What is Virtual Recruiting?
Definition of Virtual Recruiting
Virtual recruiting (n): a talent acquisition process that takes place entirely over the internet, enabling recruiters to attract, meet, vet, and hire candidates without necessarily meeting face to face. Synonyms: online recruiting, digital recruiting
Related: How To Find A Recruiter
Introduction to Virtual Recruiting
Over the past year, many employers adopted virtual recruitment for the first time or ramped up their virtual recruiting processes as a necessary response to the coronavirus pandemic. For many, virtual recruiting had to replace their traditional in-person open houses, career fairs, and interview processes. In some industries, virtual recruiting helped employers limit risk by reserving in-person meetings for the final stage. In all cases, employers using virtual recruiting showed job seekers that their health and safety are important and that the organization is willing to innovate and adapt to protect them.
Virtual recruiting means employers can do more with less. Done right, virtual recruiting reduces administrative work for recruiters, allowing them to focus more time and energy on building relationships with candidates and vetting talent. Virtual recruiting also allows recruiters to break geographic barriers, by connecting with talent outside their immediate area, a factor which is becoming increasingly important as so many employers become more comfortable with remote work.
Key Benefits of Virtual Recruiting
Virtual recruitment is an attractive option for many reasons, but it’s bordering on essential in today’s digital world. Job seekers expect employers to offer at least some elements of virtual recruiting due to the convenience, but there are many other reasons for talent acquisition leaders to lean into virtual recruiting strategies.
Control Costs
Virtual recruiting offers employers more control over hiring costs. Virtual hiring events are less costly than in-person events, and the cost scales with the volume of participants so it’s easier to plan ahead. Since virtual recruiting requires no travel, hotel accommodations, refreshments, or physical swag, the savings really add up, especially for organizations with high-volume hiring needs.
Reduce Time to Hire
Virtual recruiting also speeds up recruiting cycles, shortening each stage of the recruiting funnel. By moving candidates more quickly through the process, employers save time and resources while improving their competitive advantage where top talent is concerned. In this respect, virtual recruiting helps reduce the chances a quality candidate will get bored or tired of waiting for a response and decide to abandon your opportunity.
Improve Candidate Experience
Over the years, job seekers consistently report wanting more communication with recruiters and more information about potential employers and the recruiting process. Virtual recruiting makes this easy, especially when tools like virtual chat and virtual career fairs are used. Candidates can connect with recruiters and hiring managers more quickly through events, or get answers to basic questions through a recruiting chatbot.
Expand Channels of Communication
In addition to having more communication, top talent enjoys having more options for how they communicate with employers. Candidates want to choose how they interact with potential employers, so when recruiters participate in texting, email, and social media, candidates are free to decide which channel works best for them.
Remove Geographic Barriers
We already mentioned how virtual recruiting helps employers expand their candidate pool by reaching outside their immediate geographic area. Virtual recruiting also means you can include more hiring managers and other key people from within your organization in your recruiting process, because they can join virtual events without the hassle and expense, not to mention time commitment, compared with in-person hiring events.
Drive Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Progress
Virtual recruiting helps organizations reach their DEI hiring goals by facilitating interactions with a more diverse candidate base that would have otherwise been ignored or unintentionally excluded by more traditional in-person hiring practices.
Maximize Results
Hybrid recruiting combines virtual recruiting and in-person strategies in a complementary way, allowing recruiters to reap the best of both worlds. Executed well, hybrid recruiting helps employers maximize the results and the returns from virtual recruiting, while still allowing recruiters to conduct in-person recruiting when it makes the most sense.
