Hiring virtually: What does the future look like?

While a lot has been said about the challenges and opportunities presented by the pandemic 16 months ago, the future of work, as we know it, has evolved to a more digitally enabled work environment. Processes that once posed a norm for companies have been replaced by technologies that encourage virtual methodologies. Remote hiring holds a major chunk of this evolution.

With borders slowly opening up globally and vaccine passports making travel relatively normal again, one does notice firms continuing to adopt certain virtual techniques of measuring the best talent. It is both cost and time effective, more efficient, and allows all stakeholders the flexibility and objectivity to decide the right fit for the organization.

According to a recent report by LinkedIn, 78% of Asia-Pacific’s talent professionals agree that virtual recruitment will outlast COVID-19.

Firms are adopting various facets of technology concerning data and artificial intelligence to increase the efficacy of the hiring process. There is an uptick in forensic investigations making the overall process more efficiently transparent than it was before. And, while it might take firms on the lookout for top senior executives longer to adopt the new all-pervasive technology—it does not mean the transformation hasn’t already begun. That said, one of the few challenges of hiring virtually relates to reading a candidate objectively, gauging their cultural fit, and removing any subconscious bias from the interview process. That’s where the role of technology gains more relevance.

Video interviewing has long moved on from the Zoom and Team platforms of last year. Organizations need software that acts as their partner in choosing the right fit for their team. Such technology allows the interviewer to rate the candidate during the interview, access automatically generated transcripts of the discussion, and populate their screen with live prompts. This also has the potential to seep into monitoring the candidate’s tone, voice modulation, etc., all of which will offer a more objective approach to hiring new talent.

The future of work is digital. It is fast encroaching on the work-from-anywhere concept, which ultimately also brings forth a new set of skills and leadership/management attributes that encourage an efficient and collaborative work culture. Using technologies that first help understand your current internal culture before looking for the right candidate fit is becoming increasingly imperative. Why? Aligning a candidate with your culture is not as black and white as we want to believe it is—and we should not. Structured digital tools that first evaluate your internal cultural alignment offer a more unified vision of what to look for in a candidate. The result? A hiring process that is impactful and provides the best value in the long term.

The article has been written by Sanjay R Shastry, Senior Partner, Kingsley Gate Partners