How to make online recruitment work for your business

To get the most from online recruitment, start by reviewing your current hiring process. Map out each recruitment stage, such as writing the job description, setting the salary range, advertising the role, collecting applications, shortlisting candidates, arranging interviews, contacting applicants, and sending job offers.

Next, decide what you want to achieve. Do you want to attract more candidates? Speed up the hiring process? Or reduce recruitment costs?

Choose the right online recruitment tools

Once your goals are clear, select the tools to support your virtual recruitment process. Common online recruitment tools include:

Virtual recruitment fairs

Host online events to showcase your company, attracting a wider pool of candidates.

Social media

Share engaging content to build your employer brand. You can also encourage employees to share their experiences of working for your company and promote current vacancies with their online connections.

Video interview tools

Conduct online interviews conveniently for both interviewers and candidates.

Collaboration tools

This can help speed up the process for the recruitment panel, enabling them to work together in real-time and remain in sync when reviewing and shortlisting candidates.

Applicant tracking systems

Use fair and consistent scoring methods to evaluate candidates efficiently.

Recruiting chatbots

Automate responses to candidate questions, collect information, ask screening questions, rank candidates, and schedule interviews.

Candidate satisfaction surveys

You can survey candidates who have gone through your recruitment process, receive feedback, and find ways to improve or streamline the process.

Skills testing tools

These tools allow you to assess the hard skills of candidates before interviews by setting technical skill tests to ensure you hire candidates with the required skills.

Psychometric tools

Identify key personality traits in candidates that are essential for high-performance roles and can help predict success in the role.

Background check tools

Pre-employment background screening can check a candidate’s experience and qualifications without taking up valuable HR time.

Build your online recruitment team

Select and train staff to use these digital recruitment tools effectively. You may also involve other teams or departments, for example, senior managers can record videos for virtual job fairs to help promote your company. 

Promote your organisation as a great employer

Use online platforms creatively to highlight what makes your workplace special. Create short videos showing daily work, team activities, and employee testimonials to give candidates a realistic view of your company culture. This approach helps you stand out and attract top talent.

Define candidate requirements clearly

Online recruitment opens access to a larger talent pool. To manage this effectively, clearly define the qualifications, skills, traits, and experience you expect in candidates. Your job description should clearly outline essential and desirable criteria to discourage unqualified applications and make candidate evaluation easier.

Maintain strong communication with candidates

Good communication is vital and easier online. Use automated messaging, emails, or chatbots to keep candidates informed and answer common questions promptly. This improves the candidate experience without adding extra work for your recruiters.

Automate of recruitment stages wisely

Automation can make recruitment faster, less costly, and more efficient. For example, online tests can rank candidates based on skill, reducing bias by ignoring personal details like name or age. However, always ensure the candidate experience remains positive and avoid changes that might frustrate applicants.

Continuously improve your online recruitment process

Understand the strengths and weaknesses of your current recruitment process. Invite feedback from candidates, both successful and unsuccessful, and use it to make ongoing improvements. It is normal to refine your online recruitment strategy over time to get the best results.