As we move into a time where virtual workplaces have become the norm, it feels only right that recruitment should take the same steps.
After all, many businesses now fully operate online, only requiring employees to enter the office a few days a week, if at all. Plenty of great work is completed remotely, by happy employees who are pleased to have more independence within their roles.
So, why should the recruitment process be any different? Here we will explore virtual recruiting, what it means, how you can go about hiring new talent online and the top talent acquisition trends 2023.
What is virtual recruiting?
Virtual recruiting, also known as online recruiting, is the process of interviewing and onboarding employees virtually. This means you may not actually meet them in person in the hiring process. It allows those seeking talent to use the power of the internet to connect with potential applicants.
Nowadays, there are a large number of recruitment apps and websites available to help businesses hire employees virtually. From reading CV’s, to the interviewing process, to eventually welcoming them into the role – every step of the recruitment process can be done online.
Why is virtual recruiting important?
As previously mentioned, a lot of businesses have moved to remote working. That means, employees are expected to log-in from a remote location to do their work. This could be a home-office, communal workspace, or even a cafe. This way of working has become normalized over the past couple of years.
Virtual recruiting is important because it goes hand-in-hand with remote working. Potential candidates can be screened online and onboarded without having to come into the office.
Even if your onboarding process is completed online but you still expect employees to come into work each day – it can still be a great way for business to save time and money by moving the hiring process online. The Jira integration with HubSpot allows you to streamline your workflow even more for the online hiring process.
What are the advantages of virtual recruiting?
There are many advantages of virtual recruiting, including:
- Reaches more candidates – By casting the net far and wide online, you are generating interest from a wider pool of applicants for your recruitment agency or company. These applicants may have not seen your job advertised in the paper or on Linked-In, but they might if you’re featured on job websites or with an online recruitment agency. This can be especially beneficial to smaller businesses that don’t have a big staff force dedicated to hiring.
- It automates recruiting tasks – The virtual recruiting process allows you to automate a lot of manual tasks. This means you can focus on other areas of the recruitment process and ensure your recruitment budget is being spent in the most effective way possible.
- Saves interview costs – Businesses can save money on interview expenses, especially travel expenses for candidates who are traveling far – even from abroad. It opens up the recruitment process on a global scale. Thanks to international calling via Dialpad, you can contact candidates on the other side of the world hassle-free.
- Improves the candidate experience – Virtual recruitment can mean better communication with candidates – as the process is completed online via messaging or video. Virtual chats and messaging can be convenient for both parties and saves the need for travel.
- It saves time – You are most likely busy with a plethora of tasks during the workday, with screening candidates being one item on a long list of jobs. Virtual recruiting enables you to interview more candidates in a shorter amount of time – especially if you’re using video calling and online assessments. Such calls can be scheduled much more flexibly to fit around your schedule.
What are the challenges in virtual recruiting?
- Can be difficult to see if the candidate fits the company culture – When recruiting new employees, there are several factors to consider. Two of the biggest are how well they can do the role, and how they fit in with the rest of the team. To overcome this hurdle, you can use online quizzes and specialized software to check that the candidates will gel well with the rest of the team.
- Candidates might feel less engaged – Some candidates might feel as though they need to meet you in-person to get a feel for the company. What’s more, a lot of people feel as though they come across better in person. That’s where video interviewing comes in; with Canadian business phone systems you can video call and chat one-to-one and engage in an honest conversation about the role.
How to hire new talent online
So, how do you hire talent online? Check out these tips.
Job Websites
Hiring new talent online is easier than ever. One popular way to hire new candidates is to use job websites. Here, you can post your job and applicants can apply either via a form or with their CV. You can then select applicants to interview through the platform and use the dashboard tool to view applications. This can be an easy and convenient way to hire new talent.
You can also use leading developers of job board software if you wish have jobs listed on your own site.
Online hiring events
Another way to hire new talent is with an online hiring event. You can advertise that your business is looking to hire, and include helpful videos for candidates to get a feel for the business. Such as a ‘day in the life’ of what the job might entail, and employee interviews as testimonies.
Hold an “Open House”
This is a live “meet and greet” style of recruitment. Where you can host a webinar while you take the participants on a tour of the office and hold Q&A’s with existing team members. This is a great way to engage with new talent, and give them an idea of what it would be like working with the team.
Is virtual recruiting here to stay?
It seems as though recruitment is just as effective when done virtually. You can access a greater pool of candidates, screen them online – thus saving money on interview costs, and hire them for the role if they are a great fit. All done remotely. Virtual recruiting is here to stay, so it’s a good idea to test out virtual recruitment styles and see which ones work best for your business.
Bio:
Jenna Bunnell – Senior Manager, Content Marketing, Dialpad
Jenna Bunnell is the Senior Manager for Content Marketing at Dialpad, an AI-incorporated cloud-hosted unified communications system that provides valuable call details for business owners and sales representatives with services like Dialpad Canada fax numbers. She is driven and passionate about communicating a brand’s design sensibility and visualizing how content can be presented in creative and comprehensive ways. Check out her LinkedIn profile.
