The COVID-19 pandemic caused firms to restructure candidate screening. While HR departments initially were concerned about being exposed to the virus by hosting on-site testing and interviews — or being responsible for exposing others — it wasn’t long before they shifted to an entirely virtual approach.
Now, job applications are almost universally handled online. Pre-employment assessments are taken and conducted remotely. Interviews happen courtesy of Zoom and Skype. Digital communications like AI job outreach programs enable recruiters to reach out to candidates, and texts and chatbots connect some job seekers with HR representatives. Some firms are even leveraging analytics tools to identify key applicant information.
Ultimately, the role technology plays in the hiring process has gone from an exciting new option to an absolute necessity. Everything has changed, and it will likely keep changing well into the future. So what’s next?
Candidate Screening in the Future
As we move forward, firms will continue to find ways to innovate with regard to their candidate screening processes. Adopting cloud-based software that functions both internally and externally should be a major focus, and so should casting a broader net and engaging with more applicants. As always, analyzing the results of this new approach to see what is effective and what has room for improvement is vital at every stage.
How can HR teams build on these changes for the future? Here are three ways to spark further innovation:
1. Gain a better knowledge of your candidates.
By making technical assessment tools a focus point of your hiring processes, you’ll ensure you’re never in the dark about a candidate’s potential performance or abilities. These pre-employment assessments let you understand candidates’ strengths and weaknesses and then compare them to one another. Ultimately, you can make data-driven hiring decisions based on performance-related metrics.
2. Offer an improved candidate experience.
Creating a positive candidate experience is an essential part of business success. Because the hiring experience is the first interaction most applicants have with your company, you want to offer an excellent first impression and engage them well. By positively welcoming candidates, you compel them to care about your brand — and perhaps become brand ambassadors and high-quality hires.
3. Cut costs.
Using different types of pre-employment tests can also help you cut hiring costs. Candidates can take these tests from anywhere they have an internet connection (and at basically any time). As a result, internal resources that you would typically use for every step of the hiring process — from application to testing — can instead support other initiatives.
To be certain, the pandemic has caused extensive devastation and disruption. But by learning from the changes and focusing on the positive possibilities ahead, we can break away from old paradigms and create new ways of operating that are more effective than ever before.
