Virtual hiring is becoming more of a necessity by the day.
Not only is our external environment woefully uncertain, but emerging and improving technologies are also making this practice more practical – and in some cases, even more, desirable than traditional hiring.
If you want your hiring to be more effective and adaptive during these times, then you definitely need to switch to virtual hiring. But if you’re one of those who are skeptical about the future of this technology, then you need to make a proper evaluation of this technology, and how it can help your business.
In that respect, we’re here to assist you. This article will talk about the ten best reasons why you should switch to virtual hiring.
What is Virtual Hiring?
Virtual hiring is the process of going through all the recruiting phases without having face-to-face interactions between recruiter and applicant. Instead, a variety of technology is being used to facilitate the exchanges that normally happen on a face-to-face hiring.
For example, whereas applicants usually got bonus points for showing up at the office and handing their resume and application letter to managers, virtual hiring uses email.
Face-to-face interviews are replaced by video conferencing software such as Zoom or Google Meets. Even accomplishing and submitting official government documents can now be accomplished online.
At the start of the pandemic, virtual hiring was considered a temporary solution to a problem that will go away in weeks.
But as the pandemic got worse, the quarantines dragged on, and the economy suffered, there was a need to continue work while adapting to the circumstances. At the same time, we are also seeing countless numbers of virtual hiring software and other useful technology flooding the market.
Many are still skeptical, though, or are uninformed about the benefits that making the switch to virtual hiring offers. In that case, the next section of this article will focus on the ten best benefits of virtual hiring.
Why You Need to Switch to Virtual Hiring
Traditional, face-to-face interactions are how hiring has always been done. But as a result of a global pandemic, many institutions were forced to bring their processes to the internet – including hiring.
Virtual hiring may have started as a forced move, but many companies are now finding merit in this modern way of recruitment. Whether it’s decreased cost, more adaptability, or another factor entirely, making the switch to virtual hiring is now the recommended primary mode of hiring for many.
What are these benefits that top companies are experiencing? In this section, we’re going to talk in detail about the main benefits of making the switch to virtual hiring.
1. Adaptability to Uncertain Situations
Your company might be ready to hire in person, but that doesn’t mean that your job seekers are.
Although many things are inching their way into normality, the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic is still deeply felt by many individuals across the country. There are still many people getting sick, and there are still many public health mandates in effect.
More than that, the situation might change any minute. Everything is still uncertain.
This means that some people might be able to attend your hiring events if you switch to complete face-to-face interactions – but there will be just as many who can’t, or won’t, attend. Even if your company resolves to hire in-person again, you will just be losing out if you won’t attract as many candidates.
Maintaining virtual hiring as your primary mode of hiring is attractive because it allows you to continue to function despite all these uncertainties.
2. Respond to Dynamic Business Conditions
Differing Covid-19 situations and readiness isn’t the only scenario that the virus is creating.
As a result of this previously-mentioned uncertainty, business hiring conditions are also fluctuating wildly. Some companies will require massive hirings to keep up with sudden demand, while others will even be forced to let employees go.
What’s more – this might all happen in a matter of days or weeks.
Business might be booming for this week, but the following can end up being a slump due to the changing regulations and market situations.
In times like this, you need to be able to respond appropriately. Hiring must be flexible and scalable, without compromising effectiveness.
Virtual hiring is an ideal solution. The technologies required to conduct virtual hiring are relatively inexpensive, and at the same time, it provides the flexibility and scalability that the employees need to react to the suddenly-changing economy.
3. Minimizes Pressure On All Parties
The changes and uncertainties in the world are taking their toll on job applicants and recruiters alike.
Job applicants are understandably anxious about the uncertainty in the business world. The stress of looking for a job is compounded by the rapid changes that the pandemic introduced, along with the anxiety for the well-being of themselves and their loved ones.
These factors are making it increasingly important for recruitment professionals to provide workers with the guidance that they need for the job application.
Not to mention – they’re also suffering from the same anxieties themselves.
In times like this, we should all do our best to make people feel secure. Besides, anxious people are less-efficient people; if you want to have the best results, you need to lessen the pressure. And in doing so, a great way to start is by lessening the workload for everyone involved.
Virtual hiring is a great way to do this. With technology, you can automate important but laborious parts of the hiring process.
For example, the stress of leaving your home can be solved by virtual conferencing. Automated messages from your ATS can both reduce employee workload, and keep your candidate updated and at ease.
Using virtual hiring, you can employ many software tools that lessen employee workload and provide reassurance at the same time.
4. Solves Location Issues
Rules about location and capacity are one of the many issues that you face when you start hiring in person. When considering location issues, there are a few factors that you need to keep forefront in your mind.
- Capacity. When you’re going to do in-person hiring, how many people you’re entertaining will be severely limited by regulations in your area.
- Venue. You’re at an advantage if you’re using your building for the hiring, but if you’re planning on holding large-scale hiring, you might need a separate location, in which case you have to comply with their requirements about the use of their space.
- Current local regulations. Regulations are changing all the time, and nobody really knows what will happen soon. Hiring in-person puts you at a disadvantage because all your planning can so easily be trumped by quick changes.
