Virtual hiring has limitations. It’s harder to read expressions and body language. Tailoring online applications to specific roles will make conversations more about establishing a personal connection rather than just assessing experience and expertise. You’ll hire qualified candidates faster and onboard them sooner says, Heather Rollins, VP of human resources, Alchemer.
Social distancing during the pandemic has changed so much we’ve previously taken for granted, including the hiring process. I miss heading down to the front desk to meet a candidate, shaking hands, showing them around the office and then sitting across a table to learn more about them. In-person interviews have now been replaced by virtual hiring via video conferencing apps. It’s not the same experience for hiring managers or for candidates, and it comes with challenges. Let’s look at the biggest challenges of virtual hiring and then consider some strategies for improving the process.
Challenges of Virtual Hiring
The first challenge is what you lose when you’re across town from one another rather than across a table. One of them is body language and physical cues that can give you a more complete picture of the candidate. Videoconference interviews may also involve distractions that make it harder to focus for both the interviewer and the candidate. You also can no longer get the perspective of the front desk staff. Candidates may be on their best behavior with you but treat the people behind the front desk disrespectfully. That speaks to their character and is something that’s important to know.
Additionally, it’s harder to give candidates a sense of your company culture. People often view their company as an extension of how they see themselves and are evaluating whether a company’s culture matches their personal identity. They’re considering whether they can picture themselves in your office space. They’re imagining themselves working with your employees.
Onboarding is also incredibly difficult in this new normal. At Alchemer, we’ve hired several people during the pandemic, and they’ve never been in our office. Understandably, they don’t have the same connection with the company as people we’ve hired through our normal hiring process. Experts say that people stay in jobs because of their relationship with their supervisor and because of friendships at work. In a Zoom culture, how do you develop either of those?
Finally, it can be harder to offer a consistent, positive hiring process for candidates. Hiring done via videoconferencing often lacks the structure and formalized questions of an in-person hiring process. Technical difficulties can leave a candidate or an interviewer with a bad impression. And hiring managers may be focused on whether they like a candidate rather than on determining if the person can do the job. To help overcome some of these challenges, consider the following strategies to improve virtual hiring.
Strategy #1: Use the Application Process To Engage More Personally
The typical job application is used to collect basic information about candidates for first-round qualification — where they’ve worked, what tasks they performed, and where they went to school. Instead, use the application process to connect more personally. Ask targeted questions in the online job application rather than cursory ones. By asking deeper questions during the qualification round, you can better determine if you have the right candidate before you get to the Zoom-call stage. If you’re hiring someone for the sales team, for example, ask them to write a short paragraph on a satisfying sale. Or ask them to share a story about a sale they weren’t able to make and what they learned from that experience. Use the opportunity to have candidates write about themselves, so you get to know them better.
Leveraging this as a first step can enrich your virtual interviews with a candidate. Since there likely won’t be any in-person meetings, accelerate this process and do your best to add the flavor to a virtual call that you’d have with an in-person interview (more on this later). With the more targeted questions asked on the application, you’ll have a good starting point to ask deeper questions, which should, in turn, garner more detailed responses. It’ll also enable you to focus the initial call on establishing a personal connection with the candidate rather than determining if they possess the qualifications to do the job.
Strategy #2: Reduce the Transactional Feel of Most First Conversations
We had a great candidate for an open sales position who took a job at another company. I’m certain that if she’d been able to interact with people in the office, she would have made the decision to join our team, but the process was too transactional. It’s hard to convey passion and energy over Zoom. I now take the first two to three minutes of the interview to connect personally before asking job-related questions. For example, I’ll ask: “Where are you right now? Why did you choose the room you’re in for your work-from-home office?
It’s also important to approach video hiring with understanding. Our personal and professional lives are merging now more than ever before. You might have formerly dinged someone if they were interrupted by children or pets during an interview. Now, it’s a chance to show empathy and connect with a candidate on a more personal level.
In a CNBC articleOpens a new window , Zoom head of global talent acquisition, Phil Haynes, argues that videoconferencing interviews have made the process “richer and more honest.â€
“I’ve seen UPS guys at the door. … The human element is just pouring through,†Haynes says. “[Pandemic rules] have actually enhanced our ability to judge and see the real person. People are able to relax in their kitchen or living room in a way that they couldn’t when they were coming in with their suit and tie, their briefcase and business persona.â€
Strategy #3: Discover Innovative Ways to Share Company Culture
An Inc. magazine columnistOpens a new window states that culture fit is “the most important aspect of retaining great employees above everything else.†Since you can’t meet in person, consider creative ways to share the company culture. That starts with your website. Your company’s Careers page should offer more than a list of open positions. Liven it up with photos of the office. List office perks and company events. Quote employees. Add a video tour of the office and photos from pre-pandemic company events.
You can even kick off each video call by sharing a video that gives a candidate a better sense of company culture. If you don’t have one already, ask employees to tape themselves talking about what they love about working for the company and edit these into a video.
Once someone is hired, help them build connections with their colleagues. Schedule virtual happy hours. Set up group chats to talk about favorite books, Netflix shows or food delivery options. Pair up random colleagues to learn more about each other’s jobs and one another, potentially sparking friendships in the future. And make sure to share these onboarding programs during the hiring process to help the candidate see that the company is invested in their immediate success.
Achieve Virtual Hiring Success in a Zoom World
Virtual hiring has its limitations. It’s harder to read people’s faces and body language. You lose the spontaneity of introducing your candidate to co-workers gathered around the espresso machine and showing them the game room while you walk them around the office. However, tailoring online applications to the specific role will make those online conversations more about establishing a personal connection rather than just assessing if they have the experience and expertise to succeed in the job. It’ll help you land on the most qualified candidates faster and onboard the selected candidate sooner so they can bring all those qualifications toward advancing your organization.
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