Only 4 out of 10 employers have virtual hiring toolkits that detect candidate impersonation, according to a recent study by HirePro.

The report entitled Evolving Remote Campus Hiring Processes and Tools, was conducted to gauge the preparedness of employers and students for successful virtual campus hiring. The study witnessed participation from 66 leaders in Human Resources and Talent Acquisition, and 5,787 students across the country graduating in 2021 and 2022.  

Organizations faced numerous challenges of implementing an efficient and effective virtual hiring toolkit and achieving equity in the recruitment process.

Candidates faced obstacles during the recruitment process due to inadequate infrastructure required for virtual interviews and assessments. 

The report highlights the shortcomings in infrastructure at the students’ end and gaps in the virtual recruitment process at the employers’ end. Given the high number of students hired from campuses, verifying their identities throughout assessments, interviews, and recruiting to ensure fair selection is a challenge that recruiters face. This can be due to the finding that about 60 %of companies either use solutions that lack deep proctoring capabilities to detect candidate fraud during the process, or were unsure of their tools’ proctoring capabilities.

The report further states that , 59 %  companies believe students are well-equipped with the necessary infrastructure to participate in virtual campus hiring. However, 53 percent of the students have little or no access to internet facilities and a broadband connection at home, and only 60 percent students have access to a desktop computer or laptop to complete virtual examinations. One in every four students owns two of the following devices: a desktop/laptop, a smart phone, or a tablet. A little more than a third of students do not have access to power backup facilities. This makes it important for companies to ensure that their virtual hiring tools support process continuity by preserving interview/assessment progress and allowing students to resume  process from where it was halted.

Organizations faced manifold challenges of implementing an efficient and effective virtual hiring toolkit and achieving equity in the recruitment process. While candidates faced obstacles during the recruitment process due to inadequate infrastructure required for virtual interviews and assessments. 

“Last year, we saw organisations battling with remote campus hiring. Employers relied on makeshift solutions for assessments, interviews and onboarding of candidates,” said S. Pasupathi, COO, HirePro. He added “Remote campus hiring is here to stay, it's a process that predates the COVID-19 pandemic and became the only way to execute campus recruiting operations during the outbreak. As organisations are transforming their college hiring strategy by adopting a hybrid model for the future, our study aims to uncover the preparedness of both employers as well as students for the evolving virtual process. It provides practical insights into the processes involved in remote campus recruiting for both organisations and students or colleges / universities.” 

For campus recruitment, 95% businesses rely on popular video conference tools rather than specific video interviewing software. Employers should invest in dedicated technologies since they accommodate different formats of interviews and give candidates greater flexibility in completing the process. While a dedicated platform is able to detect fraud, employers should also maintain video logs, gather feedback, and produce real-time reports to make smoother selections.

When asked by employers to identify the areas that their hiring tool lacks scheduling assessments and interviews came out on top (16%), followed by post-offer engagement, candidates' communication, identity verification, and dashboard (14%).To add to that, , roughly a third of businesses stated their virtual hiring toolkits don't have candidate impersonation detection skills, while another third was unsure of whether or not this feature was part and parcel of their virtual hiring toolkits. Their hiring toolbox detects impersonation, according to 40% of them.

About 54 % employers find low internet bandwidth at the students’ end is a major  obstacle in conducting online assessments successfully, while 61 percent have pointed this out in the case of interviews. 45% of students have basic and unreliable internet bandwidth (less than 25 Mbps), which could seriously hamper their participation in remote interviews and evaluations. Recruiters must employ systems that allow for low-bandwidth tests and can overcome the prevalent network issues in India thereby making remote or online interviews accessible to a larger percentage of the workforce.

Around 60% of the students who were surveyed own a desktop computer or a laptop to take virtual assessments. 1 in 4 students has any two from among desktop/laptop, smart phone and tablet. A little over a third of students do not have a power backup.