CHALLENGES OF VIRTUAL RECRUITMENT
Let me ask you a question? If you were told a few years back that you would be having interviews virtually, what would you have told the person? The person must be joking right?
COVID-19 has brought some changes to the way an organization runs interviews. The COVID-19 pandemic has paved the way for organizations to see the need for virtual recruitment to reduce the spread of the Corona Virus. Before the advent of the Covid-19 pandemic, the traditional way of recruitment was more of a face-to-face interview where one had to be physically present. But the pandemic changed everything which also affected the job market.
But wait before we go further, what is virtual recruitment? Virtual recruitment is a technology that helps the organization to select the most critical resource which is human resources (Boscai, B. G. 2017. It is the process of sourcing that takes place mainly over the internet. It enables the recruiters to see, vet, and hire candidates without necessarily meeting face to face.
The COVID -19 guidelines and restrictions have made the scouting, recruiting, and hiring process tedious and difficult for hiring managers, But the job must go on which made the virtual interview more prominent. The recruitment and hiring process has been made virtual for easy access both to the recruiter and the candidates applying. Virtual recruitment allows the recruitment and hiring process to be done without the recruiters and potential candidates seeing face to face before hiring decisions are made.
CHALLENGES VIRTUAL RECRUITERS FACE.
Every job role has its challenges. The same way the traditional way of recruitment has its challenges is the same way Virtual recruitment does. The common challenges encountered using this process are as follows:
- High rate of depression among candidates due to isolation: Due to the stay-at-home policy of most governments, many people have to spend more time indoors. This over time has affected the mental health of some candidates resulting in not being able to get the best out of them. The mental accuracy of some candidates may not be sharp enough to give you what you want as a recruiter even if they are right for the job.
- Unreliable Internet connection and other hardware: If you have ever had this challenge please raise your hand. One major challenge of virtual recruitment is unreliable and unstable internet connection on the part of either the interviewer or the candidate. A bad internet connection will affect the result of recruitment. For example, if the candidate is having internet disruption the recruiter may find it hard to hear the candidate’s explanation, asides from the fact that the instability of the internet may cause a lack of flow which might cause a misunderstanding between the recruiter and the candidate. This challenge of internet quality might cause the recruiter to miss the chance of finding the ideal candidates.
- Inability to communicate the Organization’s philosophy and values: The Organization’s philosophy and values are important to an ideal candidate. It makes them have a feel of what the organization stands for. It might be difficult for them to discover all that in a virtual interview. if you are not able to give detailed information on that during the recruitment and hiring stage due to the distance and other interference it bit tell when the candidate starts work.
4. Miscommunication among the hiring team: Imagine having an interview and as a recruiter, you are not on the same page with other members of the recruiting team due to bad reception and other factors. This will affect the flow of the interview and pass a bad message to the candidate about your organization.
5. Candidate Ghosting – I am certain virtual recruiters have been ghosted at some point. I am not saying a relationship ghosting, I mean candidates making you stay clue to a blank screen waiting for them. This is another major headache of a recruiter. It’s recorded that 10% of the interviewers said that their top talents didn’t show up for a virtual interview. So organizations have to do more to attract more talents to their interviews because 1% of the employers have complained about not having strong ads that would warrant a response.
6. Too many underqualified applicants: This has been a regular complaint of virtual recruiters. They find out that many of the applicants are either underqualified or their working background doesn’t fit the ad but they just want to apply because it’s a virtual interview and they feel they have nothing to lose. It is recorded that 5% of recruiters that sent out job advertisements, said they aren’t receiving enough relevant applications or qualified candidates.