Excellence in your field entails that you have excellent and hard-working people in your company. Just a few years back, walk-in interviews were the norm- a face-to-face conversation with the candidates where one would bank on the ensuing conversation to find the perfect fit for his company.
However, with the rapid advancement in technology, there emerged many new and innovative methods to find the “excellent” people we have been talking about so you need recruitment strategies.
Change is inevitable and while it might seem safer for you to depend on your instincts while recruiting, embracing new strategies would not only set you apart from your competitors but also cut down costs.
1. Asynchronous Interviewing
Diametrically opposite to face-to-face interviews, asynchronous interviewing is accommodative of the present fast-paced world. These are online interviews where the candidate decides the time and place where the interview shall take place and answers questions within a set time limit. All interviews are recorded and the interviewer browses through each at his discretion. Since the candidate has a bigger say in these interviews, he will be much more relaxed and able to perform his best. While the recruiter saves both his time and money through this method and also ensures maximum outreach. This way also helps companies reach out to a larger number of candidates. In case these interviews are recorded and saved, algorithms can also be used to do basic filtering before human recruiters take over for the last round of analysis.
2. Gamification
Also called recruitainment, the compound word perfectly captures the essence of gamification. It seeks not only to recruit but also to provide the candidates with an exciting activity to make the ordeal fun for them. It can provide the candidate with a game in the form of quizzes that test their industry-related knowledge, quests, behavioural assessments and more. So, one would not only get to test their intelligence but also understand how they cope with stressful situations, how they approach and solve a problem and more. More importantly, it creates a simulated work environment wherein the candidate is offered a glimpse into the workings of the industry.
It is also an advantageous strategy for the recruiter, as it ensures that the candidate is engaged throughout the process and does not lose interest halfway through. Since the method is more interactive, it increases the likelihood of candidates giving correct answers instead of buckling under pressure. Moreover, it acts as good PR- the millennial generation is sure to be abuzz with news of a company that makes one play games and then gives them jobs. Gamification is gaining popularity, with 29 per-cent of global business leaders using some version of the technology according to Deloitte. The car company, Jaguar is one of the top benefactors of gamification, creating over a thousand software engineering and electronics roles. Jaguar says that these games “test their curiosity, persistence, lateral thinking and problem-solving skills.”
3. Psychoanalysis
The Rorschach inkblot test is a popular psychoanalytic test made popular through movies and even cartoons. Companies use tests such as these or more generic questionnaires to assess the candidates’ inner psyche. While their intellect is an important factor in their potential recruitment strategies, psychoanalysis stresses the need for a person to be emotionally healthy as well. However, it still has room for improvement as it is purely subjective and thus unreliable to an extent. Companies use multiple rounds of interviews these days, and one of them usually deals with understanding the psychological thought processes of candidates.
4. Chatbots
Probably the easiest to set up, chatbots makes the process of recruitment easier and more straightforward recruitment strategies. Chatbots are automated systems that can interact with the user and ask him questions that can be easy and binary (questions that can only be answered in yes/no) or complex ones (whose answers are usually analysed using machine learning).
Chatbots help to lessen the load of the more trivial aspects of recruitment strategies such as collecting candidate information, screening, and ranking them based on their qualifications, engagement, experience, and more. They also act as the face of the recruiter- answering questions on behalf of them and scheduling interviews. The recruiter thus remains in contact with the candidate throughout the process hence, making the company more accessible without losing time or money.
Mya, created in 2016, is a successful example where 73 per-cent of surveyed candidates who had interacted with Mya reported they had interacted with a recruiter when they, in fact, had spoken only with the bot.
5. Virtual Machine-Based Simulations
Virtual machine-based simulations are a cloud-based system supported by a GUI application. These refer to online tests and are more useful when hiring programmers. Questions pertaining to the industry are put forward, and it requires candidates to answer within time limits in a cloud-based environment. Thus, the company saves both time and money. Usually, companies use websites such as HackerRank, which already offer such cloud-based coding exams, to filter through candidates and find the best ones. These platforms automatically generate how efficient and well written your code is. Also, VM based examinations help candidates by bringing them all to the same platform and this way anyone, from any computer, can take the exam, from any geographical area and no one would have an edge over another.
6. Augmented Reality
A 2017 Deloitte report discovered that 33 of the respondents had already some form of AI-based systems in some part or the other of their hiring workflow. Artificial-Intelligence based systems such as augmented reality are a technology that superimposes computer-generated images on a candidate’s view of the actual world. Think Pokemon Go!
Augmented reality not only streamlines the hiring process but also promotes the company’s brand and communicates its message in a compelling way to potential employees.
7. Social recruitment
In a day and age where social media is a communication hotspot, it makes sense to make use of it for job hiring. Social recruiting uses profiles, blogs, posts and more to reach out to candidates. On top of being cost effective, it does two things- helps advertise jobs and then assesses candidates who have applied for said jobs by analyzing their social media handles. Linkedin has grown to become a Facebook for job seekers as well as recruiters, and today it is the largest platform for jobs in the entire world. People not only share job posts and apply to jobs here but also build company profiles, write blog posts, share articles on their specific niches and build a network of like-minded individuals.
Conclusion
Thus, the Recruitment Strategies is not the chalk-and-cheese affair it used to be. Through technological innovations, it has grown into an exciting activity where notions of ‘first impressions’, ‘dressing for the job’ no longer matter. It’s just the candidate and the abilities that will help him land the job. As for the recruiter, technology has ensured that he steps back and lets AI recruit in his stead.
