Need to take your hiring process online? Here’s how to do it

‍The recent spread of COVID-19 is changing the definition of ‘business as usual’ as more teams and workflows shift online. With a sudden increase in employees working from home and ‘social distancing’ measures being put in place, many businesses will soon find their hiring process may also need to make the transition.  

Many leaders rely on in-person interviews to guide their hiring decisions, but with the latest tools, you can now successfully interview, assess and onboard new employees without a handshake or ‘face-to-face’ meeting.

We’ve rounded up this guide of popular online resources that can help your business shift to a fully digital hiring process.

The Video Interview

Video interviews are a great way to establish a more personal connection with the interviewee and allow the interviewer to see and hear the candidate in real-time. This allows the interviewer to make a more informed decision on the candidate’s suitability earlier in the process. Options Include:

• Zoom
• GoTo Meeting
• Google Hangouts
• Eztalks
• Skype
• Vidcruiter

Online Whiteboards

The biggest benefit for using online whiteboards during the interview process is that all interviewing participants can engage more fully. It goes beyond simple ‘screen sharing’ to enable greater collaboration on the fly.Options Include:

• Stormboard
• Mural
• AWWapp
• Invision Freehand

Online Assessments Tools

There is no shortage of online assessment tools (many Applicant Tracking Systems today have them built-in). These tools help provide you with the structure and consistency you need for a smooth hiring process and offer different ways to validate, assess and compare how well a candidate will suit the role, your team culture and geography.Some also provide assessments beyond technical capabilities and are competency- or motivation-based. At Investible, we use Fingerprint for Success which assesses a person’s attitudes and motivations to uncover natural talents and blind spots. Options Include:

• HireVue
• ConveyIQ
• Interview Mocha:  
• Mettl  
• The Hire Talent

Assessing Technical Capabilities

Assessing a candidate’s technical competency is a must for specialised roles. Online coding tests enable you compare multiple candidates with a standardised process. This speeds up the time to hire, offers greater convenience for candidates and alleviates the impact of unconscious bias. Options Include:

• Hackerearth
• Codility
• Codesignal
• Devskiller

Reference Checks

Many of these services offer more meaningful reference feedback without the hassle of you needing to chase the references yourself. This can speed up the hiring process, when you are conducting interviews across multiple time zones or to simplify high-volume recruitment.Options Include:

• Referro
• Xref
• Checkstar

Collecting Internal Feedback on Candidates

Consolidating detailed feedback along each step of the hiring process helps ensure you are getting a more complete picture of the candidate and their suitability. Information collected from your interviewers is not only useful in the hiring process. It might also be used to onboard the successful candidate, by highlighting any relevant support or training they might need to get up to speed in their role.Options Include:

• Yello
• Checkstar
• Kand.io

Assessing the Candidate Experience

It’s important to remember that the best candidate will also be assessing your business, based on their hiring experience. A bad experience could cost you a key hire. Candidate experience tools help you understand what is or is not working in the process and enable you to make changes, with minimal disruption. Options Include:

• Survey Monkey
• Typeform
• Google Forms
• Starred
• Qualtrics
• People Pulse
• JotForm

While the impact of the coronavirus has yet to be fully realised, it’s clear that businesses that can adapt quickly are best positioned to ride out the storm. By adjusting your hiring strategy to better accommodate distributed workforces, overseas talent and changing employee expectations, you can increase your chance of securing the talent you need to succeed.