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Traditionally, the recruitment process involves meeting potential new employees in a physical space. These meetings are usually at job fairs or when candidates come to a workplace for a job interview. Social distancing measures during the coronavirus pandemic restricted traditional face-to-face recruitment. Businesses have had to adapt by exploring other options to recruit new staff.

Recruiting staff using online processes

Virtual recruitment or online recruitment relies on a host of different technologies to help businesses find the most suitable person for a job role while also helping employers to recruit more efficiently and effectively. Employers can now easily use these online tools without ever meeting a candidate in person to:

• attract talent
• connect with and screen candidates
• conduct in-depth interviews
• introduce candidates to managers and colleagues
• give virtual workplace tours

Streamlining the recruitment process

During the coronavirus pandemic, virtual recruitment provided a hiring solution to employers. It enabled the recruitment process to take place from start to finish exclusively online. However, virtual recruitment is not just a temporary solution. Employers have become more comfortable using various technologies for virtual interaction.

Many employers have also sampled the benefits in efficiency and effectiveness that virtual recruitment can bring, saving time by making the recruitment process more streamlined. A hybrid recruitment process using online and physical methods may be the best option for employers moving forward. Find out about the other business benefits of online recruitment.

Online recruitment can also work harmoniously with employees working from home, removing geographical barriers for employers and enabling businesses to recruit the best talent from across the world.

Recruiting new employees using an online recruitment process can bring many advantages to employers and their businesses. Many employers were forced to use virtual recruitment to take on new staff due to public health restrictions during the coronavirus pandemic. These employers experienced in practice some of the advantages that virtual recruitment can bring for businesses.

Advantages of online recruitment

Breaks geographical barriers

Virtual recruitment enables employers to extend their reach for talent wider than traditional methods would. In practice, employers can now attract international talent, but you must ensure your workers are eligible to work in the UK.

Saves time

Online recruitment enables employers to screen more candidates in a shorter space of time. You can build automation into some of the recruitment stages, for example, online competency tests can automatically rank candidates based on their performance. Online video interviews can be scheduled more flexibly than traditional face-to-face interviews so that they fit around your schedule and not the other way round.

Saves money

Virtual recruitment can bring a number of financial savings for employers. Recruitment events held online are much less expensive than hosting or attending physical job fairs. Online recruitment also requires no travel or accommodation costs. If you are hiring new staff on a regular basis, these cost savings will add up. The technology required to deliver virtual recruitment is often inexpensive and offers a good return on investment.

Reduces the time to hire

When recruiting staff, your main aim is to get the best possible candidate started in their new role as soon as possible. Online recruitment can help this by speeding up the recruitment process as a whole. It enables employers to vet and shortlist a larger volume of candidates in a shorter space of time. There is also no need to set aside a significant amount of time to facilitate candidates and an interview panel to fulfil face-to-face interviews.

Gain competitive advantage in the jobs market

Virtual recruitment shows potential candidates that your organisation is progressive and innovative, potentially making you a more attractive employment option over competitors. The majority of job seekers today are comfortable with interacting online and are likely to expect that at least some of your recruitment process would be online too.

Hire the right candidate

By saving you time and money, online recruitment also enables employers to focus on recruiting the best possible person to employ. You can streamline your recruitment process to help you connect more easily with candidates to identify their strengths, skills and suitability to a job role.

Better experience for candidates

Online recruitment makes it much easier for communication between the employer and potential candidates. Virtual job fairs, for example, enable employers to connect directly with a larger talent pool. A common complaint from candidates using traditional recruitment is that their queries go unanswered. Tools like virtual chat assistants answer any questions or queries that candidates may have about a job role in real time.

Reduces paperwork

Through virtual recruitment all candidate records, such as application forms or competency tests, are hosted in a digital format so this reduces the paperwork burden that traditional recruitment usually has. Employers can easily access information about a candidate in real time when presents. Employers, if given consent by the candidate, can also record interviews. This makes it easier for employers to go back and review what a candidate said, so there is less reliance capturing a full record through written notes during the interview.

A fairer recruitment process

Online recruitment can also 91Ï㽶»ÆÉ«ÊÓƵ diversity and inclusion when you are hiring new staff. You can use artificial intelligence hiring tools to ignore demographic information such as race, gender and age. Such technology, also available for CV screening, may reduce the risk of conscious and unconscious biases that can infringe traditional recruitment practices.

Disadvantages of virtual recruitment

Technology issues

Virtual recruitment relies heavily on technology, so you are dependent on systems working smoothly for you. Extensive system testing and having a back-up plan can help you counteract this.

A high volume of applications

As online recruitment removes geographical barriers, you might attract a large volume of job applications. However, clearly describing job specifications and distinctly outlining required experience and qualifications will help to ensure you only invite responses from suitable candidates.

