concerns.These drawbacks don't disprove virtual recruiting; instead, they present challenges that, with careful thought, can be addressed through using a hybrid strategy approach. Now, let's examine some of virtual recruiting's drawbacks.
It Takes More Work to Gauge a Cultural Fit
It can be challenging to estimate whether potential candidates fit your company culture without meeting them in person.Your candidate could accept your job offer only to realize that their workplace environment or team does not fit them, leading them to leave quickly. Mismatched candidate expectations often lead to early attrition for entry-level roles.Recruitment software such as Harver makes it possible to showcase the culture and assess candidate-job compatibility before sending out employment offers.Learn more about the Harver cultural fit assessment below.
The candidate's experience might suffer.
Compared to more personal, in-person hiring methods, candidates might feel less appreciated and engaged through virtual recruitment strategies.Keep video interview tools open to one-way communications, as this approach may leave candidates feeling detached. Therefore, remember to develop virtual recruitment ideas that foster interaction.Here's one candidate experience we created for retailer Valvoline: it includes pre-employment assessments to measure candidate skills and company videos that showcase its culture - these allow recruiters to weed out candidates who do not fit before the interview stage begins.To add another level of automation and candidate comfort, consider providing applicants an avenue where they can ask any relevant questions that arise during your automated recruitment techniques. This helps break up any possible formality associated with virtual hiring procedures.
How to Make Your Virtual Recruitment Process a Success?
To increase the odds of creating a successful virtual recruiting process, there are a few points you need to remember; these all depend on the needs, size, and capabilities of your company as well as any advanced tech that may be available - the more options will open up depending on which tech tools are at hand. Here are our tips for recruiting virtually.
Abide by the Law
When you use recruiting technology and collect data online, it must comply with legal obligations such as those issued by EEOC guidelines. Not only must your recruitment process adhere to the Equality Act, it must also remain non-discriminatory - which means at no point should candidates fall out due to;
- Age
- Disability
- Gender
- Marital status
- Race
- Religion
Blind hiring principles may help to decrease unconscious bias by screening resumes without discrimination before the selection of applicants for recruitment processes. By doing this, prejudice can be removed from your recruitment processes altogether and can reduce costs as a result.Assuming you're recruiting in multiple countries, legal considerations differ for each. For example, European recruiters should ensure the recruitment tools comply with GDPR laws before conducting recruitment efforts there.
Adapt Your Recruitment Tech Stack
An effective virtual recruiting process relies heavily on technology. Adjust your recruitment tech stack to ensure it has all the required capabilities.If you plan to conduct one-way video interviews, ask if your existing tech supports that or if new software needs to be purchased. Furthermore, can company videos be added to assessments to introduce and showcase your organization and culture?Ensure that any software implemented integrates smoothly with your applicant tracking system (ATS), creating an ideal virtual recruitment experience for recruiters and candidates.When dealing with high volumes of applications, consider employing chatbots as virtual recruitment assistants. Customize them so they respond promptly to frequently asked questions or direct candidates toward where they can find assistance.
Your support team's workload will be reduced effortlessly while applicants benefit from instant responses! - win-win!Best practices in virtual recruitment. Conducting a successful virtual hiring strategy requires following some rules and best practices when devising your virtual recruitment process.
Comply With Employment Laws in Your Area
Your organization must abide by your local employment regulations when hiring.
When recruiting within the EU, ensure that your recruitment practices comply with GDPR laws and any guidelines regarding remote recruitment. Furthermore, ensure any pre-employment tests used are within these laws without creating adverse effects against candidates from protected groups.
Avoid Bias
To avoid bias and any accusations of discrimination when hiring, incorporate valid pre-assessment tests and assessments that meet the standards established by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) into your screening process.
As a general guideline, when assessing candidates, it's best to evaluate them based on their skills rather than factors like race, religion, gender or sexuality, disability status, etc.
Develop an Online Onboarding Program
Finally, when new candidates join your team, a robust virtual onboarding program must be in place to help ensure smooth integration into your company. Establish this initiative early to facilitate employee smooth onboarding into the business environment.
