During the current COVID-19 pandemic, every day brings new information, concerns, and challenges regarding the spread of the virus, its economic and social impacts, and government directives. Leap Solutions remains dedicated to keeping you informed and empowered by delivering relevant, up-to-the-minute information and resources.

Our organizational development specialists are here to help support you with your online strategic planning, team development, executive coaching, training, program evaluation, and community engagement. Essentially, we can convert anything that you need in support of your business to a virtual experience. You still want to accomplish your plans, goals, and outcomes. We are here—virtually to help you achieve them.

Long before COVID, the recruitment world was already entrenched in taking advantage of everything virtual recruitment had to offer, however, in our COVID world, it doesn’t look like virtual recruitment will be slowing down anytime soon.

What exactly is virtual reality recruitment? Companies utilize virtual reality technology to attract, assess, and hire new employees by realistically, “virtually” engaging applicants in the hopes of enticing them to join their organization. Today, companies aren’t just utilizing video interviews, they’re taking things even further by utilizing virtual recruitment to source, screen, assess, and offer candidates a look into the “reality” of their businesses.

Our Newsletter will cover:

• Advantages of Virtual Recruiting
• Culture, a “Day in the Life” and Situational Assessments 
• Virtual Career Fairs 
• Disadvantages of Virtual Recruiting 
• Will Virtual Recruitment Replace Traditional Recruitment?

Advantages of Virtual Recruiting 

Virtual recruitment enables recruiters to screen more candidates quickly in a shorter amount of time, streamline processes, enable recruiters to assign pre-interview online assessments, and give recruiters first-hand impressions of candidates. All these activities can happen before scheduling even one interview with their company, thus cutting down on needless interviews or slowing down the interview process. Although recruiters may see more resumes with online applications, the use of survey-like questionnaires can be incorporated that can eliminate unqualified applicants from the process. With online applications, you can also attract candidates from outside your local resident pool.

With up-front vetting of candidates and virtual cultural descriptions, companies have already embarked on cost-effective strategies with little initial upfront investments, allowing companies to reach a larger base of candidates in a shorter amount of time. Also, companies haven’t skipped a beat as virtual recruitment has supported keeping the candidate funnel full during the COVID-19 pandemic as many companies have been hiring remotely.

Culture, a “Day in the Life” and Situational Assessments

Interviewing in this new world, a frequently asked question is “What’s the culture like?” Often this is more important than compensation. How do you accurately describe culture verbally or even by video? Nothing is more exciting and stimulating than candidates getting a sensory experience of physically being a part of your organization but it may be quite some time until organization’s return to this type of culture.

Some ways to help your applicants experience your culture include:

• Virtual experiences have also made their way into taking potential employees on office tours with an occasional employee walking by to describe what it’s like to work for the company. Having employees come up with experiences or stores that describe your company’s culture can make an applicant see themselves in your environment.
• Another tool is to provide a “Day in the Life” experience in which they “meet” other members of the team and have them mirror the kind of work they’ll do while on the job.
• Walk applicants through assessments where they are given scenarios to participate in and asked to choose the best answer to each one of the scenarios. This is a good virtual tool for candidates who don’t interview well especially on camera.

These tools are perhaps the biggest benefit of virtual recruitment. Nothing outweighs the importance of the virtual experience in recruiting and engaging candidates in today’s workforce.

Virtual Career Fairs 

In this new environment, smaller companies can host career fairs, because unlike traditional career fairs, virtual career fairs have minimal fees, no booth fees, onsite set-up, and employees don’t even have to leave the office (their home office) to attend! Candidates can tour a company “booth”, watch company videos, and chat live with employees via instant messaging or webcams.

Disadvantages of Virtual Recruiting

Perhaps the biggest disadvantage to virtual recruitment is the candidate experience. The candidate experience might suffer when the virtual recruiting is perceived to be impersonal and unengaging. Online sourcing and qualifying strategies may save your company time and money, but can also be a real turn off for qualified candidates who may not feel as valued.

Communication with candidates needs to be multi-faceted. Keep candidates engaged along the entire process of virtual recruitment by preparing them for what is to come, where they are in the process, and how they can prepare.

Lastly, more isn’t always better. More candidates applying to your posting doesn’t always ensure you’ll find “the one”. Continue to be selective and prioritize by the qualities and experiences you desire.

Will Virtual Recruitment Replace Traditional Recruitment?

A personal touch would always be the first preference to any recruitment, but the advantages of virtual recruitment can outweigh the disadvantages. It saves time, money, and allows potential employers a glance at potential employees before they even step inside the building. This allows employers can get a better understanding of what candidates have to offer before investing additional time, energy, and money.

It can also be argued that virtual recruitment offers a fairer opportunity across geographically and socio-economic backgrounds as organizations can now reach a lot of people across these domains. In turn, virtual recruiting makes it fairer for everybody by helping the interviewer streamline the hiring process.

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Leap Solutions is a diverse group of highly skilled management, organizational development, and human resources, and executive search and recruitment professionals who have spent decades doing what we feel passionate about helping you feel passionate about what you do. Our HR specialists can help you get a handle on the ever-changing COVID-19 guidelines, programs, and legislation that may impact you and your employees. We are available to work with you to develop practical solutions and smart planning decisions for your organization’s immediate, near, and long-term needs.

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