Virtual Hiring Guide for Managers and Leaders Post-COVID-19

After furloughs, layoffs, and hiring freezes, many HR and hiring managers are now pivoting to scaling up hiring efforts in a post-COVID economy. We’re faced with recruiting and hiring in a very different landscape that may be mostly or fully remote, meaning that we have to use technology to help us find the best candidates, engage them, build relationships, and perform outreach digitally. Additionally, this new talent economy requires forward-thinking companies to assess how they can bring remote employees into their company culture and get them up to speed so they can be productive as quickly as possible.

What Business Essentials Do You Need to Hire Virtually

We may also be creating new strategies with a scaled back HR team, which means we must be able to do more with less using automation and scheduling technologies. Here, we’ll cover some tools and technology that can support your hiring efforts, from recruiting to screening to onboarding.

Video Interviews

As you scale your hiring efforts, video interviews eliminate the need for an in-person scheduled interview at the initial stage of your hiring process. You can also record these interviews to share with hiring managers, further reducing the need for second and third candidate interviews. There are two primary types of video interviews:

A one-way, or asynchronous, video interview is when an employer sends text-based interview questions to candidates who then record video answers and submit them back to the employer. It’s asynchronous because the interview participants act independently. The employer creates the questions and watches the video responses on their own time, while the candidate answers the questions at their convenience. Candidates can record their responses via webcam, and with some services, one-way video interviews can even be performed through a mobile application.

A live video interview is the second type of video interview in which an employer and candidate connect face to face via webcam. The difference between a live video interview and a standard video chat on a service such as Skype is that live video interviewing services often offer some branding and recording capabilities. Live video interviews also occur on the cloud, meaning the interviews occur right in your web browser.

Background Checks & Verification

With remote hires, identity authentication is even more critical as your HR team may not be able to assess the original documents in person. That’s where artificial intelligence (AI) technology such as Cisive’s IDVerity tool can help mitigate the risk of fraud and impersonation. Cisive’s solution forensically authenticates a candidate’s identity by validating the authenticity of their government-issued ID and then comparing it to the candidate’s self-photograph taken from their mobile device. An AI-powered tool is a simple and affordable way to verify the identity of your candidates.

The Form I-9 is a time-sensitive document that must be completed by the third business day of an employee’s hire date, but employers can actually start the I-9 process as soon as they accept an offer for employment. Take advantage of this extra time and consider using an electronic system capable of handling I-9s for remote hires. Using an electronic I-9 system can assist your company in maintaining compliance even when you use an authorized representative who is not familiar with I-9s. This is accomplished by properly walking users through each step of the process and alerting them to any potential errors as they complete the form.

New Hire Onboarding

When selecting the right onboarding tool, it is key to select a user interface that is simple, task-oriented, and works with your organization’s internal workflow. IntelliCorp's dashboard provides a real-time view into the status of current and past background checks and offers a customizable dashboard that enables HR teams to easily manage tasks associated with the new-hire process. Additionally, it allows remote applicants to complete onboarding documents such as employment applications and direct deposit forms, to name a few examples.

By enabling candidates to upload important documents from their mobile devices, HR can accelerate the onboarding process by allowing candidates to use the tools they already have. Candidate Direct from IntelliCorp for example, provides a fast and easy way for candidates and HR professionals to securely send virtually any supporting documentation required during the background screening process—from W-2 forms and passports to licenses and diplomas. When selecting a document upload tool, ensure it offers encryption technology to keep candidates’ information secure.

Candidate Engagement Is Essential and Universal

In order to maintain the same level of candidate engagement that you had before the pandemic, technology and virtual tools are key. Just as you did with in-person recruiting, screening, hiring and onboarding, the same principles for success apply to recruiting in a post-COVID talent economy. Making the process easy for your candidates allows you to maintain a strong employer brand and a robust talent pipeline.