Too impersonal

Candidates may find the recruitment process is too detached as there is no face-to-face physical interaction with virtual recruitment. By ensuring there are options for communication throughout the recruitment process, employers may find that they have the opportunity to interact more effectively with candidates in a virtual environment than they may have when recruiting traditionally.

Hybrid approach to recruitment

Although there are many advantages to virtual recruitment, it does not mean you should completely discount physical recruitment practices. There are still benefits for businesses using traditional processes for some of their recruitment stages. A hybrid approach may work best for you and your business.

To help you get the most from online recruitment, take a look at your current recruitment process and map out the different stages. These stages may include writing the job description, deciding on the salary range, advertising the job, pooling candidates, shortlisting candidates, arranging interviews, contacting applicants, and sending the job offer.

You can then determine what you want from your recruitment process. Is your goal to reach a higher volume of potential candidates? Do you want to reduce the time it takes from the initial job advert to getting a new employee started? Or do you want to reduce recruitment costs?

Online recruitment tools

Once you have identified what you want to get from virtual recruitment processes, you can explore the right technology and software tools to help you achieve this. Types of online recruitment tools include:

Virtual recruitment fairs

Host online events to showcase your organisation as a great place to work. Virtual recruitment fairs are easy for people to attend, which may give you access to a larger talent pool.

Social media

You can use various social media channels to put out engaging content to build your employer brand. You can also encourage employees to share their experiences and share current vacancies with their online connections.

Video interview tools

Online recruitment tools allow you to host online interviews to streamline the process for both interviewers and candidates.

Collaboration tools

This can help speed up the process for the recruitment panel enabling them to work together in real-time and remain in sync when reviewing and shortlisting candidates.

Applicant tracking systems

Applicant tracking systems allow you to set up a fair and equitable hiring process by deciding on a scorecard of primary attributes for a candidate’s success at the beginning to evaluate candidates more efficiently and consistently.

Recruiting chatbots

Chatbots can collect candidate information, ask screening questions, rank candidates on metrics, answer FAQs, and schedule an interview.

Candidate satisfaction surveys

You can survey candidates who have gone through your recruitment process, receive feedback, and find ways to improve or streamline the process.

Skills testing tools

These tools allow you to assess the hard skills of candidates before interviews by setting technical skill tests to ensure you hire candidates with the required skills.

Psychometric tools

These help you to identify traits in candidates that are essential for high-performance roles.

Background check tools

Pre-employment background screening can check a candidate’s experience and qualifications without taking up valuable HR time.

Recruitment team

You will also need to select your online recruitment team - the staff that will help deliver your virtual recruitment strategy. Ensure your recruitment team receives the necessary training to be able to use any new online recruitment tools. You may also want to get other areas of your organisation involved. For example, having senior management record short video messages for online job fairs.

Promote your organisation as a great place to work

Recruiting using online practices gives you the platform to think creatively about promoting your organisation as an attractive place to work. For example, you could create short videos that show your workplace, the varied tasks and jobs that staff perform, and social or team-building activities. You could also encourage some staff to talk briefly about why they enjoy working for you. This approach can be effective in bringing to life for candidates what it would be like to work for your organisation compared to a text description of the company. It can also help set you apart from your competition when trying to attract top talent.

Know what you are looking for in a candidate

Recruiting online opens up a wider pool of talent. To help ensure you find suitable applicants, clearly define what you are looking for in a candidate, including qualifications, abilities, traits, and experiences. Your job description should explain the essential and desirable criteria to ensure that the expectations of applicants are clear from the start. This clarity will limit applications from unqualified applicants. Precisely defining what you are looking for in a candidate will also make evaluating their suitability easier.

Communication with candidates

Virtual recruitment makes it much easier for employers to communicate with candidates at various stages of the recruitment process. Good communication does not necessarily mean an extra burden on recruiters’ time. You can use automated candidate messaging tools to schedule emails or text or use chatbots to answer frequently asked questions in real time.

Automation of recruitment stages

Streamlining and automating parts of your hiring process through virtual recruitment can facilitate less expensive, faster, and more efficient hiring procedures. This approach can lead to broadening your applicant pool and getting access to top-level talent, For example, you could automate the screening of candidates through online skills testing that automatically scores and ranks candidates based on their performance.

Skills testing can also be an effective way to reduce bias in the recruitment process. It can allow candidate ranking by the skills required and ignore information contributing to unconscious bias such as name, gender, age, address, and school attended. However, be sure to prioritise the candidate experience when automating recruitment processes. Don’t implement efficiency improvements that benefit the hiring team at the expense of the candidate.

Understanding your current recruitment processes including, its weaknesses and identifying potential improvements, will help you plan your strategy for online recruitment. You may not get it right the first time around, so be sure to invite feedback from candidates, both successful and unsuccessful, and make improvements to ensure you get the most from your recruitment process.