The phygital transformation of recruitment

Is a hybrid workplace one of the many changes in the new normal? It certainly seems so considering the continued reluctance of employees to come back to physical workspaces. Employers have realised that having employees attending office does not necessarily translate to increased productivity. This has led to the evolution of “phygital” workspace, which embraces both the physical and remote work environment, one that enables a collaborative environment for a mixed-presence team.

Organisations are offering a balance between in-office presence and remote working in industries and roles that are conducive to operating in a hybrid manner. Phygital offices support the hybrid working model by facilitating a unified organisation culture. It brings with it several requirements including laptops and internet connections. Going phygital means that the business needs to have supporting policies and processes in place, including those for recruitment. E-recruitment, which was the mainstay during the pandemic, is now here to stay.

According to a HirePro study on e-recruitment, 80–90 per cent of businesses moved to remote recruitment during the pandemic. In the new normal, not much has changed with 85–90 per cent of recruitment continuing to be partially or fully remote for junior, mid and senior levels. This adoption of e-recruitment is here for a good number of reasons.

The phygital transformation of recruitment

Phygital hiring is a combination of physical and digital hiring. Here some of the processes would be virtual while some would be held in a physical workspace. Most companies do not foresee going back to the old ways of hiring. In fact, businesses are realising several benefits from phygital recruitment. Cost and time savings is one of the biggest advantages across all levels of recruitment. Companies have access to a wider talent pool and are no longer limited by the geographic location of the candidate. This facilitates reaching people in smaller towns and remote areas. Intelligent recruitment solutions that leverage Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) can automate time-consuming and tedious processes such as candidate screening and assessments.

To realise the true benefits of phygital recruitment, companies must revisit their recruitment strategy. Processes that work with purely virtual or physical recruitment may not necessarily work well in a hybrid recruitment model. Organisations must acknowledge and implement transparency as part of the recruitment process. This is important to ensure efficiency in the processes and candidate confidence. Not doing so can lead to confusions downstream. In phygital recruitment, companies must also revisit policies and guidelines to determine the aspects of recruitment that would be physical and those that would be digital. For instance, the first few stages of the hiring process such as candidate screening, cognitive tests and technical competency can be conducted using virtual hiring platforms while some of the aspects such as the final interview for candidates may be held face-to-face.

Establishing well-defined and unambiguous selection criteria is an important factor in the phygital hiring process. Companies can implement online behavioural and functional assessments to drive unbiased data-driven decision making. When candidates are being interviewed, whether virtual or face-to-face, the questions need to be consistent. It’s also important to train recruiters and interviewers in the new processes to improve candidate engagement and experience. If selected candidates are going to be onboarded virtually, the process needs to be transparent and clearly explained to them so they know what to expect.

AI-driven automated recruitment processes can enable several phygital recruitment processes. For instance, companies can install chatbots so prospective candidates can get answers to common queries any time that they want. For high-volume recruiting such as campus recruitments by IT companies, online coding assessments will help save tremendous cost and time, besides providing flexibility to candidates. AI-enabled proctoring with automated candidate verification will prevent fraudulent behaviour. A comprehensive virtual hiring platform will allow a seamless blend of virtual and physical recruitment processes.

HirePro offers several leading-edge solutions that are powered by AI and ML for virtual hiring processes, right from candidate screening to virtual onboarding. All these tools can easily integrate with backend systems, offering a complete end-to-end solution for phygital hiring.

When done right, phygital recruitment can drive data-driven hiring, helping companies acquire the best talent and build a workforce of the future.