The Shift in HR and Digital Recruitment Strategies
The spread of coronavirus which has pushed lockdowns measures to many parts of the world, has changed the way we live and work. As a result of staying home for the purpose of staying safe, people have immersed themselves in remote work life – a subsequent springboard for the growth of certain technologies, enabling a much-needed need for new digital recruitment strategies. As a result of the profound shift in lifestyle, there has been an ever-growing need for companies and corporations to incrementally change their strategies of employment and recruitment to better suit the current situation and beyond.
HR have been faced with the challenges of this new shift in work culture, turning back to a method they once, hardly used: the video interview. However, in this period, it has become a necessity in order to accommodate online business activity, as well as providing an efficient alternative to the face-to-face interview. To better help HR teams with their work the use of applicant tracking systems have been implemented more and more.
NACE international, a not-for-profit professional organization, reveals that 16% of employers count on video interview for initial broadcast; therefore, companies should consider transforming to digital recruitment strategies and their model to minimize risk and meet recruiter and job seeker demands.
Video interview considerations:
- Video interviews can cut time-consuming travel for candidates, as one can conduct an interview from anywhere.
- Virtual interviews are more flexible and increases HR staff productivity.
- Internet is the tool that connects people at a faster rate with fewer restrictions, however poor connectivity might disrupt the interview process.
- Video interviews can reduce overall hiring costs and screening time.
On the other hand, this method has its share of disadvantages. It discourages important human interaction between people and encourages us to show greater dependency for online services. Staying home alone, communicating with others through a screen, can curb the development of social skills that are essential to us as humans.
Regarding the technologies put in place for virtual recruiting, companies are using Zoom or Skype, holding sessions with candidates in parallel with staying in touch with them through mail or other means. When utilizing Skype or Zoom, someone must pay attention to his microphone, lighting and background to ensure a good quality interview. Maintaining good internet connectivity is also an important factor to keep the interview running well.
Today, VR or virtual reality is an important tool to help with recruitment, as it portrays similar real-life situations a candidate would face in the work place to get a clearer idea of who gets hired in context to the demands of the job.
It works by wearing a VR headset to create another reality, and projects stimulated office tours or working conditions to allow candidates to see and feel the working place experience, getting a sense of the new job by exercising it without being present.
Experts acknowledge, “This way permits candidates to reveal their natural strengths and behaviors which plays a big role in aligning them to roles where they will thrive.”
Although those applications are a way out of the crisis, the main disadvantage is that this technology may encourage staff and employees to stay home, which may challenge long-term productivity and efficiency.
While we continue to adopt stay-home measures in order to help stop the spread of covid-19, it can also give us a greater understanding of how technology can help accommodate our new life in context to the pandemic and in the event of a future crisis.
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