Uplifting humanconnections in virtualrecruitment andredeployment

The shutdowns and economic downturns globally have catapulted both job-seekers and employers alike into confusing and challengingterritories.  For job-seekers, the prospect of securing employment can feel even more overwhelming with more people now competing for a shrinkingnumber of positions. Financial strains are upping people’s anxieties about making it through the hiring process, which in turn have beenforced to change in unprecedented ways. On the flipside, HR teams are struggling with a historic labour shift that demands decisive hiring and repurposing of large segments of their workforce. The question of how to build out remote processes that ideally uphold thesame level of engagement and rigour is compounded by the practical issues that accompanyworking from home. Yet, these circumstances present a unique opportunity for companies to bridge thedisconnect between their talent acquisition and talent management functions, buildsomething that is scalable for the future, and most importantly, demonstrate compassionwhether it is to employees or candidates, pymetrics has been supporting a number of clients to preserve the human touch in theirreimagined talent processes. Below are some of the key strategies we find valuable inachieving that goal.

Help people find the right opportunitiesCandidates, be that job-seekers or employees looking for new opportunitiesinternally, need advice on defining their skills and attributes, and matchingthem to different career options. Talent teams have traditionally relied on career pages and self-service jobportals to inform potential applicants about the available roles and theapplication process. With job displacements happening at such a swift andsevere rate, there needs to be a more proactive approach to guiding peopleto suitable opportunities.

How do you engage andempower candidates tofind their best-fit role in your organisation

at scale?

Pre-application

Encourage contributors from different business functions to share their day-in-the-life. This can take the form of a blog post, video content,engagement through social media platforms or discipline specific forums that cater for specialisations such as those in Technology.

The engagement should be continued on platforms where two-way conversations can happen. Virtual fireside chats are a great way for interestedapplicants to ask questions and receive immediate responses without the barriers of formality.

Digital assessments are by now a staple for many recruitment processes, but applications like the pymetrics’ Guidance solution can help to funnelcandidates even before they apply. After completing a short series of games, candidates are immediately provided with a personalised shortlist ofroles that they are best suited for, together with a report to help them learn more about themselves.

In a time of widespread uncertainty, it is all the more critical that employers provide clarity and transparency in theirprocesses. This includes publishing milestone dates and sticking to them, and providing timely feedback to positionyourselves as trusted advisors. Personal stories and informal interactions serve well to equip candidates with a realistic preview of the role. Thesecandid dialogues can further imbue a sense of human connection to help break down any prior inhibitions. Lastly, the power of data can be invaluable in giving candidates confidence to apply to roles outside of their familiardomains. Not only do you empower those whose jobs have been disrupted to envision another career path; as anemployer, you also gain access to a broader and more diverse talent pool externally, plus build deeply engagedworkforce internally as you re-skill and redeploy employees into more fulfilling opportunities.

Pre- application

WHAT YOU CAN DO:

THE UPSIDE:

Empathise with the realities of working fromhomeFor some companies, video interviews are a well established part of theirprocess. For others, the need to adopt new technologies is complicated by thefact that now is not an ideal time to onboard a vendor.  Regardless of whether you are a seasoned user or a recent adopter of digitalinterviews, in all likelihood, you will not have ready access to IT and othersupport services.

Digital InterviewsHow can you conduct a

seamless digital interviewprocess without

diminishing the quality ofinformation that is

exchanged between youand the candidate?

For live interviews or candidate briefings where face-to-face is no longer an option, leverage thetechnology you already have, with which your teams are already familiar e.g. Zoom, Webex,Microsoft Teams. 

Without the rich cues of an in-person interaction, you might need to spend more time buildingrapport with your candidates. Log in early to see if they require any technical assistance. Small talkin this case might also help to put the other person at ease.

In some instances, one-way or asynchronous might be preferable to two-way live interviews for theflexibility they provide, now that our work days are no longer as structured. Solutions likepymetrics’ Digital Interview for example allows candidates to record their responses in their owntime, and recruiters to preview and evaluate at their convenience.

Reach out to candidates in advance to brief them on the details of their interviews, with guidanceon how to set themselves up for success. This may include advice on lighting, sound quality, andeven location – considerations which are worth highlighting to candidates who may beencountering the platform for the first time. Do make sure candidates know who they can reach outto should they have questions and/ or concerns. 

