With the endless blessings of the modern-day internet, you can easily reach candidates in the furthest corners of the world through virtual recruiting. This process takes place with the help of virtual communication tools.
Needless to say, the virtual world opens up a wealth of opportunities for recruiters who are searching for the best possible candidates in their respective fields.
Virtual recruiting has never been as easy as it is today.
Regardless of your reasons for dabbling in virtual hiring, no need to worry at all. Below we’ve compiled the most wanted guide outlining everything about virtual recruiting, that you need to know.
Introduction to Virtual Recruiting
Virtual recruiting is simply described as a hiring process that takes place remotely. The best part of this process is, it takes place without the candidates needing to meet face to face. Instead, recruiters completely rely on technology when it comes to hosting video interviews, surveys, virtual events, and assessments to evaluate their applicants remotely.
With social distancing measures in place, virtual recruitment strategies have become increasingly common. At the same time, face-to-face interviews shouldn’t be undervalued for the honest, personal connections they facilitate.
Advantages of Virtual Recruiting
Below we have discussed some top advantages you need to explore about virtual recruiting.
Apart from complying with current public health guidelines, there is a wide variety of benefits to online recruiting. Most significantly, virtual recruiters are able to reach more candidates.
This is especially beneficial for smaller employers who lack a sizable recruiting staff dedicated to sourcing talent. Furthermore, virtual open houses, as well as virtual job fairs, allow more people to attend. Online interviews save a lot of time and resources.
A well-designed virtual recruiting process is the best strategy to automate the bulk of manual tasks. Doing so will help you streamline and optimize the entire process in order to make sure your recruiting budgets are used effectively.
Last but not least, in the long run, your company will also save money on interview expenses. Not only this but also travel expenses for your out-of-town candidates.
A Guide to Taking In-person Recruiting Virtual
As you shift your face-to-face recruiting online, an important point to keep in mind is that it is highly important to keep your existing recruitment philosophy intact. You should be able to make a point to reinforce your company brand along with values throughout the recruiting process.
While this detail is a critical part of all recruiting, it’s even more important in the case of a virtual setting. This is because your applicants will have significantly less in-person interaction with your team as well as your organization.
There is a long list of companies that have found many creative ways to successfully utilize virtual recruiting. Many of such top companies constantly promote recruitment efforts on their social media pages. Also, they create a branded hashtag to promote their events, offer weekly virtual chats, and much more. They also offer numerous online hiring events to provide candidates the best opportunities to connect with their organization.
With the above-mentioned points in mind, here we have gathered three proven strategies for effective virtual recruiting:
Hosting Virtual Job Fairs and Open Houses
You can still do virtual “meet and greets” as part of your recruitment strategy. Focus on hosting live video conferencing meetings during which you can invite prospective candidates to “meet” the hiring managers. They can also enjoy virtual office tours and Q&As with your team members. Job fairs and open houses are some great ways to engage with talent. It will also give them a chance to learn better about the company.
Utilizing Phone and Video Interviews to Screen Candidates
Screening candidates with promising resumes is still a vital step when it comes to finding good candidate matches. Typically, the recruiter will learn in-depth about the individual, before they make any final decision.
On the other hand, companies have already gotten used to doing video interviews. It is a great way to make the interview experience more personal. This is because the recruiter is able to see people in their home environment, and not in a conference room.
Developing a Comprehensive Virtual Onboarding Program
To ensure a smooth virtual onboarding process, you need to follow some general guidelines. Here is what you need to consider when developing a comprehensive virtual onboarding program:
1. Use Technology Effectively
Technology is said to be the cornerstone of virtual onboarding. It is important to ensure that adequate technology is available for all employees. You can start with identifying needed software as well as providing essential hardware to new hires. This includes necessary network access and configuration.
2. Design an Orientation Schedule
Onboarding event is not restricted to a one-day or even one-week. No matter what the circumstances, virtual onboarding should be strategic. This long-term process is meant to coordinate with all levels of the organization. It is highly suggested to create a virtual orientation program that will ideally replace the in-person orientation.
3. Communicate Often
As a matter of fact, new hires often feel lost at a new job during the first few days. Physical distance can heighten this feeling even more. To lessen the struggle of your remote employees, be sure to carry out frequent and clear communication.
How to Create A Successful Virtual Recruiting Event
In cases where job fairs or other networking events prove to be a key component of your recruitment strategy, it is important to conceive of ways in order to replicate the success of those events virtually. Online events still provide an ideal opportunity for candidates to familiarize themselves with your company and hiring team.
For the purpose of boosting your chances of creating a successful virtual recruiting process, there are a few things for you. All such points hinge on the needs, size, and capabilities of your organization. Also, without any second thought, the more advanced tech you have access to, the better options you’ll have available.
Below are some basic tips for creating the best virtual recruiting event:
Promote Your Virtual Event Across All Digital Platforms
Staring from your website to your social media pages. Everything should advertise your event. This is important to maximize candidate participation.
Follow-up With Attendees
It is important to make sure that you send an email or direct message to your entire attendee’s list. It should be thanking them for attending the event as well as encouraging them to reach out if any of them have additional questions.
