Why It’s Time to Embrace Virtual Recruiting Strategies

Before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, several organizations were already managing some aspects of their recruiting strategies virtually. As countries globally transition into a post-lockdown era, it’s mission-critical for businesses to employ virtual recruitment solutions. Also, as the economy is gaining a sense of normalcy, many companies are shifting their recruiting strategies to virtual platforms and are assessing the most effective ways of doing it.

The virtual recruitment process intends to identify and attract skilled professionals to achieve organizational objectives.  It is no different from other types of recruitment. The only difference is that the recruiting strategy is entirely virtual. Virtual recruiters bridge the gap between potential candidates and employers. However, they perform these functions remotely.

The virtual campus hiring process is far more streamlined than a typical campus hiring strategy, allowing employers to reach more candidates at reasonable costs. Small-scale business owners do not have a sizable recruiting staff for sourcing talent – why virtual hiring strikes a chord among them. Conducting virtual open houses, job fairs, and interviews will increase participation in such events, saving organizers’ time and resources.

There are some costs associated with using software and technology, imperative in conducting virtual recruiting. However, it’s always worth investing in tools that enable easy implementation of virtual recruiting strategies. Lately, the market for virtual recruiting tools, particularly chatbots, has expanded. Some of the more sophisticated tools are indispensable in hiring for their use in addressing applicants’ most frequent queries, reviewing applications, selecting desirable candidates from large talent pools and automating the interview scheduling process. It is noteworthy that, like in-person recruiting, virtual recruitment strategies must comply with equal employment opportunity guidelines (EEO) and not discriminate in any form whatsoever.

The impact of COVID-19 is prompting businesses the world over to adapt to a new ‘normal’ to maintain business continuity and gain a competitive edge. The hiring process is integral to business operations as the survival, sustenance and growth of any company depend substantially upon its workforce’s dedication and potential. Similarly, campus recruitment is crucial to the talent acquisition process.

Companies spend considerable time and resources on their campus hiring strategy each year to onboard the best talent. While they don’t want to miss out on the college talent pool, the pandemic has altered their outreach plans.

The campus hiring process comprises these main activities:

Customarily, organizations allot campus hiring teams that visit multiple campuses, focusing on each of the activities:

So all things considered, implementing a campus hiring policy is not a hassle-free affair. There are pertinent challenges at each stage, and the pandemic-induced crisis will only compound them. By prepping the campus hiring process with modern-day tools, organizations can effectively shape the future of work.

The ongoing crisis has dealt a heavy blow to every organization’s campus hiring plans. Thankfully, virtual recruitment solutions ensure smooth facilitation of campus drives remotely. 

The time is right for businesses to choose the digital approach and implement innovative virtual recruitment ideas to continue their hiring plans.

Best practices for conducting virtual recruitment drives

Technology is an enabler that is replacing conventional approaches with innovative campus recruitment strategies. Listed below are the best practices for organizations that enable them to continue with their campus recruitment process in these uncertain times.

Campus intelligence is a powerful insight-driven tool that maximizes the effectiveness of the campus hiring strategy. The goal behind building campus intelligence is to collate year-on-year data on the efforts undertaken by organizations and conduct a thorough analysis of the results. Based on the outcome, each campus is scored on students’ performance in assessments or the number of students falling in the organization’s preferred pay range. Campus intelligence also requires making a competency heat map to map each campus’s total students’ performance on the industry’s most common competencies and match them with an organization’s competency requirements.

Companies often skip this stepping stone to the campus hiring program. Every recruitment strategy needs planning, and campus hiring is no exception. It will be a futile exercise if core requirements and set expectations from various campuses, and students, are not adequately addressed. Building campus intelligence is beneficial, enabling recruiters to smartly target the right institutions for valid reasons and improve their onboarding rate.

Organizing campus placement camps used to initiate with pre-placement presentations and interactions and lasted for several days; albeit, those days are gone. With shortening attention spans and time becoming the most valuable currency, pre-placement engagement requires businesses to adopt uniquely creative approaches to encourage potential talent to understand their work culture and role.

