According to a PwC survey, more than 78% of companies have accepted remote collaboration as the long-term strategy to engage employees. The sudden turbulent move has forced companies to adopt the ongoing trends.
With the new normal of working from home, virtual hiring has also become popular in the industry. Virtual interviews have helped employers save time and money and continue their operations smoothly. Although virtual hiring seems easy, even it could go wrong if you aren’t aware of its challenges. Most recruiters easily make mistakes during the virtual recruitment process and risk the candidate experience, which is vital today. This article helps you understand virtual recruitment mistakes and hire the right people faster, even from a distance. Luckily, by the end of this article, you will also get to know some virtual recruitment strategies you should master for a successful virtual recruitment process.
Mistakes You Should Avoid in Virtual Recruitment
No Planning
Although virtual recruiting comes with many advantages, recruiters are likely to commit mistakes when there is no planning. Recruiting team should have proper planning of how many recruiters should be available for the interview and know what interview questions they need to ask. They should also be prepared with responses to frequently asked questions and how to deal with any unexpected issues during the virtual interview. Proper planning saves recruiters from stress and hectic processes. A good strategy helps recruiters increase the chances of hiring the right candidates.
Poor IT Equipment
One of the most important factors you need to check when hiring virtually is testing the equipment beforehand. You need to check if you’re adequately equipped with all tools to conduct the interview smoothly. In case you are conducting the final stages of the interview and the candidate needs any additional support from your side, ensure you’ve provided them with all essential tools. In case if you’re quite ahead in the recruitment game and onboarding the newbies, make sure you provide them with equipment like a laptop, microphone, webcam, other hardware, and software. You can also send a tutorial to the newbies or the candidates for a smooth virtual onboarding and interview.
Under Staffed
Employers think that virtual hiring gives the flexibility for recruiters to talk to more candidates as there is no physical meet-up. Hence they don’t need much staff for virtual recruiting events. However, you can’t keep candidates waiting too long as it might result in poor candidate experience.
Whether in-person or virtual recruiting, you need to make sure you have enough recruiters to take care of the interview process. It is suggested to have one recruiter for every ten candidates to keep the hiring process going smoothly.
Poor Communication
Communication is the key to the virtual recruitment process. One of the challenges in virtual recruitment is mismanaged communication. You can’t make candidates wait in a queue as you do in an in-person interview. You need to be available for the candidate every moment during the scheduled interview slot. Moreover, recruiters need to send an email reminder in advance to the candidates about the interview. You also need to be prepared for the last-minute changes.
To avoid miscommunication regarding the interview schedule, send them an email with the schedule information, ask them if they want any change in the schedule, and follow up a day before to confirm their participation.
Not Paying Attention to Details
Most recruiters miss out on the essential details of candidates when hiring virtually. Video screening is a tough job, of course; it is not possible to understand if the candidate is really excited about the job or how well he/she can handle the stress and fits in the company’s culture. Unlike an in-person interview, it is tough to analyze the body language of the candidate.
So, there are quite many chances for recruiters to overlook some important details about the candidate. When you miss out on essential candidate details, you should notice while video screening, you may end up hiring the wrong candidates.
No Follow Up
Not following up is one of the widespread mistakes most recruiters make. You might have done a great job interviewing candidates and engaging them during the hiring process. But that isn’t enough. You need to keep them engaged by updating them about their interview status even after the interview. This boosts the candidate experience and the chances of hiring the best talent.
Following up on candidates requires little time and effort. However, you can use a mass emailing tool to send automated feedback emails or whether or not they’re selected or the next steps of the process. Poor or no follow-up can affect the candidate experience badly.
Bottom Line
So, these are common mistakes recruiters make and virtual recruiting best practices. As virtual recruiting has a long way to go, you should keep these mistakes in mind and avoid them when hiring virtually.
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