Digital Hiring Tools: How technology can help recruit right

Covid came, Covid saw, Covid could not conquer, but it surely did alter. It altered our ways of living, norms of working, some in the short term and some for the long term.  A year ago, organizations had a choice, to proactively adopt technology in HR and recruitment, or make a slow and gradual shift. All that changed quickly and suddenly; organizations are now forced to adopt technology, to survive and to grow.

Candidate’s perspective

The flexibility to experience the organization digitally is important; an opportunity to be interviewed via technology may decide if the candidate wants to work with you or not. Jobs and careers in the future are moving towards the gig-economy, short term contracts, freelance work as opposed to permanent jobs. An “Office” shall be anyplace from where an individual is able to work effectively & efficiently; the location will not matter, results will.

Organizations and recruiting

Success of an organization depends on hiring the right people & the recruitment team has the responsibility to deliver, in the face of multiple challenges. Recruiting is not easy, it never was. For every job advertised, recruiters receive between 200 to 1000 applications, making it tough to identify and shortlist the right talent, as it means more candidates to engage, more resumes to sort, and more work to fill vacancies. To make matters harder, due to Covid-19, recruiters and business heads do not prefer to meet candidates personally, except at the offer stage.

Technology has the answers

Adopting Smart Digital Hiring tools will enable companies to search, shortlist & select the best talent remotely. Some tools that are playing a major role in effectively using technology are:

• Tech to source relevant candidates
• Unleashing the power of Video Interview Platform
• Using AI to assess competencies
• Bringing Virtual Reality to life

1. Tech to source relevant candidates

Carefully analysed data that indicates engagement levels of candidates with different websites is used to decide the websites & mediums where companies should post job vacancies, for how long, at what price, in order to reach the right target candidates. The recruiter’s time and resources are hence utilized only at locations where target candidates are present. This leads to a fishing-in-the-right-pool & higher chances of interviewing the right candidates.

2. Unleashing the power of Video Interview Platform

An online browser-based platform giving recruiters the ability to create & upload pre-set questions targeted at candidates, generating a test link that is attached to the Job vacancy advertisement, emailed to potential candidates. Interested candidates simply use any device to click on the link & respond to questions in Video format. The video responses are received & automatically stored on the cloud in real-time, they can be accessed, evaluated by recruiters and the relevant candidates can be shortlisted and offered. VI helps to recruit faster, at a lower cost, while also creating an easier and more convenient hiring experience that meets modern candidates’ expectations.

3. Using AI to assess competencies

These are intelligent tools which enable them to create assessment tests without needing the ability to be tech-savvy. They capture the candidate responses and data points & give real-time analytical reports which help in data-based hiring decisions & bringing science into the craft of recruiting.

Furthermore, when candidates apply, the platform quickly identifies & throws up those specific candidates who have a higher chance of being selected, in real-time, based on past selections by the recruiter. The recruiter can meet only those and close the offer.

At a later stage, once enough candidate database is populated in the platform, and a new job is posted, the AI will check within the platform candidate database & auto-throw up the list of best-fit candidates to the recruiter, who can meet them and close the offer.

4. Bringing Virtual Reality to life

Virtual reality (VR) is the future in various aspects of HR, from recruitment to developing employees. During recruitment, VR can improve the candidate experience & at the same time, build the employer brand. Candidates can experience a tour of their workplace even before they start working. Companies can assess and show around multiple candidates without the additional cost of flying them in. While VR may still be relatively expensive to implement, it is expected to be used a lot more in the future. Companies can reduce cost and time of multiple stakeholders by effectively using VR.

The year 2020 saw HR and recruiting professionals responding to the call of duty & operating beyond maximum capacity & sacrificing for their employees & their organizations. They used technology to engage with employees, conduct team meetings, to focus on wellness. The year 2021 is witnessing businesses & hiring come back in full force & the recruitment professionals need to proactively lead the digital transition for their companies, and quickly enable self and their teams to take this leap towards using Technology to recruit right!

The author is Manish Menon, Co-founder & Director, GoEvals.