Virtual Hiring is cost-effective, accelerates the interviewing process by eliminating the need for physical presence, and at the same time, expands your talent base.

Given that physical interviews have become cumbersome, do you believe that technology has come forth as a welcome relief for recruiters and HR organisations amidst the COVID-19 pandemic? Do you believe that technology enabling us to do away with physical recruitment is a step in the right direction?

Yes, absolutely! Technology has been a great enabler amidst the pandemic, and with many organisations still operating remotely, I think virtual recruitment is here to stay.

If you ask me, if moving away from physical recruitment is a step in the right direction, then my response would be in the affirmative as it offers a host of advantages that make hiring more effective. It is cost-effective, accelerates the interviewing process by eliminating need for physical presence, and at the same time, expands your talent base by adding candidates based out of remote locations to the pool.

Further, virtual recruitment tools that use Artificial Intelligence (AI) not only help reduce biases, but also enhance the overall experience of candidates.

However, there may be a few roles that require strong social skills such as sales or even senior leadership roles where in-person interviews may be more effective. Just like the hybrid model of working, a hybrid model of recruitment that involves both virtual and physical mode shall be the best way forward.

Virtual Hiring is cost-effective, accelerates the interviewing process by eliminating the need for physical presence, and at the same time, it expands your talent base by adding candidates based out of remote locations to the pool.

Further, virtual recruitment tools that use Artificial Intelligence (AI) not only help reduce biases, but also enhance the overall experience of candidates. 

A survey by Gartner in July 2020 has revealed that more than 50 percent of hiring staff feel that the onboarding process within their organisation is effective in integrating new hires with the culture of the company. How do you believe organisations can make effective use of technology to ensure that the onboarding process is effective in integrating the new hires with the organisational culture?

Organisations should look at gamifying their onboarding process to make it more engaging and fun. The use of technology helps you engage with your new starters even before they join you.

One can easily convert existing reading material, culture videos, leader talks etc. into a tailored onboarding course giving newbies a slice of organisation culture and keeping their excitement high. One can also leverage technology to create social channels to host small group lunches, coffee sessions, or other casual gatherings that give a feeling of ‘water cooler’ conversations.

The joining formalities and documentation process can easily be automated to give a hassle-free experience to new starters as well as reduce manual intervention by the HR team allowing them to focus on their key core objectives.

It has been observed that the virtual environment is impacting managers since it is highly important that they coach the new recruits on organisational culture, policies and the elements of certain roles in the company. Do you believe such a thing to be a hindrance for the fresh recruits to make their mark in the job?

A newbie’s alignment to an organisation’s culture may not happen organically in a virtual environment because unlike in a physical set-up, people in a virtual environment find it difficult to observe and emulate behaviours that define an organisation’s culture. Hence, it is challenging for the managers to coach the newbies on policies and elements of certain roles and the organisational culture.

This can definitely be a hindrance for the fresh recruits to make their mark because the culture of an organisation, that comprises of its beliefs, ethos, and practices helps people stay connected with the overall mission and vision of the company.

People who are wired to the company’s vision and culture are not only more satisfied at work, but also place discretionary efforts to achieve their goals. This feeling of belonginess takes time to sync in a virtual world and may impact a new recruit’s performance.

How is technology used in the process of Recruitment and Onboarding in your organisation and what are the tools that are being used for the said processes? Basis your experience, how would you guide HR Managers while tech-driven Processes for Recruitment?

At REA India, HR technology is a separate team that comprises a Product Manager, Software Development Engineers and a QA Engineer who have developed an in-house HRIS that is flexible to adapt to changing business requirements. Our 60-day onboarding programme is completely driven and managed online via our HRIS. Right from the time an offer letter is released to the time an employee completes 60 days in the system, all the processes are completely digital.

We also have various checks and balances built in the system that support the HR team in ensuring that none of the checkpoints in a newbie’s journey get missed. Our recruitment process, on the other hand, is now on its journey of getting digitised to increase the process efficacy and experience of our candidates.

To my fellow HR practitioners and HR Managers, I would say that while tech-driven recruitment process brings in greater data insights, ease of screening, shortlisting and interviewing profiles and assess skills, however, what it still may not do for us is understanding the value system, motivators and cultural alignment of candidates to our organizational needs and demands of the role.

A keen conversation and giving a fair chance to yourself and the candidate to understand each other is an area that we must invest on.

In a research by the Aberdeen Group, it has been realised that companies that use gamification experience a significant improvement in employee engagement and happiness. Do you believe that gamification alone is sufficient for greater engagement or if organisations need to use a blend of tools?

Use of gamification is indeed a great idea and it works well with today’s workforce that largely comprises of Millennials and Zoomers. However, gamification alone is not sufficient to drive engagement because eventually we are in the business of dealing with ‘people’. Human beings inherently look for trust, camaraderie, care and personalisation at the workplace which only a gamification-based engagement model cannot achieve. For example, the human touch and personalised experience that one can get while speaking to their manager or HR shall be missing when one speaks to a chatbot.

A select few companies have been relying on Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning based smart tools for the purpose of recruitment and onboarding. Do you believe that they have been particularly effective in garnering the best talent for an organisation?

Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning are still not widely implemented in the recruitment process of many organisations and it would take some time before we can ascertain the extent to which they have been successful in bringing in the best talent.

However, one can say with confidence that they have undoubtedly enhanced the process of recruitment and onboarding. One of the hardest parts of hiring is screening candidates from a large pool, which has been largely made easy with the help of technology.

AI & Machine Learning efficiently searches the pool and even helps in bringing passive candidates to the forefront. Likewise, AI helps reduce unconscious biases that may have become a part of our hiring process. By ignoring a candidate’s age, gender, race, etc., it aids in making the recruitment process free of bias. Similarly, AI chatbots provide real-time updates to the candidates and also answer their concerns instantly, thereby, enhancing their experience.