Use Virtual Recruitment to Fill Your Hiring Pipeline Faster
Virtual recruitment offers organizations an effective strategy for tapping a global talent pool for hiring purposes - giving an advantage over rival organizations in hiring processes. Establishing an effective online recruitment strategy saves both time and resources during recruitment processes, making your hiring processes more streamlined.Implementing various virtual recruitment ideas online - like hosting job fairs and workshops - to draw in talent can help your company find candidates more quickly. Give each strategy a test run separately until you determine which works best for your company.Sign up now and start using pre-employment testing as part of your virtual online recruitment strategy with TestGorilla for free! Why not book a 30-minute live demo session with one of our sales teams to learn more?
Creative Recruitment Strategies to Attract Candidates
1. Experiment With Social Media
If your social media activities include LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter, one innovative recruitment method is trying niche channels. Here are a few companies doing just this.
- Goldman Sachs recently reached out to young talent by placing job ads on Spotify - one of the popular music streaming services - inviting potential candidates to apply.
- Recruitment firm Strike IT US filled 111 vacancies through Reddit candidates sourced via this social platform.
Social networks offer another effective tool for marketing job openings: they allow employers to develop an employer brand and reach a broader audience.
- Hubspot utilizes Pinterest boards to introduce its recruitment teams and offices and share career advice with potential candidates.
- National Public Radio interns manage an Instagram account where they document their experiences and connect with potential junior candidates.
2. Organize Open House Events
Consider hosting a recruitment event at your office(s), inviting those interested in joining. By inviting attendees who might fit this description to attend, you'll have an easy way of screening potential employees en masse while giving potential hires an inside glimpse of life at work without the formalities that might otherwise apply - here are a few ideas:
- Cargurus, an automotive research and shopping website, hosts in-house and external events to meet potential candidates, such as inviting them to sports games.
- Workable hosted a career day to engage potential sales team candidates. Here's part of the invitation we published to promote it:
3. Turn Your Job Ads Into Hidden Messages
Playing hide and seek with potential candidates could be an engaging way to promote your job openings if this fits your brand's identity. Captivate candidates' interest with job ads requiring interaction - for instance, solving riddles! Or use surprise to lure prospective hires. Here are a few examples:
- Apple created an innovative recruitment strategy in which job ads were hidden across its site in unexpected places, and candidates found this no-cost recruitment initiative engaging and enjoyable.
- IKEA includes career assembly instructions in its products to attract qualified applicants to its customer base.
Consider virtual reality candidates what it would be like to work at your company with virtual reality technology. But since only some have access to it, be sure to provide all necessary tools - perhaps setting up a booth at job fairs where candidates could "walk around your offices using VR headsets. (For an immersive VR experience, view these videos using VR glasses.)
- Prospective college students can explore Trinity University through virtual reality tours.
- General Mills uses this 360-degree video to give potential hires an office tour.
Creative Recruitment Strategies to Evaluate Candidates
Test Candidates' Skills on Social Media
Social media provides the perfect venue to source prospective candidates and review work samples and portfolios of designers and developers before inviting them for interviews. Behance and Github offer excellent avenues for screening designers and developers before asking them for interviews.
- If you are recruiting candidates for creative roles (photographers), such as photography, ask candidates to share examples of their work. Netflix ran an Instagram contest specifically targeting one position it needed candidates for.
- McDonald's candidates begin the application process by sending a 10-second Snapchat video (Application), briefly outlining themselves and any employment qualifications.
Incorporate Online Interviews
Video interviews (such as Skype, Hangouts, SparkHire, or HireVue) accelerate the hiring process by allowing recruiters to interview candidates from any location - they're especially beneficial when assessing salespeople's communication abilities.
- PwC recruiters utilize short videos during the screening process, sending interview questions directly to candidates via their video interviewing platform for practice, recording, and submission.
- Automattic is a web development company that successfully overcomes the difficulties of hiring distributed team members by replacing traditional in-person interviews with Skype text chats.
Schedule Group Activities
Use effective recruitment strategies and practices such as group activities and assessment centers to evaluate potential hires accurately. Candidates will gain insight into whether they fit their position and team by meeting potential co-workers; you can even use group activities as simulation exercises of job tasks to understand better how candidates deal with challenges related to their positions.
