How to Optimize Your Online Recruitment

Although amidst the coronavirus pandemic, some companies still have to look for new candidates to fill positions within the company. The fear of getting infected with the virus is real for the HR team. Thus, a lot of companies shifted to online recruitment methods to ensure their staff safety.

If this is your first online recruitment, then you should know its benefits and weakness before starting. In this article, we will talk more about online recruitment, including tips and tricks to optimize the process.

What is online recruitment?

Online recruitment is the process of searching for the best candidate without face-to-face interviews. There are two common ways to do online recruitment, one-way and two-way interview.

You choose the one-way interview if there are a lot of candidates to interview. The company usually sends questionnaires in text, audio, or video format. The candidate can record their answer in a video or audio format and send it back to the company.

Two-ways interviews conducted if there are only a handful of candidates available. The two-ways is the next step of the one-way when the number of candidates already diminished.

The benefits of online interviews

Online recruitment was getting popular several years back. But, since the coronavirus, a lot of companies cancel their interview meetings and switch to online. Here are some benefits of online recruitment:

1. It’s efficient. Online interviews can save your time and your company’s money. Your candidates no longer need to prepare their curriculum vitae. You also don’t have to print pages after pages of questionnaires for your candidates. With the HRM system, you don’t have to worry about documents getting scattered or lost.
2. It can improve candidates’ self-confidence. It’s quite often to see candidates that get nervous during an interview. He can’t answer a single question, awkward, and sweating profusely, even in an air-conditioned room. The main reason is the whole atmosphere making him nervous. But with the online interview, candidates will be more comfortable since he’s within the environment that he can control. He can arrange his room beforehand and able to perform better.
3. Arrange the interview schedule easier. How often did you find a candidate showed up late in the interview because he’s stuck in traffic? With online recruitment, you can do the interview anywhere and anytime you like, as long as both parties connected to the internet.
4. Know your candidates better. Online recruitments enable you to know your candidates personally. You can see the candidate’s room, how he dresses, and his preparation for the interview.

The challenges of online interviews

Online recruitment also has some challenges that can hinder your recruitment process. Here are some of them:

1. It requires a stable connection. There’s nothing more annoying during an online interview than an unstable connection. Repeatedly saying ‘I’m sorry, I can’t hear you’ or ‘sorry, can you repeat that?’ are making both you and the candidate uncomfortable. The thing is, there are some areas in South East Asia with poor internet connections.
2. Technology gap. Not every candidate has the same level of understanding in terms of technology. Sooner or later, you will find someone that never use video calls in their life. To handle this, you need to educate your candidates to make the recruitment process runs smoother. You can use an easy to understand step-by-step tutorial as a start.
3. Limited access. Some candidates might be complaining that he doesn’t have access to the software you use for the online interview. The reason may vary. Perhaps they never use it before, or they have limited internet connection. You can offer alternatives to make the interview process runs smoother, such as using WhatsApp call that’s more popular.

Tips and tricks for successful online recruitment

Here are some tips and tricks you can try to optimize your online recruitment result:

1. Be transparent. Just like a face-to-face interview, you have to explain everything before the recruitment begins. Tell the candidates the whole recruitment process, why do it online, and let them know that the company will keep the interview video for later purposes.
2. Keep it short. If you want your candidates to perform their skills, such as graphic designers or salespeople, please make it brief and practical since your candidates might be using their mobile data for the interview.
3. Different format different purposes. As we mentioned earlier, there are two online interview formats. As a recruiter, make sure you don’t use the wrong one since they have different purposes, media, tools, and results.
4. Make the interview process runs fast and effectively. Don’t prolong the interview process and stay consistent from one candidate to the others. Prepare the questions before you start the interview can help you shorten the interview time.
5. Use supporting software. Since the whole interview process runs online, you need software to support your work. Make sure you use the best software for online interviews such as Zoom, Skype or WhatsApp, or HRM software for easier candidate management.

Conclusion

Online recruitment is the best way for the HR team to search for new candidates during uncertain times, such as now. Also, make sure you use the best tools and software to make the recruitment process runs smoother.