Recruiting and hiring processes have essentially changed overnight. The process went from a mostly offline experience to a solely online experience, but not without challenges.
The entire hiring process had to be adapted to fit an online format, yet still retain the effectiveness of the previous way of doing it.
Now you had to find a way to assess a candidate’s soft skills without seeing them face-to-face. You had to onboard new hires without being able to approach their desk on Day 1. You had to try to retain the personal and human approach while providing a completely online and digitized experience.
Companies have slowly adapted to the online way of recruiting and hiring and it first started with assessing what has changed from the old way of doing things.
Three key changes in remote recruiting and hiring
The reality of finding, interviewing, hiring, and asking a new employee to start working remotely is a daunting task for a company. For it to work, companies have to create simple, clear, and constructive hiring processes.
The first key change is in the attraction stage.
Attraction
Although unemployment rates are showing improvement in the US and Canada, many people remain out of a job. As a result, there may be an increase in response to job ads, but you still need to ensure that your opportunities stand out from the competition.
Offering a remote work environment is no longer a unique feature since most companies have been forced to adapt to employees working from home. You need to carefully craft the job ad to make sure that if a person just skims the ad, they know what the job is and what it is like to work for your organization.
There are fewer face-to-face interactions so selling your company culture in person is not an option. In addition to ensuring your job ad includes a sense of your company culture, you will need to ensure that this comes across in all of your digital assets, including your careers page.
Selection
The 2020 Jobvite Recruiter survey indicated that half of the surveyed recruiters conducted 50% of their interviews via video calls. A bit less than half believe that virtual interviews will be the default option moving forward.
Making candidates comfortable is big when it comes to virtual interviews. Candidates may be more stressed about using their home setup and internet connectivity issues. Random “photo-bombs” will occur, whether it’s a child at home, the neighbor’s dog barking, or noise from the street. Instead of making this more stressful, try to address it in a comfortable way for the candidate. That will add a human touch to an otherwise distanced and digitized recruiting experience.
Hiring
When it comes to onboarding, there is no longer that “desk setup for a new hire” type of experience and the face-to-face social interactions are non-existent.
Instead, you could host a “get-to-know-each-other” online session to welcome a new hire since co-workers will no longer be able to pop by the desk of a new employee to introduce themselves.
Another thought is to set up all the accounts and permissions for the new employee prior to their start date. Spending half of the first day on software updates isn’t the best way to onboard a new employee.
Using tools and technology
Tools and technology can drastically improve the recruiting and hiring process. They can also improve the candidate experience, automate processes, and allow recruiters to focus on things that matter the most.
Attraction:
Now more than ever, candidates are doing extensive research on opportunities and companies before applying. This means that a company’s jobs need to get in front of as many people as possible and distributed as much as possible. No view of your job ad is a wasted view. This means ensuring your job:
- Is advertised on the main social media channels (LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, etc.)
- Is scraped, pushed, or distributed to job boards, aggregators, etc.
- Has a unique URL so that it can be readily shared
- Is actively marketed to past applicants
Selection:
Once a candidate has applied and is in your organization’s selection workflow, are they able to:
- Track their status?
- Self-schedule interviews or assessments?
- Receive email updates on the process?
Hiring:
The candidate experience doesn’t end once they have signed back an offer letter. It is important to keep up their excitement and help them validate they have made the right choice during the onboarding process. Does your organization:
- Offer new hire pre-boarding?
- Prepare the new hire for their first day and let them know what to expect?
- Make new hires feel like they are part of the team?
Conclusion
Like many things, the COVID-19 pandemic transformed recruiting and hiring almost overnight, but we can adapt and overcome these challenges.
Virtual processes are here to stay. The key for recruiters will be to make the virtual experience feel as human, or personal, as possible.
If you are interested in understanding more about how you can improve the candidate experience, sign up for our webinar: Applying to Onboarding: Creating Agile Candidate Experiences is easier than you think
(Part 2: The Recruiter/Organization Perspective)