- Airlines typically host assessment days to select candidates. British Airways utilizes various role-playing and presentation activities in their hiring process.
- Companies may take advantage of assessment centers when hiring junior employees who lack work experience or need help to demonstrate how they apply their abilities professionally. These centers offer businesses an efficient way to assess potential hires needing more direct examples to illustrate how their powers are used in real-life situations.
- Vodafone hosts discovery days for its graduate programme to assess candidate's abilities through group activities.
Inform all candidates before their interviews of their estimated length; such activities typically last longer than traditional interviews.
Apply Gamification Tactics
Gamification in recruitment allows companies to see beyond resumes and focus on skills. Companies using software from Knack to create an immersive recruitment process could benefit from employing similar strategies for improving employee selection processes and evaluation methods.
- Unilever has initiated 20-minute games during their hiring process to quickly and fairly screen recent graduates.
- Taylor Wessing is a law firm that assesses candidates' skills (such as innovation and problem-solving ) through Cosmic Cadet, a five-level game.
For additional insight on innovative recruitment strategies, please look at our articles about retraining talented job seekers from other industries and mastering ten aspects of the recruitment process.
Virtual Recruiting Ideas and Tips
As you host events and interviews online, virtual recruiting strategies should always be part of your strategic plan to find candidates with ideal qualifications. When online speaking becomes part of the task, consider these ideas when recruiting potential employees!
- Determine Your Platform- To host virtual events or conduct video interviews successfully, it is necessary to select an ideal platform such as Skype or Google Hangout, which requires download by users and should give enough advance notice of scheduled meetings to all applicants and attendees alike.
- Remember Backgrounds- When hosting virtual events and conducting interviews, HR professionals recognize they represent their company's brand as ambassadors. Therefore, when finding a space and background suitable for these tasks - blank walls and bookshelves make great environments! - it is best to remember where and when this interview/event will occur!
- Establish Eye Contact- As previously discussed, eye contact can make listeners feel included in a discussion and lessen tension during an interview or virtual event. Adjust the height of your webcam accordingly for optimal eye contact while speaking.
- E-Recruitment Software- A virtual recruitment idea to use will assist with organizing all aspects of the hiring process, from talent acquisition to candidate selection. An E-Recruitment platform is indispensable to companies trying to manage the recruitment process successfully.
The Best Virtual Recruitment Software
An Applicant Tracking System (ATS) is an electronic recruitment software tool that streamlines the hiring process from its beginning. Companies using an ATS can attract talent by creating career website pages or quickly publishing openings across social media channels.
An applicant tracking system allows employers to create customized application pages, store employee documents securely online, and easily visualize candidate data - making hiring new employees intuitive and organized!
E-recruitment software will make the hiring process more effective and reduce onboarding costs, saving time and money while improving candidate experiences and your company image.
How to Recruit With Virtual Recruitment Days?
VRD's virtual platform can assist your organization with globalizing its employer brand. Our years of experience allow organizations to hire top talent from around the globe through VRD's recruitment event software, which enables employers to host a job fair, career fair, in-house recruitment, or virtual onboarding event with us and maximize reach to refine talent applying for jobs at your organization. Here are a few takeaways:
- Request a demo at your recruitment event.
- Hire VR Platform now.
- Customize a 3D virtual venue as an office replica.
- Create an engaging event landing page.
- Allow attendees to register for your event.
- Implement an event featuring multiple employer brands.
- Engage attendees at exhibitor booths and collect resumes.
- Utilize job matching technology to quickly shortlist qualified applicants.
- Engage attendees through live audio/video interviews.
- Train and onboard remote teams
- Get real-time reports on event progress.
- Event experts provide round-the-clock support from event experts.
Implement the most efficient strategies into easy hiring by moving to an online events platform - saving time, money, and resources while ensuring your employer brand becomes known locally! Your employer brand would become the talk of the town!
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Conclusion
Recent trends in the event industry call for virtual recruitment practices. Indeed, high-volume recruitment can only be accomplished using digital solutions, with virtual recruitment software making this possible. Finally, free from physical restraints and target remote talent as needed in your recruitment needs!
Virtual days helps organizations streamline recruitment with innovative technology and features designed specifically to simplify event hosting. So join us now so your events become truly remarkable events!