Implement Metrics to Track Success
Along with tracking the number of people who register and attend your virtual events, you also need to calculate the conversion rate. Also, the offer acceptance rate of attendees needs to be tracked as well.
Focus On What Matters
One drawback to video interviews is that, you are unable to depend much on non-verbal communication, in order to evaluate a candidate.
A few of the important factors to keep in mind that can make virtual interviews feel awkward include:
- Delays between the two parties speaking
- A blurry video feed
- Miscommunication
You need to focus on what the candidate is saying as well as their experiences, but not those awkward moments.
Don’t Ignore Employer Branding
Even in the case of virtual recruiting, don’t forget to keep thinking of ways to showcase your unique employer branding. You need to be as creative as possible. It means creating a welcome video for candidates that they can view before or after the interview. Or even something similar to using virtual reality to give virtual office tours.
Pro Tips for Virtual Recruiting
Four pro tips to conduct a successful virtual recruiting event include:
Abide by The Law
Whenever you use virtual recruiting technology and you collect data online, it is crucial that you abide by the law. In simple words, comply with EEOC guidelines.
It does not end here, you also need to take precautions to make sure your recruitment process is non-discriminatory. It should be as per the Equality Act, which means at no stage should your recruitment funnel filter out candidates due to their age, gender, marital status, disability, religion, or race.
One of the best ways to reduce unconscious bias is that you can introduce principles of blind hiring into your virtual recruiting process. This includes blind resume screening. This is just one of the many ways that will help you in eliminating prejudice from your virtual recruitment process.
Also, if you’re recruiting in a variety of countries, it is important that you make legal considerations for all of them. This is because local labor and privacy laws might differ from each other. For example, if you’re recruiting in Europe, you need to ensure that the recruitment tools which you’re using are all GDPR compliant.
Keep Your Candidates Well-Informed
Virtual recruiting can be an uninvolved experience. Such experience often leaves candidates unsure about where they actually stand. This usually happens due to a lack of personal connection as well as feedback.
However, just because you are making use of remote and digital strategies in order to screen potential recruits, it doesn’t at all mean you are unable to offer a human touch to the experience.
So, you should tackle this issue by making candidates well-acknowledged about what your virtual hiring process looks like from the get-go. Also, what stage the candidates are at. It is important to explain to them beforehand what tools you will be using during the process of recruiting and how they can prepare.
Another excellent idea is to introduce the candidate to whoever is going to interview them. Perhaps you could organize this with the help of email or LinkedIn. This will allow the applicant to do their homework relevant to the interviewer. Doing so often works wonders for putting the mind of your candidate at ease.
A lot of recruitment communication can easily be automated with the help of candidate relationship management tools, email marketing software, or your pre-employment testing suite. You can send relevant information to your candidates that will be based on the stage of the recruitment process they’re in, plus who is the hiring manager.
It is highly suggested to keep the lines of communication open. Also, give candidates an option to contact you via their preferred communication channel. This can be social media, email or even phone.
Transform Your Career Events
Anything is possible in this world when it comes to modern technology. These days, traditional career events, as well as job fairs, can be undertaken virtually without making an extra effort. You can host nearly anything starting from open office days to networking events online. All you need to get your hands on is the right technology and direction.
Digitizing such types of events is one of the fabulous ways of giving candidates an exciting insight into the culture of your company. Not only this, but virtual recruiting events are much cheaper as compared to traditional in-person occasions. They are also more accessible to larger pools of candidates.
To make your online recruiting process a success, you need to ensure that you prepare engaging content. Also, don’t forget to market your event heavily beforehand to expect a decent turnout. We recommend that you select a long list of team members that will appear live throughout the event. In this way, your candidates will have the opportunity to ‘meet’ your team.
Another good idea is to host a few Q&A sessions. We urge you to encourage discussion amongst the prospective hires and your current staff. This idea works wonders for engaging your audience as well as identifying attendees, especially those who have their finger on the pulse.
Adapt Your Virtual Recruitment Tech Stack
A good virtual recruiting process is indeed heavily supported by technology. Also, you might need to better adjust your usual recruitment tech stack. It is important to check and ensure if it has the necessary capabilities or not.
For example, if your plan is to conduct one-way video interviews, you need to know if your existing tech supports that? Or will you need to implement new software for this purpose? Are you able to upload company videos to your assessments in order to introduce your organization along with its culture?
Whenever you wish to implement new software, it is important to ensure that it integrates with your ATS. This is crucial to create a seamless virtual recruitment experience for recruiters as well as candidates alike.
When you’re the one who is expecting higher volumes of applications, it is important to consider using chatbots as virtual recruitment assistants. You can program it to answer frequently asked questions. It can also be used to redirect candidates to where they can find the help they are looking for.
You see, it is an effortless way to ease the workload of your support team, and provide instant responses to applicants. A win-win situation for both!
Conclusion
Virtual recruiting can potentially transform your recruitment process. This type of recruiting lets you vet and hire candidates, from all across the globe, remotely. Not only that, but virtual recruiting also facilitates a cheaper, much faster, and more efficient hiring process. This is done while empowering you to expand your candidate pool much further than ever before.
If you are interested in seeing how the vFairs platform can help streamline your virtual recruitment process and facilitate virtual hiring, you can book a demo right now.
