Why Virtual Recruitment is Here to Stay
While it became increasingly popular not out of choice, but rather necessity, virtual recruitment has rapidly become normal practice for many recruitment agencies and internal HR departments.
While Covid-19 was the driving force behind shifting to a completely virtual recruitment process for many organisations, for those that had perhaps not used or been experienced to it, the overwhelming response to its effectiveness has been extremely positive.
As the pandemic slowly becomes under control and the world starts to heal, the ability to now do face-to-face interviews again is slowly becoming more acceptable and available to both agencies and in-house recruiters. However, now that the knowledge, skills and technology is readily available to conduct virtual recruitment, the real question is will we ever go back?
How do Recruiters feel about Virtual Recruitment?
In recent research conducted by LinkedIn, over 1,500 hiring professionals were surveyed about their perceptions of virtual recruitment and the impact that it’s hard on them over the pandemic.
The key finding from the survey was that a massive 81% of talent professionals agreed that virtual recruiting will continue post Covid (LinkedIn). Additionally, 70% of those talent professionals believe that virtual recruiting will become the new norm for all recruiters.
Breaking down the data collected further, recruiters commented on how this could potentially differ depending on the experience levels required of individual candidates. The research revealed that when hiring for entry level or junior positions, it could be entirely possible that the whole hiring process is conducted virtually. With a candidate ultimately not setting foot in the office until they are onboarded.
For executive or more experienced positions however, recruiters expect that it will be a more individualised process. Likely involving a mixture of both virtual and face-to-face interviews, or an entirely face-to-face and one on one interview process.
Where do Candidates want to Work?
These new changes in recruiting are also representative of the shift in the overall workforce. With many employees now preferring to work virtually, it’s no doubt that they would prefer to conduct the hiring process online also.
As often the first person a candidate will come into contact with when applying for a new role, recruiters are often the first and best people to get an indication of the wants and needs from the wider workforce.
In research conducted by HR Director, it was found that 73% of all employees surveyed wanted to work from home for two thirds of their working week and would rather only spend around a third (36%) of their time working from the office.
On the other end of the scale, the same research showed that only a fifth of total respondents were interested in working remotely 100% of the time. With only 7% wanting to work from the office full time. Demonstrating a drastic change from how work was conducted pre-pandemic.
At Discovered, we opened our business during the midst of the pandemic. Which means that from day one we’ve been completely across how important it is to conduct efficient virtual recruitment. We specialise in video interviewing, bringing new technology into recruitment which helps us match candidates with companies better than ever.
If you’re looking to hire new staff, we conduct professional video interviewing to fully screen and match somebody who will completely align with your company’s values. Get in touch with our team here for more information on how.
Written by Ebony McCabe for Discovered People