We’ve seen our lives change dramatically during the global pandemic, but if you’re a business that’s now looking to find the best and the brightest for your organisation, virtual recruitment has become an essential business strategy. 

Thanks to social distancing and eliminating the risk of infection from your offices and teams, virtual recruitment practices have become essential to find new talent for your business.

In this article we will look at what virtual recruiting is, understanding your virtual recruitment process, the associated advantages and what the legal considerations are for this type of recruitment. 

What is virtual recruiting? 

Virtual recruitment is the process of hiring new employees remotely without meeting them face to face. Recruitment is done with video conferencing technology, surveys and assessments to understand a candidate’s abilities and personality. 

Thanks to the global pandemic, virtual recruitment has taken off due to businesses looking to keep their employees safe and limit the risk of spreading infection.

Your virtual recruitment process 

The virtual recruitment process can use many of the steps you would have otherwise used in face to face meetings, with some key differences.

Screening your candidates can be done over the phone, or in many new cases, using AI (Artificial Intelligence) to help with the process. From chatbots - leading candidates to the right kinds of roles available in your organisation - to talent re-discovery which helps you identify candidates who applied for roles in the past, this first step helps screen your candidate list. 

Another subsequent step can be to employ assessments and aptitude tests to help identify which candidates are a better fit for your organisation from a personality and skill set perspective. The Thomas Recruitment platform, for example, contains a range of tests that can be used to help with a virtual recruitment process whilst also storing candidate information for future reference. 

Finally, and importantly, the final step along the virtual recruitment process is to have a video chat (it could be several) which replicates what that discussion would be like in a face- to- face situation. 

Throughout, there will be stages where either more AI is used or possibly internal promotional strategies. The basics however remain the same and it’s important to not overthink this way of recruitment.

Advantages of virtual recruiting

Companies are discovering that virtual recruitment can be hugely beneficial. Even without a global pandemic, more organisations were turning to the new tools to help with assessments and tracking of candidates. These advantages include; 

• Cost savings

For a business, a virtual recruiting process allows you to automate a lot of manual tasks. This allows you to focus on finding the best candidates and advertising your roles in the right locations. Reimbursing candidates from further away is no longer a cost that businesses will also need to consider.

• Time efficiency

From screening candidates with assessment tools to having conversations over video conferencing software at a time that suits you both, you’ll find that your time is being better spent on the recruiting process.

• Wider selection of candidates

If there’s one thing that virtual recruiting does better than anything, it’s opening the door to candidates you may not have considered. With more remote working and opportunities to hot desk, you’re automatically widening your selection of candidates. 

• Nil risk of infection 

At this current time of a global pandemic, limiting the risk of infection to zero with virtual recruitment is, of course, a benefit to everyone involved. 

Legal considerations for virtual recruitment 

Whenever you recruit you must abide by the law. Data protection is essential and you must comply with the local laws and regulations of your country. 

As with standard job postings, you need to take the precautions that your job postings are non-discriminatory as per the law. Your post must not indicate preferences for candidates according to certain attributes such as:

• age
• disability
• gender 
• marital status
• race
• religion 
• political affiliations or beliefs

Blind recruitment applications can help with removing unconscious bias from your recruitment process from the very beginning.  

Finally, when you arrive at your video conferencing stage of the recruitment process, you must interview candidates fairly and follow all legal requirements. Presenting your business as totally compliant and using professional language is essential. 

Virtual recruitment has become a big part of the HR process for businesses during the global pandemic of 2020. We will continue to see this practice develop over time as it not only provides organisations with an opportunity to recruit good talent from many new areas but also improves the quality of applicants through the use of HR and assessment technology such as those from Thomas International.