Virtual recruitment ideas: Attracting talent online 

As remote work is becoming more and more commonplace, companies have to think of innovative ways to attract new talent. 

Luckily, virtual recruitment is easier than ever since you can use tech tools to communicate with prospective employees online. As more people start working remotely, businesses must adapt how they interact with candidates to find the best ones to fill open positions. 

But how do you recruit people virtually?

There are many ways that you can find and attract new talent, including online job fairs and virtual workshops. In this article, we’ve compiled five virtual recruitment ideas that you can use for your virtual recruitment strategy to get the best talent out there.

What is virtual recruitment?

Put simply, virtual recruitment is a remote hiring process used by hiring managers to recruit new talent. 

When hiring online, you want to clearly define the position that you’re hiring for, write an engaging job description, use pre-employment tests to filter out job seekers, interview the best applicants, and offer the position to your top candidate. 

Overall, the virtual recruitment process is not that different from standard in-person interviews. However, virtual recruitment offers more possibilities when it comes to finding the right person for the job. 

Virtual recruitment advantages

There are several benefits of using virtual recruitment to hire talent, including the following: 

Wider pool of candidates

With virtual recruitment, you have the advantage of hiring people from around the world, not just the location you’re based in. This gives you great opportunities to find people who perfectly fit the job role and not settle for second-rate candidates. 

The ability to screen more people at once

Using virtual recruitment tools, you can screen more people and offer interviews to only the best candidates. 

One great way to do this is by using pre-employment tests to filter out all unqualified applicants. TestGorilla offers a wide variety of tests that you can choose from, depending on your needs. There are several different test types available:

• Role-specific

• Cognitive ability

• Language

• Personality and culture

• Programming skills

• Situational judgment

• Software skills

Time and resource effective

Remote work is definitely here to stay: 68% of Americans would prefer to be fully remote. 

The good news is that with remote recruitment and remote work, employers are bound to save time and resources by cutting down on overhead costs. You’ll be saving money on rent, taxes, cleaning services, and food supplies. 

In addition, you don’t need to allocate a lot of time for an interview, book meeting rooms, or break up your day too much. You can allocate a day for recruiting and another for interviewing over a video call, for example, speeding up the process altogether. 

Virtual recruitment disadvantages

Although the benefits of virtual recruitment are surely an asset, there are some cons as well. These include: 

Technical issues

As with all technology, you might run into technical issues that sometimes require the help of IT specialists. Therefore, to avoid cutting an interview short, you should have the candidate’s phone number at hand so that you can continue your conversation over the phone. 

Difficulty understanding or using the software 

Although using new technologies may come naturally to some people, for others, tech tools might prove troublesome.

You need to be patient and provide support to those who need it. After all, just because someone has difficulty with a specific technology doesn’t mean you should disqualify them right away – we’ve all had those days when our technology refused to play nice during meetings.

Difficulty reading body language

Finally, the absence of in-person interviews could mislead you about the candidate on the screen in front of you. 

Since you’re not able to read their body language as easily as you would in person, you might not get the full picture of an applicant. Nevertheless, you should trust your instincts as a hiring manager and base your decision on the results of pre-assessment tests and your own feelings about the applicant.

Personality tests such as the Big 5 (OCEAN) or DISC test can also be useful in virtual recruiting by giving you deeper insight into the candidates’ personality traits.

How to attract talent online

As you start recruiting online, you need to think of creative virtual recruitment ideas to attract new talent to your company. There are numerous virtual recruiting events that you can use to promote your organization. 

Here, we’ve compiled some of the best strategies for your virtual recruitment process. 

1. Online job fairs

You can host virtual recruiting events like meet-and-greets with prospects, where they meet your hiring managers and their potential colleagues. This requires more effort from your whole team, but it’s a great way to get input from your current employees about the candidates and see who may be the best fit for the team. 

Make sure to advertise your event on all social media platforms to get a higher turnout. 

2. Phone and video interviews

Most people are already accustomed to doing phone and video interviews, so this is another great method to screen candidates. 

By now, they should’ve already completed skills assessments, giving you some initial insight into who they are as a person.

Make the call more personal by asking specific questions about the candidate, why they want to work for you, and their views on life and your organization’s goals. This is a great way to understand someone’s worldview and see how they’ll add to your company’s culture. 

3. Virtual tours of the office

One of the best virtual recruiting events you can host is an online office tour. 

This gives candidates a sense of what it could be like to work for your business. Even if you don’t have an office space, you can still use this method to show them what your day-to-day work looks like. Candidates will feel more at ease seeing you working from home, which might sway them to apply for your position if they were previously on the fence. 

4. Virtual workshops

Virtual workshops are always a good idea since many candidates will join to get insights from your company. 

You can use these workshops to give a presentation on an important topic, introduce the latest technology you’ll be working with, or simply hold Q&A sessions where applicants can ask you anything.

Hosting such sessions and workshops is a great way to display different aspects of your business and can encourage candidates to work with you. 

5. Fireside chats

Last on our list of virtual recruitment ideas are what are known as “fireside chats.” 

The fireside chat is like a semi-structured, informal online interview in which a moderator and a panel of guests have a conversation. You can invite an important guest and have people ask them questions in the comment section that they’ll answer live. You can record the video and post it to your social media as a reference for future employees. 

Creating this kind of engagement is a great way to use tech tools to show the human side of your organization and attract talent keen on human interaction at the workplace.  

Virtual recruitment best practices

Conducting a successful virtual hiring strategy isn’t always easy. There are some rules and best practices you need to follow when creating your own virtual recruitment process. 

Comply with employment laws in your area

You need to comply with your government’s employment laws and regulations when it comes to hiring.

If you’re recruiting within the EU, make sure you’re GDPR compliant, and follow any guidelines regarding remote recruitment. Also, ensure that any pre-employment tests you use are acceptable within these laws, and do not cause an adverse impact on candidates in protected groups.

Avoid bias

To avoid bias in your hiring and any allegations of discrimination, you can incorporate validated pre-assessment tests and assessments that fit the criteria for employment testing stated by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) for your screening process.

In addition, as a general rule of thumb, assess candidates based on their skills and not their race, religion, gender, sexuality, or disabilities.  

Develop an online onboarding program

Finally, you need to have an excellent virtual onboarding program at hand when candidates join your team. You should start early with the program and ensure your new employee transitions smoothly into your company.   

Use virtual recruitment to fill your hiring pipeline faster

Virtual recruitment has the potential to fill your organization’s hiring pipeline with talent from across the globe, giving you an edge over your competitors. 

Creating a solid online strategy for virtual recruitment saves you time and resources on recruitment, making your hiring process more efficient. 

Incorporating various virtual recruitment ideas to attract talent online, like hosting online job fairs and virtual workshops, is a sure way to find the right candidates for your business. Make sure to try each method separately and see which ones work best for your company. 

Sign up for your free plan with TestGorilla today, and start using pre-employment testing as part of your virtual online recruitment strategy. If you would like to know more, why not book a free 30-minute live demo with a member of our sales team?