Organizations need to grab the attention of millennials who are often distracted in today’s digital era. With targeted social media strategies centered on the company’s culture, employee stories, perks, testimonials and success stories, organizations can pique candidates’ curiosity about the brand. The traditional engagement approach aligns the candidate’s ambition with the company’s vision.

Organizations using innovative campus recruitment strategies such as hackathons, ideathons, and other interactive mediums experience a significant improvement in the onboarding rate. Hackathons and other engagement contests are among the most convenient ways to identify the best candidates and build a talent pool. Such activities ascertain whether the candidate is both theoretically and practically sound. Virtual campus engagement tools enable organizations to expand their digital footprints and increase brand awareness synchronously across multiple campuses.

Online competitions are easily scalable because multiple teams can participate in such events, and there are no infrastructural constraints in conducting online activities. The prizes can add more charm to the contests. Hackathons are crucial for gauging the expanse of students’ knowledge and application skills. Online competitions help recruiters move beyond the typical approach to measure technical acumen, high order and complex problem-solving skills, communication proficiency and a knack for entrepreneurship.

Case study competitions, hackathons and ideathons combine intriguing questions and business simulation tests to measure students’ competencies. Hackathon is indubitably the surefire way to manage sourcing and screening at one go. A well-structured interview follows it, inevitably saving time and resources, often exhausted in the campus hiring process. The best part is that these competitions are administered online without deploying the workforce on the campus.

Online screening assessments, coupled with proctoring technologies, can increase onboarding at a staggering rate. The two main challenges with screening tests are deciding which type of content to include in the assessment and coordinating its execution.

Deciding what to assess

Screening assessments are accurate predictors of on-job performance and cultural fitment. With the advent of modern screening assessments and tools comes the convenience of analyzing data and predicting hiring outcomes. Many companies utilize AI-backed predictive analytics to evaluate students’ cognitive skills, personalities and skills. Assessments that holistically measure critical aspects of potential candidates are useful in giving impetus to the hiring process – cognitive, behavioral, and domain-specific tests, to name a few. Auto-graded tests can be introduced to simplify the problem of benchmarking and cutoffs. 

The execution part

Organizations grapple with coordination issues when conducting screening assessments. The struggle of finding good time slots and coordinating with campuses is real. Such execution and coordination challenges in the screening stage can be best addressed through online proctored assessments. Remote proctoring involves employing manual or AI-based invigilation technologies to ensure smooth facilitation of assessments online, from any location and keep students from indulging in unfair practices. Organizations can utilize this technology to conduct students’ screening from a place of their choice without deploying extra resources. Moreover, students can take a remotely proctored test at their convenience. Web proctoring eliminates the need for depending on large-scale physical centers for delivering assessments and ensuring coordination among administrative teams. 

While online tests measure students’ professional and personal competencies, online proctoring solutions grant them the flexibility to take the exam from a place of their choosing, resulting in a substantially increased onboarding rate.

Much like screening assessments, interviews may also lack coordination and content. Everyone wants to be heard during the busy campus recruiting season. Allocating time to interview each student and pulling out vital information about candidates is critical. Thus, the struggle of making informed hiring decisions is real. However, due to time and space constraints, organizations often fail to onboard desired students. While such limitations are inevitable during the campus hiring season, shifting to structured interview platforms is crucial for organizations in the digital era. Such platforms enable students to attend a live interview or record their interviews based on predefined questions.  

A structured video interview is a systematized way of comparing job applicants.  Interview questions are designed, considering the candidates’ skills and abilities and a standardized parameter for assessing them. Since the questions are well-aligned with the organization’s competency requirements, there is little scope for an irrelevant or subjective assessment, whether or not several interviewers are involved.

Video interviews are ideal for candidates to make themselves heard without time limitations because these are location-agnostic mediums. Organizations can utilize such interview formats to understand potential employees better, apart from their academic achievements. With video interviews, hiring managers can more aptly assess candidates’ communication skills, a precondition for applying to many job profiles.

Most recruiters struggle with remembering the names of students they interacted with or those who emerged as potential candidates. In such a situation, neither jotting down on pen and paper nor handing over resumes or business cards would amount to useful tools. Structured interview platforms also include a database of recorded interviews that can be used for future referencing purposes or creating a talent pipeline of prospective candidates to reconsider, should the need arise.

