Companies take hiring and onboarding processes online

As companies steady themselves on the ground of the new normal, they look to hire fresh talent to help them navigate this new terrain. But with the pandemic-induced restriction on mobility and the switch to remote work rendering traditional hiring processes unfeasible, companies have had to adapt their recruitment strategy to the present situation. This necessity has led to an acceleration in the adoption of tech-based virtual hiring tools.

Hiring platforms like Gem, Jobvite, Hirepro, Lever, and Workable are built specifically to help recruiters identify, reach and connect with potential candidates remotely. They not only enable companies to perform all the steps of the traditional hiring and onboarding process virtually but also simplify and streamline the process to provide the added benefits of speed, scale, analytics, and reduced cost. These platforms automate processes like initial screening and scheduling, and aim to optimize the efficiency and effectiveness of each stage of the hiring process. Workstream says that it enables hiring managers to reduce time to hire by an average of 70%.

A poll by Gartner found that 85% of organizations are utilizing new technology to onboard employees. This increasing interest in hiring virtually is borne out by the search trends on Google.

In the past six months, Gem, Jobvite, Hirepro, Lever, and Workable have seen their website visits increase by 38%, 56%, 576%, 62% and 56% respectively.

VCs are also taking an interest in this space as these platforms seek to expand to take advantage of the unique opportunity presented to them by the pandemic. Gem announced that it raised a $37 million Series B investment led by Greylock, with participation from their existing investor Accel. New entrants to this industry are also piquing the interest of investors. Able Jobs raised seed funding of $1.8 million led by SAIF Partner, and Workstream announced the closing of a $10 million Series A funding round.

Apart from recruitment platforms, companies are also turning to virtual career fairs and hiring events to have access to a wider pool of talent and connect with the best candidates. These job fairs work in virtually the same way as their physical counterparts and use chat technology and teleconferencing to connect companies and job seekers. Moreover, organisation of such virtual events takes a fraction of the cost and time of traditional job fairs.

According to Similarweb data, virtual event platforms vFairs, Brazen, 6Connex, Easyvirtualfair, and Handshake have seen a rise in website traffic of 269%, 61%, 17%, 116%, and 31% respectively, in the past six months alone.

To keep up with the rising demand for such virtual events to facilitate recruitment, these companies have had to make hires of their own over the past year. vFairs, Brazen, 6Connex, and Easyvirtualfair have seen employee growth of 243%, 80%, 50% and 52% respectively YoY.

Virtual recruitment enablers are mutually beneficial for recruiters and job-seekers and are a significant upgrade on the traditional hiring processes. COVID-19 has accelerated the adoption of these technologies and going forward, most companies would look to create a hybrid recruitment model as a return to traditional recruitment looks unlikely.