The Essential Guide to Excelling at Virtual Recruiting
The coronavirus pandemic forced businesses to shift their recruiting online in just about every state. Even as the economy begins to bounce back, many companies are interested in moving a larger share of their hiring process remotely and assessing how to do so most effectively.
Ryan Healy, Co-Founder and President of Brazen, said virtual recruiting has greatly helped organizations improve diversity hiring, streamline recruiting processes, and hire better talent by reaching across geographic barriers in 2020.
“These gains mean virtual recruiting has earned its place in the ongoing talent acquisition strategies of nearly every industry across the country, and employers will continue to use virtual recruiting alongside more-traditional in-person recruiting and interviewing once it’s safe to meet with candidates face-to-face again,” he said.
The advantages that come alongside the adoption of this hiring model are only beginning to unfold, but there is a lot more in store for HR teams.
Keep reading to look at a few ways talent acquisition leaders can ace virtual recruitment and get the best job seekers flowing their way within no time.
1. Build a Robust Virtual Recruiting Technology Stack
A solid tech stack can make all the difference in attracting the best talent. Many talent acquisition leaders are now realizing this and developing robust virtual recruitment strategies to leverage various state-of-the-art tech innovations within their recruiting models.
Some research indicates that as many as 98% of Fortune 500 companies use recruitment software.
One recent report also found that nearly 68% of recruiters and talent acquisition leaders believe that investing in new technology is the best way out there to improve hiring performance in the next few years.
Begin with determining what you will need in order to build a result-driven virtual recruiting process.
While conducting video interviews using only video conferencing software and email is possible, numerous other tools can help speed up your time-to-hire and reduce the associated costs. Some of these include:
- Automated job posting tools
- Candidate screening software
- Applicant Tracking System (ATS) that can easily integrate with other tools
- Skills testing tools
- Virtual onboarding tools
- Jobs data analytics to predict which candidate can be a good hire
- Candidate experience survey tools
- Hiring platforms and apps
One best practice here would be to study industry trends, assess your organization’s unique requirements and budget constraints, look at what solutions are working well for your industry counterparts, and then decide what your ideal tech stack should look like.
2. Define Your Communication Process
When building a sustainable virtual hiring model, one of the most important things you’d want to do is define the communication process. A well-defined, thought-through virtual recruiting strategy is vital when trying to target growth, especially when most people are working in a remote setting.
As a talent acquisition leader, your goal should be to do what you can to make communication as concise as possible. However, it is also important to remember that you don’t compromise on conveying any essential information about your company to candidates in the process of doing that.
One best practice would be to keep your Careers page updated. This will be beneficial when you scale your team. According to findings of one survey, careers pages now account for nearly 94.1% more hires than they did four years ago.
Try creating elements or focal points on your website that reflect your company culture from the outset. This is an excellent way of giving candidates a firsthand experience of what it is like being part of the organization and what sort of work ethic they can expect to witness on joining.
Additionally, communicating the following steps after a candidate has been shortlisted can play a massive role in significantly augmenting their overall onboarding experience. Research by TalentBoard has shown how candidate experience can be improved simply by communicating with them openly and transparently.
3. Come Up with an Effective Onboarding Strategy
While recruiting virtually is important, virtual onboarding can be challenging as well.
One new report by Digitate found that employees who had a negative onboarding experience were twice as likely to look for career opportunities with other companies. The same report also found that one in five fresh hires are unlikely to recommend a company to referrals after their onboarding experience.
These statistics further indicate that your company’s candidate onboarding strategy speaks volumes about how much you genuinely value resources. Including an effective one within your virtual recruitment model can take you a long way to attract the best candidates and retain them in the long run.
One way to build an effective onboarding strategy would be to have a buddy program in place.
These programs match a seasoned employee with your new hire and request that they check in with them once every week for the first month. It’s relatively easy to implement, and you have ample apps to support these initiatives today.
In one of his recent articles, Dawn Klinghoffer, Head of People Analytics at Microsoft, explains how having a buddy program has helped Microsoft onboard new remote hires in a better way.
“In order to truly understand the value of onboarding buddies, we looked at the difference in hires who were assigned onboarding buddies versus those who were not. Our research found that after their first week on the job, new hires with buddies were 23% more satisfied with their overall onboarding experience compared to those without buddies. This trend continued at 90 days with a 36% increase in satisfaction. Those with buddies also reported receiving more active support from both their manager and the broader team,” says Klinghoffer.
When it comes to virtual onboarding, you can also leverage virtual recruiting tools such as a dedicated mobile app to help new hires feel welcomed and make it easier for them to take a peek into the company’s shared culture and values.
Learn More About How to Implement a Virtual Recruitment Process
Formulating a robust communication strategy should top your list of considerations when it comes to hiring remotely. Not only will it help hiring managers and hiring teams, but it will also provide a great candidate experience if appropriately executed.
However, you don’t have to figure out your virtual hiring process all on your own. To know more about virtual recruitment best practices, contact us at Recruiter.com.
We will be happy to help you build sustainable, result-driven workplaces that will work for you for the long term.
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