Structured video interviews enable businesses to scale their virtual recruiting strategies without exhausting significant resources and extensive travel, evaluating the content aspect of standardized assessment questions and grading guidelines.

Let us look at the comparison table below to summarize the differences between a traditional and virtual campus hiring:

Campus hiring drives can take a toll on organizational resources. Therefore, a growing number of companies are seeking to redefine this process. Mercer | Mettl’s virtual recruitment platform enables organizations to do away with redundant and traditional hiring processes and leverage modern technology solutions to make better hiring decisions. Mercer | Mettl’s innovative campus recruitment solutions can work wonders on organizations seeking to implement virtual recruiting best practices. These digital and efficient solutions can help them plan for conducting large-scale recruitment drives with the utmost ease.

At Mercer| Mettl,  we want to simplify HR processes for you. Thus, we have included answers to the most frequently asked questions we believe would be useful:

How do you conduct virtual recruitment?

Mercer | Mettl’s Innovative Campus Solution (CASE) enables you to implement virtual recruiting strategies with the utmost ease. We adopt a four-pronged approach known as CASE for providing end-to-end virtual campus recruitment solutions. It stands for connect, assess, select and engage.  

• Connect: Our campus intelligence and campus management solutions easily allow you to conduct pan-India virtual campus drives and have a country-wide presence 
• Assess: Our robust remote proctoring tools enable you to screen candidates virtually and design an impeccable assessment
• Select: Our advanced virtual interview and coding interview platform helps you to conduct remote online interviews and get your people decisions right by focusing on key competencies or skills to look for in candidates
• Engage: Our online hackathon platform will help you position at the forefront of innovative hiring and virtual campus engagement activities

What is the best recruiting tool?

Service providers have flooded the market with tools that may seem unjustified and unpurposed to you. Which one is better is a question that has long been a bone of contention. However, we’ve got you covered by offering online campus recruiting solutions that aid in virtually hiring campus students and are preferred by the industry titans such as Microsoft, Adani, L&T, Wipro, Reliance and Airtel. We make it easy for you to find the best talent quickly and efficiently.

What is a virtual hiring event?

It refers to any event that’s planned for implementing virtual recruiting strategies. A virtual hiring process occurs remotely without meeting the applicant face-to-face. Instead, recruiters utilize technological tools to conduct virtual events, video interviews, remote assessments and surveys to assess their candidates. Mercer | Mettl’s virtual campus recruiting strategies will help you overcome campus hiring challenges by organizing nationwide virtual recruiting drives for your needs.

What is the virtual hiring process?

There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to define a virtual hiring process. What works for one campus might not work for others because every campus is different. But virtual recruiting isn’t as difficult as it seems. Since technology is redefining campus recruitment programs, future-ready organizations are leveraging technology for each of the three steps:

• Conducting ideathons or related contests, simultaneously for multiple campuses, as part of the pre-placement engagement activity
• Utilizing proven techniques such as online proctored assessments and structured interviews will help recruiters save substantially on the screening process – when performing remote assessments, employing remote proctoring solutions will establish credibility
• Adopting highly targeted strategies via structured interview platforms for making the right hiring decisions and cutting down on the extra time consumed during interviews

How do you interview candidates virtually?

Listed below are the steps recruiters can take to conduct their virtual recruiting strategies:

• Allow interviewee the time to prepare

The best practice is to give candidates some leeway to prepare for the virtual interview rather than blocking the calendar for the same-day meeting. Giving them ample time to prepare will allow candidates to be at their best during the interview. It is also a professional courtesy and reflects the recruiter’s professionalism and thoughtfulness. 

• Create a standardized rating system

Much like in-person interviews, a standardized system should be created to ensure an easy rating of each interviewee’s qualifications for the role. This rating system can be used to track each candidate’s performance during the virtual interview round. Once recruiters are done with virtual interview processes, they can utilize this rating to identify the most eligible candidates.

