Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, numerous businesses had to shift their operations completely online. Unfortunately, many of them had to furlough or lay off multiple employees as well in order to stay afloat. In some cases, instead of hiring permanent staff, companies decided to go for outsourced tasks, such as vCISO services and offshore call center operations.
All of this changed the HR landscape to some extent, but the hero of the hour is virtual recruitment. Naturally, hiring processes could not take place in the same way as before, so companies had to change gear.
Instead of calling in candidates for physical interviews and assessments, businesses took things virtual. This took some time, as the global economy was initially quite affected by the ongoing lockdown restrictions.
However, once things started moving to a new normal, companies realized the impressive potential virtual recruitment holds for them. It offers a wide range of benefits to both candidates and businesses, while being extremely convenient as well. Here are a few ways in which virtual recruitment is changing the HR landscape in 2021 and onwards.
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Eliminating Geographical Limitations
Previously, companies would only be able to hire people who could physically commute to their offices. However, with virtual recruitment, the pool grows much larger. Recruiters can approach the best person for the job, regardless of geographical limitations and commute issues.
Coupled with remote work policies, virtual recruitment can help businesses get the cream of the crop. They can just conduct online interviews and tests, without having to go through the hassle of arranging for candidates to travel all the way to a specific location.
Enabling Global Accessibility
These days, most businesses don’t want to limit themselves to a certain scope or area. This is particularly because of how globalized the internet has made the world. Now, people can view products and services offered across the globe. However, with conventional hiring procedures, companies may not be able to leverage these markets.
With virtual recruitment, businesses can hire employees in a number of different locations. This will enable them to access global markets, regardless of time zones and logistical issues. All of this effort can help companies improve their productivity, get more revenue, and ultimately be successful parts of their respective sectors.
Improving Employee Diversity
The problem with conventional hiring processes is that they tend to attract the same kinds of candidates. Whether its race, class, or gender, the dynamic can get quite skewed and companies may miss out on a whole bank of untapped talent.
Virtual recruitment allows businesses to float their openings to a wider audience, and reach people who may have been previously ignored. This will improve workplace diversity, and lead to new perspectives enriching the company. The more diverse a workplace is, the more progressive and dynamic it will be. Therefore, virtual recruitment is a great way to improve progressiveness, diversity, and harmony.
Reducing Recruitment Costs and Time
It can be quite expensive to run a complete recruitment cycle at all times. In addition, HR departments have to allocate a large part of their time and resources towards hiring, preventing them from focusing on other HR aspects as much. Virtual recruitment makes the whole process much easier, and gives them some breathing room.
It is much simpler to schedule online tests and interviews than arranging a time or day suitable for all parties involved. With virtual recruitment, the relevant managers can also spare a few minutes to jump in and get an idea about the potential candidates. Companies can also hold back on having to allocate extensive resources and budgets to recruitment. They can reroute the saved expense to the business processes themselves instead.
Standardizing Hiring Processes
Along with saving time and money, virtual recruitment also helps standardize HR hiring processes. They just need to work with the relevant departments to create the right skill assessment tests for potential candidates. Then, they can just interview the candidates who pass the written test, without having to probe them about their capabilities during a face-to-face interview.
This is also quite beneficial for HR departments, as they won’t be in the dark when a position opens up and needs to be filled. Once a hiring procedure has been standardized, they just have to follow the guidelines. So, even if there are new recruiters on the job, they still know how to get the best people for the job.
Virtual recruiting has really emerged as an extremely viable option for both businesses and employees in the past year or so. It will only become more prevalent beyond 2021, and save a lot of hassle.
