We’re excited to announce that pymetrics has been acquired by Harver!
Read MoreFor the latest blogs, please visit Harver.
%402x.jpg)
Digital hiring is the process of leveraging technology to source, attract, assess, select, and hire candidates for open roles. Particularly in light of today’s health crisis, adopting more digitized processes to hire remotely is the only way companies will stay on target for their recruitment and broader business goals. This may require leveraging career websites, mobile recruiting, online assessments, social recruiting, and digital interviews-- which many organizations have never done before.
The transition may feel daunting, but the future of digital hiring is now, which is why we’ve compiled some key tips to help you jumpstart and enhance your digital hiring process. Continue reading below!
In this digital (and now remote!) working world, professionals live much of their lives online. Being present on the right digital channels puts your organization in the orbit of where candidates are already spending considerable time. Using social media networks for recruitment like LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter can help draw a significant number of candidates that you may not have been able to otherwise. Reaching out on these platforms can feel more natural and help your team develop personal relationships in lower-pressure environments, as opposed to emailing or cold calling.
Best practices include sending potential candidates direct messages on Facebook, tweeting links to open roles and including relevant hashtags to build long-term cohesion and relevance, and creating shareable video content for YouTube or Instagram that showcases your company’s mission and culture in an easily digestible way. If you wish to continue reaching out on more traditional platforms, at the very least you can use these social channels to better understand candidates’ interests and background, and then tailor messages accordingly to enhance engagement and personalization.
In a recent Glassdoor study of 1,000 job seekers, it was found that 89% use their mobile devices at some point during their job search. With so many job seekers going about their searches in this way, it’s crucial for employers to make sure their sites are mobile-friendly to capture all interested candidates as quickly as possible. This means much more than just being viewable on mobile, but rather having it configured so that pages do not require pinching or excessive scrolling to have the information relevant to the application available. Simple features like having the “Apply” button in a bright color and easy to find, in addition to the required fields being large in font and concise overall can make all the difference for completion rates. Consider cutting down on any graphics or photos you may have on the top or bottom of the page as well, as lengthier pages will only deter candidates.
Digital interviews-- not to be confused with 2-way online interviews-- are when candidates are presented with a series of predetermined questions and record themselves responding for the recruiting team to later review, instead of talking live. Not only are digital interviews one of the only interview options while working remotely, but they are also the most efficient and fair option overall. pymetrics’ Digital Interview, for example, helps companies achieve three essential benefits by using this approach to interviewing:
Efficiency: The digital interview takes the back-and-forth of scheduling out of the interview process, and removes the need for recruiters to conduct numerous live phone screens. Recruiters can watch and evaluate a higher number of interviews on their own time, ultimately reducing the time-to-hire. Our interview platform requires minimal configuration and has a 90% completion rate across our global clients.
Flexibility: Candidates going through the digital interview process can do so in comfort of their own homes, which is especially beneficial in light of the spread of infectious diseases and travel restrictions. The one-way nature of our digital interview platform allows candidates to record their responses in their own time and in their own space, and recruiters to preview and evaluate at their convenience. While recording, candidates have the option to hide their camera and timer, practice using our system as many times they want, and re-record each answer once if needed.
Standardization: During typical interviews, conversations with candidates can go in unlimited directions and the experience overall is largely determined by the person who is conducting the interview. However, with our digital interview, recruiters can record themselves asking the questions upfront; this way, all candidates are asked the same set of questions in the exact same way, ensuring fairness and rigor throughout the process. pymetrics further minimizes bias when recruiters evaluate candidates by associating each question with a competency and its behavioral anchors that are relevant and meaningful to the company or role.
The term “resume black hole” resonates with most job seekers today, and refers to the disappointing and eerie abyss into which applications tend to fall, seemingly never to be seen again. Up to 50% of candidates never hear back upon submitting their application, which is often hard to not take personally and become extremely frustrated by. This may erode your employer brand over time as more and more candidates take to the internet to share their grievances. Furthermore, keep in mind that your candidates are likely also your consumers-- the impression candidates get from interacting with your company translates directly into their impression of your brand! In the words of pymetrics’ Client Pieter Schalkwijk, Head of Talent Acquisition at Kraft Heinz, “...if we reject a candidate, I still want them to buy our ketchup.”
Feedback can take many forms, large and small, but regardless it is an essential feature of the recruiting process and is made easy by lots of digital tools available today. Even if it’s a short email confirmation that an application has been received and is pending review, or an update that processes have slowed and the candidate should expect to hear back in X timeframe, something is always better than nothing.
While providing direct feedback to every single candidate after they complete a digital assessment or interview is sometimes unfeasible, there are tools such as pymetrics that can automate feedback in a highly personalized way. The pymetrics Profile is a report that tells candidates about their attributes upon completing our games. The goal of the report is to provide the user with an overview of what we learned about them through our assessment, maximizing transparency, and to provide actionable and work-place applicable insights. A key differentiator of this report is that it provides a unique, supportive, & informative experience for users, and the report is a key engagement point for them. We have brought in members of our own Candidate Advisory Council to share what they liked about other reports to help shape this new report. It is downloadable as a PDF for candidates to keep and refer back to later.
The digital world is ever-evolving and new to all of us, so gathering constructive feedback from candidates themselves on how the recruitment experience could be improved is essential to maintaining a competitive and enjoyable process. This can be done with optional surveys after different points in the process that are short & sweet (5 questions max) to bolster completion rates-- especially if it’s being offered after the candidate has been rejected from the job. Be sure to emphasize that you value their feedback and will take it into serious consideration going forward. Once you have comments and opinions to analyze, identify the key trends and look at how you can refine your strategy, piece by piece. Remember that even seemingly small changes to the candidate experience can make a huge and positive impact!
To support your digital hiring efforts, we are offering our Digital Interview solution for free until Jun. 30. If you would like to learn more, please Contact Us here. Talk soon!