• Always prefer a distraction-free location 

Conducting virtual interviews in a quiet and distraction-free environment serves the purpose. If recruiters are interviewing from their homes, finding a calm space so that nobody intervenes in between is critical. Moreover, there should be a neutral background that doesn’t distract the candidate. It’s advisable to maintain a professional interview environment to preserve the essence of an in-person interview. 

• Outline questions while preparing for the interview

Virtual interviews are not much different from in-person interviews. Therefore, preparing questions beforehand is also essential here. The process begins by reviewing the interviewees’ information, including their resume, cover letter and other professional information. This information becomes the basis for developing questions that are based on the candidates’ experience and qualifications. It’s a good idea to list down every job-related question that can become integral to a standardized rating system.

• There should be unhindered connectivity 

Virtual interviews rely on the quality of the internet connection between both parties. Robust connectivity is crucial to ensure an interruption-free interview. However, one should test the connection repeatedly before the interview, including a thorough check of the microphone and webcam. Sometimes, performing a practice interview with a colleague also fool-proofs the process.

• Invite candidates to the virtual interview via email

The organized way of inviting each candidate for the virtual interview is through email. The invite should distinctly include the day and time and correct details required to access the interview software that recruiters use. Organizers should have clarity about the format of the virtual interview to avoid last-minute hassles. For example, all the essential information, such as log-in access code, must be mentioned in the email. Additional information should also be made available to the candidates, such as the interview’s expected duration and any other required documentation. 

How can online recruitment be improved?

By adopting a virtual recruitment process( not just out of sheer necessity, but as an imperative necessity for the future), The rate of hiring and identifying better candidates can increase tremendously. Listed below are some effective virtual recruiting strategies that every company should take heed:

• Keep everything mobile-optimized

From text recruiting to smartphone-optimized career sites and applications, associating with applicants on mobiles isn’t something you can disregard. The Pew Research center survey data indicated that 54% of job seekers used their cellphones to apply for jobs, and that number will increase.

If your career site is not optimized for mobile platforms, it’s high time you should have done that.  Any modifications to your site -or application should be consistently tested on mobile devices to ensure user-friendliness of the site and if it adds value to the job seekers’ experience. A sloppy application or cluttered website will force job seekers to search for employment somewhere else.

• Choose the video platform

The advent of new technologies has enabled recruiting professionals to explore new mediums of intervention. That’s why they have been considering video as an efficient tool to interact with young jobseekers in their job search and hiring process. When face-to-face communications aren’t feasible, organizations can pivot to video interviews to ensure an uninterrupted hiring process. Recruiters can conduct video interviews and make the entire recruiting process more comfortable and convenient for candidates.

Besides utilizing video for interviews, organizations that figure out how to incorporate video in new formats can redefine the way recruiters approach and communicate with applicants. Video provides an in-depth experience instead of only content on a page or an anonymous voice over the phone. It gives aspirants an overview of the organization and gives them a platform to put their best selves forward. That is the reason why video is emerging as one of the most popular virtual recruiting strategies.

• Strong Brand positioning across platforms and channels

Candidates prefer doing their due diligence and explore avenues with their potential employers before taking the next step. It implies that employers need to create a crisp message that highlights the employer’s value proposition. Not just on the company’s site, but on social media sites too. Employers can make sure that their brand-centric messaging is on-point with this checklist, as mentioned below:

• Does your site precisely characterize what your organization stands for? 

• Can applicants find the organization’s story with ease and the impression that each teamer can make?

• Does your social media message portray the organization’s core values and culture?

• Are the organization’s employees featured in those posts, emphasizing the importance of working in such an incredible company?

• Do you practice what you preach? For instance, if you emphasize work-life balance in your messaging, do your work policies and benefits align with that?

Your social media strategy cannot be disregarded when it comes to improving online recruiting strategies. Potential candidates are interested in knowing what their future organization has to express on Linkedin, Twitter, Instagram, video testimonials, and other similar mediums. By bolstering your virtual recruiting strategies on all fronts, you can hold candidates’ attention during the hiring process.

What are the new trends in recruitment?

