Recruiting virtually was something many businesses were exploring even before the pandemic hit last year. With the increase in remote work, businesses are now having to adapt their recruitment strategies and processes to suit virtually.

Virtual recruiting is conducting a complete or partial recruitment process with a candidate online without meeting them in person. Virtual recruiting can have many benefits such as saving time and money with video interviews with no commutes, scheduling interviews more easily and the ability to record the interview. Virtual recruiting can also incorporate more virtual recruiting tools and, if candidates have the option to work remotely, a wider pool of talent.

A consistent recruitment process is essential whether it’s being done virtually or face-to-face. An effective recruitment process will help you hire the right person, for the right position the first time round, keep control of hiring costs, ensure a positive candidate experience and make sure the screening/interview process isn’t too long.

Before recruiting virtually, you still need the foundation of a good recruitment process. If you already have a good process, thankfully, with good technology it can be easily adapted to the online world.

Here are some tips to successfully recruiting virtually:

Be prepared

Virtual recruitment may allow access to a wider talent pool but it’s important to understand what you are looking for:

-How does the role fit into the current, mid-term and long-term needs and business plans?

-Is it an opportunity to review the team/the role?

-Develop a job/position description and profile to identify skills, attributes, experience and behaviours for a person to be successful in the role.

-With hiring virtually, certain aspects of culture need to be considered. This should still be the case when hiring in person, however, it’s even more essential in virtual recruiting. It’s important to make sure position descriptions detail your values and are included in the recruitment/ advertising process. By including these it can help you attract candidates that align with not just the role but the company.

-Determine if the role can be done remotely or needs to be onsite.

-What are the employee benefits you are offering to attract candidates and are they relevant if the role can be performed remotely?

Profiling the role and the successful person provides you with the reason and the purpose of the hiring process.

Understand your technology requirements

Map out the technology requirements you will need to conduct your recruitment process virtually. There are several great tools you can use to help with video interviews such as zoom, skype and Microsoft teams. There are other tools to help optimise and automate some of the process such as applicant tracking systems, skill testing tools, communications to candidates, screening and selection software, posting job ads and collecting candidate feedback.

Recruitment processes can be different in each business, so any technology or automation needs to suit the business requirements. It’s also important to make sure when choosing to automate a particular part of the process, such as emails to candidates, that they are still personalised and well written. If not, this could have a negative effect on the candidate experience.

Video interviews

The interview is the most common selection method to recruit team members. The success of the interview will have a lot to do with how you prepare and structure it. In the current market with competition for good applicants being so strong, it is important the interview is a positive experience which sells the benefits of your company and the role.

Video interviews still require the same structure and preparation as an in-person interview. However, they can be a convenient way to save time for both the candidate and employer. In a guide by LinkedIn Talent Solutions, ‘Companies that conduct video interviews report up to a 95% reduction in recruitment costs.’

With remote work here to stay, video interviews offer a suitable alternative to be able to still build that connection and determine if the candidate is the right person for the role. Many businesses are now incorporating both real-time and one-way video interviewing. One-way video interviewing is where a candidate can record and answer questions. These can be reviewed at a time that suits in the recruitment process. Both real-time and one-way video interviewing offer the benefit of recording.

Promote your employee value proposition, company culture and values

In a normal office-based interview, candidates have more of an opportunity to experience a company’s culture. With virtual recruiting this is harder to give them this experience. It’s important to look at promoting your company culture, values and employee value proposition consistently across social media platforms and your website. You could look to host virtual events that provides candidates the opportunity to get to know the company more, meet managers and team members, and ask questions about the company.

Stick to your good recruitment process

Running a professional recruitment and selection process is vital to successfully building a great team. When deciding to use virtual recruiting, you can still utilise the good recruitment processes you have in place, you will just be adding virtual tools to enhance the process when hiring remote workers or at times where the process cannot be done face to face.

Would you like further guidance on how you can improve your recruitment process so you can attract the right talent for your business? Contact Catie Paterson HR Business Consulting today.