Go Digital, Lockdown is NOT the End of Recruitment
By Mudrika Bhardwaj.
Technology moves fast and work doesn’t stop as we can work from anywhere and everywhere! In situations like a disease outbreak, war and other crisis that keeps the workforce confined to indoors, WFH specifically in fields like HR recruitment can be a bit challenging.
Traditionally, this industry operates with a notion of ‘mandatory in-person meetings’ to get things done. But technology can play an effective role in virtually bringing the entities together and streamlining the recruitment processes with the level of perfection that may be easily achievable through a conventional path.
In this blog, let’s shift our focus from the current COVID-19 lockdown to the benefits of digital tools to make recruitment possible while WFH.
But first, what does digital recruitment exactly mean?
You can term it digital recruitment or social recruitment or online recruitment these days. It involves the use of technology particularly emails, remote team collaboration tools and professional networking sites that candidates, Hiring Managers and Talent Partners (Recruiters) use for connecting and discussing about job requisitions.
A large part of the digital recruitment process is dependent on the method deployed by the company or the HR to attract the best talent for the job. Recruiters play the role of ambassadors or sellers of the opportunity. Therefore, it necessitates the use of relevant platform and social media channels to execute the candidate screening and hiring process with efficiency.
The impacts? Companies big or small are no longer restricted to the age-old recruitment process that requires endless waiting and manual efforts to communicate status update to the stakeholders. It makes it easier to screen and hire candidates both, locally and globally.
But, where are the prospects?
We live in the times where prospects are under our nose and available 24/7. How? Let’s me explain. If we want to buy a commodity, we go right ahead to the platform where it is available. Or at the most, we would run a Google search to figure out rather than waiting for advertisements to show up in traditional media. Similarly, finding prospects in recruitment is not tough and requires a some skills in social media and mobile hiring platforms.
Steps to Create a Digital Recruitment Strategy:
1. Make The Best Use of Your Company’s Dedicated Online Space: Let’s face it, there is a sea of content on open requisitions that both recruiting firms and job aspirants view on online platforms. The only way a firm can differentiate itself is by creating content and leveraging its brand value by making the best use of its website, blogs, social media handles and company newsfeed section.
The last option for casting a wider net for recruitment would involve some paid publicity and announcements in popular avenues on multi-media platforms.
2. Create A Solid Social Media Recruitment Strategy: Social media accounts for major part of recruitment efforts. Besides having a strong content strategy and sharing company’s work philosophies on the website and social media, it is important to chalk out an effective plan. You can start with:
· Publishing jobs openings on LinkedIn: LinkedIn and other platforms take precedence over word of mouth. It makes both the applicants and recruiters independent in the hiring process and less dependent on third-party hiring consultants.
The use of videos of employee testimonials on YouTube and Instagram would broaden the reach of hiring company.
· Sharing regular Tweets, Instagram stories and Facebook posts: Sharing what’s happening in the company, awards and recognitions on social platforms can articulate a lot about the work-culture, benefits, policies, leadership and much more that job aspirants would want to know before applying.
· Make Use of UTM technology: It is simply a technology used for tracking your ads and also plays a very important role in recruitment. A UTM code is a simple string of text that you add to the end of the URLs used in your recruitment ads. You add a campaign name, medium and source. You can then use Google Analytics to analyse your traffic and conversion rates for each parameter you set.
3. Make Candidate Experience A Top Priority: Once the recruiters are done with the digital efforts, its essential to stay proactive by staying in touch with the applicants, check and share status update on their application and stick to the hiring timelines. Frequent communication and sharing status update helps in building trust with the potential candidates and help them assess the prospect, objectively. This is highly recommended to ensure all the efforts by the recruiter and the candidate do not go in vain.
4. Build Your Own Reputation: Creating a strong employer brand and communicating the about the open positions are not enough without you having a image (online and offline). Your offline persona is dependent on how well you work towards delivering the best experience to the candidate and employees. Adding a genuine, human touch in all online communication exchanges throughout the hiring processes is important to break the ice and make the candidates feel comfortable.
Additionally, providing insights, trends and relevant facts about the company on your LinkedIn profile creates transparency and shows your commitment towards the hiring effort. Your reputation and conduct matters. Remember, you are the face of the company!
5. Make The Overall Candidate Selection Process Digital: You can go an extra mile by making the selection process digital. Right from the initial stage of assessing applicants for skill and competencies, you can close the deal digitally by planning out the entire screening process. Schedule the online meetings as per requirement and make sure the rest of the hiring committee adheres to these timeline. Giving timely candidates feedback (Selection/Rejection) after discussion makes its easier for the stakeholders to move to the next stage without unnecessary waiting.
Easy right ? In the next blog, I will be covering the latest trends and best practices in digital recruitment. In the meantime, let me know your thoughts with a comment.