Technology has enabled HR managers and recruiters to redefine their recruitment process. The old-school techniques used by the recruiters need to be revamped with the advent of the Internet and other digital technologies. Following are some of the latest trends that many organizations are incorporating in their recruiting process:

• Recruitment marketing

Recruitment marketing is a blend of strategies and processes an organization undertakes to identify, rope in and engage the job seekers. This marketing is an essential part of the talent acquisition strategy and helps recruiters attract the best talent to fill the vacancies by making it more lucrative for the applicants.

• Mobile-friendly

A vast majority of candidates use smartphones for job hunting. As of now, lots of candidates are on the lookout for jobs and using their mobile phones to search for new opportunities. Jobseekers also submit their applications using their handheld devices. Recruiters can make their selection process efficient by reaching out to such candidates via text messaging and discuss new opportunities with them on a mobile device.

• Inbound recruiting

Inbound and outbound recruiting strategies play a crucial role in the talent acquisition process. In the outbound process, recruiters look for suitable candidates and approach them, whereas the inbound process involves building connections with the candidates and understanding them. The company may blend digital marketing activities for sensitizing passive and active job seekers in the inbound strategy. It’s advisable to opt for an inbound strategy instead of an outbound process. 

• Digitization matters

The times of relying solely on paper resumes are long gone. Evaluation of candidates’ soft skills now seems incomplete without evaluating their digital portfolios. Social media and visual interactions can speak volumes about a candidate’s personality. The word is going digital; video resumes and interviews are becoming commonplace. 

• Artificial Intelligence(AI)

AI is taking over many jobs, but it will not replace all of them.  The job market is also not left untouched by the impact of AI. Many recruiters have started implementing AI tools to streamline their hiring process. Some AI-based software can even detect the anxiety level of applicants through their body language. Big conglomerates are also turning to AI to conduct their interviews. Automated video messages and phone calls have also been a result of this transformation.  

• Gamification and virtual reality(VR)

Gamification is piquing the curiosity of recruiters nowadays. A viral new trend, gamification, can assess if a candidate is a good culture fit. It includes some games and some elements from the real world (corporate world) to understand how a participant will behave in a specific situation. Another exciting development is the use of VR in the onboarding process. Implementing VR during the interviews will provide a clear picture of a candidate’s response in practical settings. 

How to find the right job candidates?

Given below are some easy steps to find the right job candidates:

• Learn about your ideal candidate
• Build a robust branding strategy by asking your current employees that why do they love working here
• Write clear, detailed job descriptions to target the right candidates.
• Use a recruitment tool because finding the best talent without using such tools may prove a futile exercise.
• Optimize your career site because candidates that come to your site must be able to access engaging content such as employee testimonials, fun videos, team introductions, work culture, etc.
• Use recruiting software with a powerful sourcing tool to find the right job candidate, extract applicants’ profiles and add them instantly to your talent pool.
• Use an Applicant Tracking System to streamline the selections and hiring processes. 
• Implement and use employee referral programs to improve your hiring quality without investing too much time and money.

What are the advantages of online recruitment?

Here we have compiled a brief overview of the main advantages of virtual recruitment:

• It’s an instantaneous process
• It’s cost-effective
• It can help you reach a wider audience
• It’s pretty straightforward
• It provides an option to make the ads more dynamic
• It’s durable and flexible 
• It catalyzes the hiring process
• It’s accessible

What are the traditional recruitment methods?

Traditional recruitment methods are still being used by the vast majority of employers around the world. These methods are well-recognized by organizations, such as internal hiring, job postings, referrals, internal hiring, word-of-mouth promotion, etc.

What is the difference between online recruitment and traditional methods?

Traditional recruiting methods:

• Posting vacancies at newspapers
• Posting vacancies at the local employment office
• Temporary employment agencies
• Internal hiring

Non-traditional methods:

• Leveraging smartphones
• Leveraging social media
• Sponsoring events and creating brand value

Why do companies prefer online recruitment?

Organizations prefer online recruitment for the following reasons:

• Easy process
• Agile recruitment process
• The cost of recruitment is relatively low
• Easy to manage
• Wide audience

How can social media be used to recruit students?

