The Human Essentials of Virtual Recruitment
By Jamie Berghout
If virtual recruitment was not already part of your hiring process pre-pandemic, chances are that you’ve adopted it, at least to some extent, over the past year. From telecommunication platforms like Zoom, WebEx, and Teams, to employee wellness and engagement, we are all learning new ways to optimize remote work experiences.
As workforce flexibility increases, and as we transform along with the evolving digital world around us, our human resources have become even more precious. Successful remote communication and collaboration require the right tools. By understanding how to combine the functional intelligence of technology and the power of human connection, you can elevate your virtual recruitment practices.
3 Virtual Recruiting Practices to Emphasize the Human Value of Your Workforce:
1. Collaborate Early
Every stage of talent development is essential to hiring success. When recruiting virtually, pay attention to early talent. Paid internships are the foundation for attracting exceptional candidates and retaining reliable talent for lasting hiring success.
Partnering with academic institutions can be an effective way to engage these bright minds right from the start. Whether inviting potential talent to a traditional career fair or sponsoring an unforgettable live event, virtual platforms can be powerful recruitment tools. While technology can open virtual doors to showcase internship and early career opportunities at your company, the relationship building is up to you!
2. Communicate Often
Communication can be challenging regardless of the environment. Technologies can help to align people and workflows by infusing automation and Artificial Intelligence (AI) within corporate networks and processes. For example, Conversational AI Recruitment can speed up the pre-screening process with the help of Short Message Service (SMS) chatbots. Reliable communication lays a framework of trust within the relationships we shape. Let’s face it, good communication is vital to achieving in any environment. But, it’s especially critical in a remote work environment. Just as a candidate seeks confidence in a potential employer’s ability to communicate effectively, employers must evaluate communication acumen in potential talent.
Virtual recruiting requires thoughtful questioning to improve your understanding of a candidate’s ability to stay connected with team members. You should follow the same interviewing policies as you would follow with a traditional approach. To ensure potential employees are equipped to succeed anywhere, whether in a remote, physical, or hybrid work environment, ask more specific questions. With regard to assessing young potential talent who lack work experience, look for examples of projects where collective success hinged on the ability to communicate from separate locations. Always learn what tools and techniques someone is familiar with and using on a daily basis, and get to know individual motivations. Knowing a potential candidate has the skills needed to adapt and overcome the nuances of virtual and traditional communication can be reassuring when making hiring decisions.
3. Engage Continually
Even though an intern may not continue working with your company when a corporate learning program ends, you never want to lose contact with high-potential talent. As with all project and interim gigs, you are developing valuable skill sets that your future workforce is depending on. Investing in talent from end-to-end can return even greater value to your Talent Acquisition objectives. And that’s invaluable to your business’s bottom line.
Leveraging the power of technology allows us the opportunity to focus on creating positive experiences for all. Integrating talent technologies can optimize applicant tracking and freelance management within HR systems, so you can connect and reconnect throughout the entire talent journey with ease. With less time spent on process and administration, you will have more time to focus on your organization’s most valuable resource- people! If you’d like to improve engagement, there are a number of solutions like Waggl and Ten Spot to empower genuine human connection within your workforce.
Creating a work environment that attracts and retains exceptional talent depends on the happiness, knowledge, and proficiency of the skilled individuals we employ within it. Having the right tools enables a valuable feedback loop for both employers and employees. The more information you have to understand business successes and shortcomings, the better equipped you are to meet the needs of your workforce. An organization's success relies on its people.
About the Author:
Atrium's Director of Communications, Jaime Berghout, is an imaginative executive with over a decade of experience guiding business strategy on both a national and international scale. Her corporate philosophy stems from studies in Political Science and Behavioral Economics, in addition to her leadership perspective which emphasizes the value of relationships, culture and communication and their influence on organizational effectiveness. With experience building sales process, employee programs and motivated teams, she is passionate about recognizing non-traditional talent and fusing creativity to management theory and practice. As a 15-year partner to the Association or Junior Leagues International, Inc., her time as a volunteer and former Board Member, Director of Community Development and Advocate for Public Policy serves to further the leadership potential of women and underrepresented communities.