Incorporating a personal welcome video at the start can help to ease candidates into the processand offer final clarifications about what to expect. Similarly, a sincere thank you video at the endcan add a touch of warmth and be a huge booster to your employer brand.

Digital Interviews

WHAT YOU CAN DO:

Digital Interviews

THE UPSIDE:Between maintaining a household on lockdown and working on business as usual activities, your team is unlikely to have the capacity tolearn how to use a new tool, nor dedicate chunks of time to schedule and conduct large numbers of live interviews. The goal is to helpevaluators optimise the limited resources they have without losing the bond with candidates.  Separately, asynchronous digital interviews can overcome many of the subjectivities that undermine in-person interviews. Managers canrecord themselves asking the questions upfront; this way, all candidates are asked the same set of questions in the exact same manner. pymetrics goes a step further in mitigating bias by offering audio-only digital interviews, as well as supporting the creation ofcompetency-based questions and rating anchors with direct relevance to the company and role. These features go a long way insupporting consistency and objectivity in the process.

Assessment &

Development Centres

Use the chance to design even more inclusiveassessment and development centres

Assessment centres (AC) and development centres (DC) tend to be thehardest to transition to virtual as the in-person element is often perceived ascore to the process. ACs and DCs are designed to allow evaluators to directly observe the wayparticipants interact and collaborate with each other, and perform insimulations of workplace scenarios. It is also a chance for candidates to affirmtheir impressions of the company, and have a realistic glimpse into what thejob entails

How can you conductvirtual assessment and

development centres thatare equally engaging for

the participants,informative for the

decision makers, andadministratively less

tedious for everyone?

Most, if not all of the guidance in the digital interview stage can be applied here. A key consideration is if theexisting activities can be run virtually or whether they need to be modified or replaced. For example, complex,multi-phase activities that require the use of a variety of materials will not translate well online, but a groupexercise around a case study will.

Crucially, the rigour that underpins in-person ACs and DCs should likewise apply to the virtual version, that is,there is alignment between the role requirements and the prescribed tasks. Having a trained professional to workwith you through the changes is imperative. At pymetrics, our team of Industrial/ Organisational (IO)Psychologists provide you with the expertise to review and revise your existing process, ensuring alignment notonly with business needs but also ethical and legal standards. 

Beyond the assessment components, do incorporate opportunities that encourage natural interactions amongstthe candidates. You can create virtual breakout rooms to allow participants to get to know each other before themain activities.

Finally, do continue to engage with candidates after the ACs and DCs. Capitalise on automated solutions that allowyou to send quick and personalised follow-ups, and track your communication history with each person. You mightalso include information on interesting projects that the candidates might get involved in, offer them opportunitiesto learn new skills through micro-learning, or the opportunity to attend live webinars facilitated by an employee inthe role to build their job readiness for day one.

Assessment & Development Centres

WHAT YOU CAN DO:

Virtual ACs and DCs need not be viewed as a lesser alternative, if thoughtfully designed. Technology canreduce the overall cost of running physical centres by as much as 80%, while expanding their capacityand geographic reach. For time-strapped assessors, schedules can be streamlined so that they only need to be present for therelevant activity for the day. Furthermore, you can reduce the number of assessors needed as ratingsneed not be done live. This lowers not only the logistical burden, but also the risk of issues with inter-rater reliability.  From an inclusion standpoint, candidates from non-metropolitan areas who might have found the cost orlogistics of travel to be prohibitive previously, can now participate without a compromise on theirexperience. The same applies to employees, such as those with disabilities or caregiving responsibilities,who might have lost out on development opportunities in the past because of their inability to travel

THE UPSIDE:

Assessment & Development Centres

While we cannot accurately predict the duration of the situation nor its full impact, it is reasonable to expect that a new normalcywill define the way we live and most certainly the way we work when we emerge at the other end. As you digitise the variousstages of your recruitment and development process, why not think about how you might create a more authentically connected,meaningful and human experience for all your virtual interactions.   To support you, pymetrics is offering our Mobility and Digital Interview solutions completely free through to June 30, 2020. If youare interested, do contact us here, or email us at info@pymetrics.com to talk through the details.

Redesigning for anew normal ahead