Amidst the havoc-wreaking pandemic of COVID-19, recruiting teams across the globe are facing an unprecedented challenge. All the organizations have urged their employees to maintain social distancing while encouraging them to work from home.

“This is no longer only a global health crisis; it is also a major labor market and economic crisis that is having a huge impact on people.” – ILO Director-General, Guy Ryder

Employment rates, which were historic highs by the end of 2019, are expected to take a toll in the coming months. Many companies have halted their hiring process altogether until the circumstances improve. And others are innovating their hiring strategies to adapt to this unprecedented change.

Recruitment Goes Virtual in Response to COVID-19

Technology has been continuously aiding recruiters to deliver quality hires. As a result, many have now resorted to automated intelligent systems like virtual screening and interview platforms to facilitate their hiring process. This has eliminated the need for in-person interviews and has made virtual recruiting a new normal.

Sourcing Talents

Most of the commonly used tools by the recruiter to source talents are through online job portals, recruitment software, social media, or advanced ATS. Sourcing strategy hardly needs to change as most talents are sourced using the internet. There is hardly any contact with the talent except a few emails and phone calls.

Video Interview Platforms

 Even before this pressing need to go completely digital or virtual, video interview software was being used by the recruitment teams. About 16% of employers use video interviews in the pre-screening assessment.

A survey carried out by Aptitude Research suggests that companies that adopt a digital hiring strategy improve their quality of hires and candidate experience to a huge extent.

Now – social distancing scenario – is the perfect time to embrace a digital recruitment strategy to meet the needs of both recruiters and job seekers, while minimizing the risk.

 Following are a few areas in which video interview platforms can prove to be of great value.

• Increased productivity as it enables the recruiters to conduct interviews flexibly
• Adjusting scheduling conflicts and delays as it allows us to conduct interviews remotely from anywhere
• Easy to connect and conduct as the training or orientation is minimal

How Can You Start Virtual Recruiting?

Draft Accurate and Compelling Job Descriptions

As teams are distributed, collecting accurate information for the job descriptions might become a challenge. The sole reason, you should put in extra precaution in drafting a JD is to eliminate any information gaps. An incorrect JD can set the wrong expectation on both sides and make the interview process more difficult. To ease the process, we have curated a few JD writing tips to help you in the job posting process.

Screen Candidates Over the Phone Call

Phone Screening can save a lot of time in the recruitment process. While phone interviews cannot replace the in-person interviews, it can still help you narrow down your candidate pool. You can develop a template that will provide you with a structure while screening candidates.

If the job needs to test in-depth technical skills of the candidate, you can add a series of technical questions to do the same.  A template with defined questions will set the flow of the interview. Establish some ground rules that will help you evaluate a candidate and move forward to the next step of the interview.

Virtually Onboard New Employees

Before onboarding new employees, set up a realistic plan of action with all the departments, which are part of the onboarding process. Make sure every document is in place and updated. This step becomes critical when you are onboarding remote workers. Additionally, set up employee equipment, email accounts, and software ahead of time.

Following are some points to discuss during the onboarding process:

• How to join a meeting using video conference tool
• Establish an agenda for the meeting to help them understand what they should expect for the first few days
• How they should keep company privacy and security in mind while using personal devices
• Their access to different files and folders on the initial stage
• How they can prepare for remote work (a well-functioning camera, strong WiFi connection, quiet space to work, etc.)

Unusual but Necessary Changes

Though virtual recruiting might seem unconventional but looking at the seriousness of the outbreak worldwide, it is an absolute necessity.

Recruiting teams can use an Applicant Tracking System (ATS), that allows them to add customized fields and tag all the potential candidates in those fields. This can be useful during an interview to store the extra details about the candidate’s travel history, corona recovery, or any other crucial health information.

It is important to keep the HR Tech stack updated. Recruiting strategies with just emails and conventional recruitment software will not suffice in current times. During this pandemic, it is vital to use all the tools that are in sync with the recruiting trends. It helps you to toggle through all the applications faster and maintain your employer brand by providing a smooth candidate experience.

Use all the Modern AI tools and HR Tech to help you keep track of all the potential candidates, pre-screen talents as well as in communicating their progress in the recruitment process.