The 5 Benefits of Virtual Talent Recruitment

The evolution of recruitment processes from traditional to virtual

Organizations weren’t ready for all of the changes to their talent systems that the pandemic required. However, these changes and the continued economic uncertainty has forced organizations to rethink their traditional recruitment and talent acquisition processes.

Enter virtual solutions for hiring.

In the aftermath of the pandemic the world has opened up again, talent acquisition processes have started to accelerate, and organizations have started hiring again. And with many organizations still operating remotely or needing to hire volumes at a low cost, organizations need to embrace virtual recruitment— and with it, more adaptable, efficient and effective talent acquisition processes.

How can virtual recruitment help your organization today?

So, what are the benefits of virtual recruitment? Below, we’ve listed out 5 challenges that virtual recruitment and hiring tools will help you address.

1. Respond rapidly and cost-effectively to changing requirements

Peaks in demand during the pandemic meant some industries had to hire hundreds and sometimes thousands of people in a matter of days. Others had to pause hiring entirely.

While many organizations are rescaling recruitment and hiring efforts, this may change as the economy shifts in the months ahead.

Technology can make hiring peaks and valleys simpler and more cost-effective; many of these tools aren’t an expensive investment, especially when compared to their benefits. And it’s a lot less expensive to adopt scheduling and assessment software than to hire new members for your talent acquisition team.

2. Provide candidate support through the recruitment process

Job candidates today are starting to feel pressure and anxiety given the uncertainty in the job market. That raises the burden on recruitment professionals, who must guide worried candidates through the application process.

As the number of job hunters rises, so too does your recruiters’ workload. Talent acquisition has become a 24/7 job, with applicants expecting timely responses to their queries and emails. That means your recruiters are likely to suffer from a lack of work/life balance, which, in turn, hurts their performance and risks letting top candidates get away.

Virtual recruitment solutions, however, reduce the pressure on candidates and recruiters alike. Chatbots are always on and can support candidates in a surprisingly human, conversational way — and they avoid the top complaint of candidates: a recruiter “ghosting,” or failing to contact them, which can harm the recruiter’s credibility and hurt your organization’s brand.

Chatbots can answer questions, update candidates on their progress and schedule appointments. Some chatbots are capable of matching candidates with vacancies, driving them toward suitable roles and streamlining the recruitment process.

With chatbots handling low-level tasks, recruiters are freed up to address more complex talent acquisition problems and candidate needs.

3. Identify the right candidates for every role

Today’s market is flush with candidates vying for jobs. More candidates means more applications and paperwork and a slower recruitment process—unless you bolster your recruiting power with technology.

Virtual hiring technology helps you accelerate recruitment while maintaining your ability to identify candidates with the right combination of skills and experience. For example, organizations can source candidates who are the right fit for their job by using Korn Ferry Success Profiles. A Success Profile defines what “good” looks like for a job, based on decades of research on individual, team and organizational success. Organizations can base a job description on a Success Profile, and artificial intelligence can, in turn, use this to identify which candidates are a good fit.

4. Address diversity and inclusion requirements

Organizations can reduce the risk of conscious and unconscious biases in the recruitment process by adopting virtual hiring tools. Artificial intelligence hiring tools can be trained to ignore demographic information, such as race, gender and age.

They can also ignore other less obvious data, such as the names of schools that they attended, that may hint at a candidate’s race or socioeconomic status and subtly influence human recruiters.

As a result, virtual hiring tools may open your candidate pool to people who might otherwise not meet your criteria. They also increase the likelihood that you’ll find the person with the precise skill set that you need for a role.

5. Enhance internal employee talent mobility

One way that organizations can manage growth and restrict costs is to focus on internal talent acquisition. Hiring internally is also usually more efficient than hiring externally, so you can fill roles more quickly and skip onboarding. And candidates already in your organization are more likely to align with your culture, so they’re more likely to stay and thrive.

Virtual hiring tools make it easy to identify existing employees who are the best match for internal roles. Plus, you can integrate these tools with your systems, such as HRIS and ATS, to streamline your process for discovering internal candidates, regardless of whether they’re looking to switch roles.

Elevate your recruitment and hiring with virtual solutions

Virtual talent acquisition solutions put the power of artificial intelligence and other technologies behind your hiring processes, allowing you to accelerate recruitment, improve the candidate experience, elevate your brand and find the top talent your business needs. To learn more about how Korn Ferry can put its industry-leading recruitment technology to work for your business, please get in touch or listen to our podcast on virtual hiring here.