3 important considerations when taking your hiring virtual

The global coronavirus pandemic has put business continuity plans into sharp focus for many organisations across the region. But the truth is that Talent leaders on the front lines always knew what a critical part hiring plays within that larger picture – especially for businesses that find themselves still needing to hire for critical roles in spite of (or in many cases because of) the world’s ever-changing circumstances.

For a current example of this, look no further than the thousands of roles urgently sought by supermarkets at home and abroad, as demand for their services soared.

In order to continue searching for the best Talent, you can’t rely on traditional methods. In-person interviews are no longer possible due to social distancing initiatives, and a remote or depleted workforce also means that some companies aren’t able to evaluate candidates in as in-depth a manner as they would have previously.

It is for these reasons that many  organisations are now turning to technology to help them to find and interview Talent remotely and securely. Video interviews and online assessments are quickly becoming a necessity, but pivoting traditional hiring processes to the virtual world is a big shift for many Talent teams. Done right however, the switch to virtual can provide significant benefits to organisations, not just in the face of this pandemic but in the long term.

When it comes to planning for a transition to virtual hiring and evaluating the multitude of solutions on offer, there are three critical factors that you should consider in order to maintain both your hiring standards and your candidate experience:

1) Security and Data Protection

Many of us have already made the switch to video conferencing to host everything from customer calls to team socials, so you could question the need for a separate platform for interviewing candidates. However, many of these platforms have been criticised in recent news cycles for below standard privacy and security considerations – making them unsuitable for a task as sensitive as interviewing and hiring.

Ensuring you have a virtual hiring platform that is purpose-built for recruitment ensures critical security and data privacy, including compliance with GDPR and regional laws and regulations, with the added benefit of also offering bespoke review, sharing, and ratings features at the same time.

Data is usually accessible through two separate means – the virtual hiring platform vendor’s system and their cloud provider’s system (e.g. Amazon Web Service or Microsoft Azure). Of these two, it is the vendor’s system (policies, procedures and controls) that you need to scrutinise most carefully when selecting a virtual hiring platform – cloud hosting providers are regularly certified to a range of data security standards. Ask any potential vendor what security measures have they put in place and certifications do they hold?

Implementing strict data security standards is difficult, and earning individual security certifications is a lengthy, rigorous process, so you may find that some vendors try and skirt this question.

2) Tech Stack Integration

In order to minimise that disruption internally, it helps to make sure that any new technology you bring into your hiring process integrates into your existing ecosystem quickly and efficiently.

By selecting tools that integrate with your current technology stack, such as your ATS, candidate relationship management solutions and others, you can reduce any potential unwanted disruptions and create a stable digital environment and workflow for your Talent acquisition teams, so they can focus on what matters most: building and maintaining relationships with candidates.

3) Around the Clock Support

Finally, one of the most fundamental considerations when making the switch to virtual hiring is ensuring that not only are your Talent teams well supported in their use of any new platform, but also that your candidates have access to the same immediate and responsive support.

With your employer brand at stake, it is important to prioritise candidate experience – companies will be judged for many years to come by their approach and handling of this situation. So make sure to ask the right questions about the support and service levels that a vendor can provide before jumping into a partnership. Is support global? Is it 24/7? How is it accessed?

Tech issues can lead to the loss of the perfect candidate, damage to your brand and disillusionment of your internal team, so it is important to ensure that you have access to a global support team who can jump in to provide immediate guidance and assistance.

Conclusion

By pivoting to a virtual hiring process Talent leaders can continue to help their organisation find critical Talent – in spite of COVID-19 or any other situation we might face. But this shouldn’t just be seen as a short-term solution. By taking the first step towards making more of the process digital, companies can diversify the way they hire candidates and actually open up the Talent pool to candidates that might not have been considered through the traditional hiring process. And that can only be a positive thing for everyone involved.

Cover image: Shutterstock

This article is contributed by HireVue.

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