On the other hand, virtual hiring doesn’t have all these issues.
With this form of hiring, you don’t need to rent a space or worry about regulations about capacities and venues. You don’t have to worry about how regulations might change in the future either.
5. More Effective Candidate Selection
Virtual hiring has long been known to be more effective at choosing the right people for the job. This method allows you to employ strategies that simply would be too demanding and unrealistic to do when hiring in person.
Here are a few features of virtual hiring that make it more effective.
- Candidate matching. Many applicant tracking software (ATS) have an advanced candidate-matching tool that goes through thousands of applicants and automatically recommends the best one for the job.
- Recorded interviews. Using video conferencing platforms in interviews allow you to record your session and take better notes. This is especially valuable when hiring high-ranking employees whose jobs will have a big impact on the company.
- Time-saving. Virtual hiring saves your officers a ton of work hours due to their excellent features and automating software. This gives hiring teams more time to consider their hiring decisions.
6. Implement Diversity and Inclusion Efforts Better
Traditional hiring paved the way for the many aspects of human error to make their way to the recruitment process.
One of the most insidious, and perhaps most damaging, of these errors is unconscious bias; the act of unnoticed discrimination. This phenomenon has already been proven to exist on a wide scale.
In the continuous march for being more equitable, companies must work towards eliminating these hindrances to diversity and inclusion. Virtual hiring can help you with this in several points.
- Algorithms are data-centric. When you use virtual hiring software to choose your people, you are more likely to rely on hard data than your biases.
- It’s easier to implement D&I strategies. Mechanisms such as blind shortlisting and anonymized resumes are easier to implement in virtual hiring processes.
- Accurate reporting. Many virtual hiring tools (such as an ATS) enable recruitment professionals to have a full-scale, in-depth report of everything that has passed through the platform. Employers can look at this empirical data and see where they fall short.
7. Makes Internal Hiring Easy
Internal hiring is a powerup that most hiring managers overlook.
There are plenty of benefits to hiring from within your ranks. For one, you avoid all the logistical hassles of hiring from outside your company; you already have access to their network, so you won’t have to spend more time and money on marketing.
Internal recruits also often don’t need to be onboarded and are already aligned to your company culture and values.
Unfortunately, internal hiring isn’t easy if you don’t use a virtual hiring setup.
On the flip side of the coin, though, internal hiring is very easy with this hiring method. This is because virtual hiring software tools can easily identify and match current candidates, especially if you’re using database technologies such as an HRIS or an ATS.
8. Minimizes the Effect of Competition
Competition is tough in the olden days of hiring; there are only so many people around your physical location who are willing to go to your place to submit their application and undergo an interview that they may or may not pass.
Even if you recruit from surrounding cities, your competition will most likely be doing the same thing, so what’s the point?
On the other hand, with virtual hiring, the world is your oyster.
This is because virtual hiring doesn’t limit you to your physical location. Since everything happens on the internet, all you need is a stable connection and a quiet place to start your hiring process.
This advantage makes international hiring very easy. If you switch to virtual hiring, it allows you to move beyond your boundaries with ease; whether you’re looking for a flexible worker or a fully remote one, you now have a wider field than if you relied on face-to-face applications.
9. Your Competitors Are Already Doing It
Sure, it might be easier to spread your net wider when you’re on the virtual setup, but that doesn’t mean that you should be complacent.
It means quite the opposite. Virtual hiring is now the standard, and everybody is doing it. So if you’re not, then you’re the one who needs to catch up.
On the other hand, going virtual is relatively easy – and as mentioned here, the benefits far outweigh the short birthing pains that you’ll have to go through. The price is much more harmful to your business.
If you want to hire the top talents, you must reach them before your competitors do – and you won’t be able to do that if your hiring remains traditional.
10. Makes Application Easier
In an era where jobs are marketed as products, virtual hiring gives you all of the advantages. This is because people are automatically attracted to whatever process is the most convenient – and distance themselves from companies that provide bad candidate experience.
You may not realize it, but if you switch to virtual hiring, it’s much easier for the candidates because of the following reasons:
- It saves them time. Virtual hiring minimizes the need for the commute, waiting hours, and all the other time wasters that traditional hiring had.
- It saves them money. Traditional hiring had many hidden expenses (commute, food along the way, etc.) that are eliminated if you switch to virtual hiring.
- It’s uncomplicated. The best virtual hiring processes allow applicants to highlight their qualifications without taking too much of their energy for the day.
These are just a few examples of why applicants will choose employers with a straightforward hiring process over those that require them to be present.
Why You Need to Switch to Virtual Hiring This 2022
The pandemic might end in the near future, but virtual hiring is here to stay. At the very least, the future of hiring will most likely involve a hybrid concept that leverages the strengths of both methods.
Nevertheless, this still means that if you’re still not using virtual hiring for your company, you’re losing out.
If you want to catch up to–and pull ahead of–your competition, you need to level the playing field by getting on board. This can be done if you switch to virtual hiring now. After all, with these benefits, why shouldn’t you?