Given below are some useful tips that will come in handy:

• Engage in the right conversations – Recruiting on social media is all about cutting through the clutter and finding the right people. Companies can register their presence in LinkedIn groups and use hashtags to inform candidates about the latest job openings where they can apply.
• Promote organizational culture – Rather than focusing solely on posting career opportunities from company accounts, recruiters can add a human element to the post by sharing content that describes the warmth, cordial work environment and other benefits to engage candidates in the conversation.
• Never ignore the niche networks – Apart from Linkedin, Facebook and Twitter, recruiters should also take niche networks and forums into consideration. For instance, GitHub and StackOverflow communities proliferate with developers who share their knowledge and experiences in the group. Most brilliant minds share their valuable expertise in specific social communities such as Warrior Forum, Moz and Quora.
• Every employee counts – Existing employees can also add their contribution by becoming an evangelist for their organization and share info about new openings from their handle. They can share their work experiences and act as a catalyst to arouse the curiosity of potential candidates.
• Encourage recruiters to build a better social media presence – Leveraging corporate accounts can only achieve so much. So, recruiters must be advised to make person-to-person connections with potential candidates. First, they need to understand what social media best practices are and how to use their accounts regularly?

What is a targeted recruitment strategy?

Targeted recruitment strategy refers to the process of streamlining advertising efforts on a specific audience based on distinguishing factors such as geography, experience or skill sets. This strategy is so useful in the recruitment advertisement that it supplements a recruiter’s talent acquisition efforts to ensure that the candidates who fulfill the employer’s requirements are being exposed to relevant ads. A well-implemented and focused recruitment strategy can provide multi-faceted benefits such as brand building within a particular niche, lower cost-per-hire, filling a vacant position and improving hire quality.

Why is recruitment strategy important?

An effective recruitment strategy addresses the issues of talent shortage. It ensures that a company will continue to show an unwavering commitment to provide a level playing field for all employees. Adhering to such crucial strategies will enable recruiters to find the best candidates for their organization.

How to approach organizations for campus placement? 

Here are some points that briefly describe the process of approaching organizations for campus placements:

• Strategic placement planning and approaching companies should be initialized from the first day of the session, including planning for social engagement events to interact with potential recruiters. 
• The training and placement department must make it a point to promote the college as much as possible. Branding of the college is essential for effectively communicating its values and providing differentiation in the market. This is how the reputation of the college will increase. The prospective employers are keen on stepping on campuses having a distinctive brand identity and sterling reputation.
• Approaching the alumni network to conduct guest lectures or arrange campus placement is also an excellent option to attract recruiters and pique their curiosity in the campus hiring process.
• Campuses can tie up with companies under the college placement strategy to provide talented and skilled candidates at regular intervals according to their requirements. Further, there must also be a provision for enhancing skills, such as setting up communication and aptitude classes regularly. Companies prefer to approach colleges with knowledgeable and proficient candidates. This way, recruiters can easily select the eligible candidates with minimal effort.

How to create an innovative campus hiring strategy?

Given below are some of the most innovative campus hiring strategies:

• An informative and visually appealing landing page for students can increase their awareness of organizations.
• Be socially visible to enhance the visibility of your campus hiring strategy
• Increase your presence at the campus more than once a year
• Conduct engaging events to grab the attention of potential candidates 
• Roll out internships
• Offer Internship Programs
• Lastly, measure the effectiveness of your campus recruiting strategy

What is the process of campus recruitment?

Campus recruitment is an extensive process where lots of time, money and effort get invested. The recruiting process includes assessing a candidate’s educational qualifications, administering a series of pre-employment tests, skill-based tests, group discussions/ panel interviews, technical rounds, face-to-face sessions with hiring managers and post-placement meetings.

How to improve your campus recruitment process?

While campus hiring strategies may vary from company to company, there are some steps everyone can follow to improve their campus recruitment process.

• Develop a positive perception of your organization
• Create sterling pre-placement presentations that garner maximum eyeballs
• Switch from the traditional recruitment approach to a modern process with advanced assessment platforms and online assessments
• Replace conventional recruitment methods with smart interview tools and online assessments
• Align your current recruiting practices with the latest recruiting trends