📨 What is virtual hiring and what does it look like?

It is now accepted by HR managers and other headhunters that virtual hiring, or virtual recruitment, is the best way to replace paper advertisements for the dissemination of job offers. However, the practice of virtual recruitment goes further, and offers many perspectives to further qualify your recruitment actions.

What is virtual hiring?

Virtual hiring consists of using all the digital and internet tools provided by IT to optimize a company's recruitment strategy. It is a natural evolution of the HR function which adapts to new societal habits, but it is also a means of positioning the company in an active approach to meet the contemporary challenges of recruitment.

Virtual recruitment accompanies the development of another phenomenon: remote work. Whether in the context of the health crisis encountered over the past years, or more generally, in the event that more and more companies are using remote work. Human resources departments have adapted and now offer their employees the tools they need to work online, from home.

Harnessing the benefits of virtual hiring doesn’t stop with posting your job offers and receiving applications. Consider using the internet and virtual environments throughout the whole recruitment process. This goes through:

• The use of online or virtual tests: personality tests, logic tests, job evaluation, etc. The online or virtual tests allow you to make a first selection and are a preliminary step to a first interview.

• Virtual interviews by videoconference or in the metaverse: it would be detrimental to deprive you of a good profile because of geographical constraints. If the need arises, set up remote virtual interviews. You can even create your own metaverse and invite candidates to enjoy an immersive virtual interview.

• Transmission and signing of contracts online: once the virtual interview has been completed, gain efficiency in managing the contracts of your recruits, regardless of where they live.

The challenges of virtual hiring

To make the most of this new mode of recruitment, HR departments must adapt to the new challenges raised by virtual hiring:

• Mastering digital channels: digital transformation and integration of digital tools into all processes are prerequisites for virtual recruitment.

• Be visible on the web: attracting the best talent and standing out from other companies requires significant visibility on the internet, through different channels. Don't forget that the candidate goes to your corporate or institutional website, observes the company's LinkedIn page, or even scrutinizes the Instagram page and the Twitter account. The savviest talents on the web go so far as to identify the professional profiles of the managers of your company.

• Take care of your employer brand: because the balance of power has changed in certain sectors, the recruiter, like the candidate, must know how to “sell themselves”. For the company, it is a question of emitting positive signals reflecting its values, in order to attract the right profiles.

How to succeed in your virtual interview as an employer

1- The day of the virtual job interview has finally arrived. Always with the aim of anticipating technical problems, connect at least 5 minutes before the scheduled time to test your camera and microphone again. Mishandling can happen quickly!

2- When the candidate in turn connects to the videoconference or in the metaverse, introduce yourself and ask him if he can hear and see you correctly. Invite him to notify you quickly if he encounters technical difficulties because you may not notice them immediately. It is also useful to remember the procedure to follow in the event of a total connection failure.

3- Present the course of the virtual interview, the different parts and its objective. As for a face-to-face interview, recall the content of the position to be filled.

4- If other people participate in the interview, position yourself as the facilitator. As far as possible, give the floor to the various speakers. Indeed, remote discussions are often less fluid than face-to-face exchanges. By orchestrating the dialogues, you will reduce interruptions.

5- To put the candidate at ease and avoid misunderstandings, do not hesitate to describe what he cannot see, such as the fact that you are consulting his CV.

6- Finally, make sure that the interview is not too long and, above all, that it does not exceed the duration initially planned.

A virtual hiring tool, a real ally!

Plan a successful virtual hiring with a fully customizable virtual recruitment platform. WorkAdventure supports recruiters in their recruitment process. It makes it easy to manage virtual job interviews, and also remote exchanges between employees.

In the WorkAdventure metaverse you can customize your map, integrate your favorite tools, create a fun environment, personalize your avatar... all your online event ideas are possible! Get started with WorkAdventure!