A recent Gartner survey revealed an interesting trend in the recruitment sector: 89 per cent organisations are moving to video interviewing. Yes, the adoption of video interviews was accelerated by the social distancing norms we have been living under. This trend, however, is sure to prevail, even after the pandemic becomes a memory as organisations have been changing the way they work during this period.

A recent study by Dell Technologies states that 80 percent of businesses fast tracked their digital transformation projects in 2020. The same report also states that 90–100 percent of employees are currently working remotely. These trends, coupled with the many advantages that video interviews offer, will ensure that virtual recruitment is here to stay.

What boxes do they tick?

Video interviews have many advantages. Let’s take a look at some of them and see if they are worth your while.

Showcase your employer brand

If you wish to be ahead of the game in hiring great talent, you need to position yourself as an empathetic, employee-friendly organisation. Meeting candidates through video interviews enhances your employer brand. It gives you an opportunity to introduce the company culture and story so far, quite early in the recruitment cycle. This enhances your chance of engaging candidates by kindling a feeling of connection with the organisation. Video interviews allow you the ability to be more flexible about the interview time. It demonstrates that you value the candidate’s time and effort.

Sift through the rubble early

Traditionally, interviews have been the last step in the recruitment process. You would first sift through the candidates and call only shortlisted candidates for an interview. This is because a face-to-face interview involves time and travel for the candidate. It involves many moving parts and extra costs from the organisation’s side too. Video interviews take away this barrier. You can invite candidates for video interviews even at the initial stages of the recruitment process as it does not involve the candidate travelling to your office. This helps you engage with the candidate sooner, and shortlist suitable candidates for a more intense review which may also include another round of video interviews with key stakeholders. As you are able to identify suitable candidates quite early in the recruitment cycle, you can significantly shorten the hiring cycle. This then saves time and cost as you are able to make quality hires efficiently.

Cast a wider net

Today’s talent shortage makes it imperative that you reach a wider audience in your search for the right resource. You cannot afford to limit your search to where your organisation is physically present. Video interviews remove the geographical barrier imposed by face-to-face interviews. You can interact and select candidates from any geographical location through video interviews. If you hire only freelancers and remote workers, then you might only meet the candidate through a video interview.

Optimise your resources

Recruitment teams are stretched to the maximum with the ever-increasing demand for skilled resources. Video interviews allow them a consistent, scalable candidate screening and interviewing process flow. Video interviews are good for initial screening to assess personality, culture fit and soft skills of candidates – critical factors when you’re looking for the right hire. If there are stakeholders who cannot find the time to conduct the interview, you could record the video interview for evaluation at a later stage. This mode of asynchronous interviews allows interviewers to review the interviewee in their own time. It also gives the candidate the flexibility to take the interview at their convenience.

The arrow is swift

Recruiters are in a constant race to find the right candidate as quickly as possible. It’s not enough that you find the right candidate; you also need to hire and onboard the candidate before your competitor beats you to it. Video interviews make the decision making process swifter and easier. You’ll find that it’s easier schedule a video interview than a face-to-face interview. The interview can be recorded and used to analyse the fit of the candidate, and make a quick decision.

To enhance your hiring processes, make sure that your recruitment partner is able to conduct live video interviews with screen sharing and whiteboarding. It would also be great if your recruitment partner has the ability to embed video into the entire hiring process. Your ability to conduct video interviews successfully might be crucial to your recruitment success in the future.

Resources

• ciphr.com
• microstartups.org
• modernhire.com
• coburgbanks.co.uk
• hirehive.com
• forbes.com
• delltechnologies.com

COVID-19 brought into focus the vital role played by the healthcare industry in society’s overall well-being. It also brought to light some startling facts regarding a shortage of healthcare workers. The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates a shortfall of 18 million health workers by the year 2030 (mostly in low- and lower-middle income countries). This is due to a growing population, an ageing healthcare workforce that is retiring, a steady increase in the number of chronic diseases and the limited availability of new graduates to fill open positions.
The use of video interviewing to hire people has been gaining traction amongst healthcare hiring managers over the years. It received a boost when the pandemic started, especially for international medical and nursing recruitment.
Healthcare recruitment is mostly conducted through internal (eg. interdepartmental transfers and promotions) or external sources (outsourcing agencies and campus recruitment). The recruitment process includes group discussions and personal interviews for candidates who are shortlisted. Healthcare organisations are constantly looking for processes to minimise the time and effort involved in the recruitment process, and, hence, there has been a heavier dependence on technology-based selection tools to enhance efficiency. The increase in the use of technology not only expands the pool of applicants but also enables the use of psychometric assessment tools to evaluate candidates’ soft skills.

How video interviews make healthcare hiring easy

• The numbers game

According to a recent study ‘Size, composition and distribution of health workforce in India: why, and where to invest?’ published in a leading international journal, Humans Resources for Health, the density of active health workforce in India is a little over one-fourth of the WHO recommended threshold of 44.5 skilled health workers per 10,000 persons required for achieving the Universal Health Coverage and Sustainable Development Goals.
It is clear that our country needs to invest in increasing the number of active healthcare workers and requires an encouraging number of qualified health professionals to join the labour market. This makes high-volume hiring the need of the hour. Considering the large number of candidates to be evaluated, it is time to avoid traditional hiring methods that waste time, and cut down on time-to-hire. Video interviews are, no doubt, the best way forward. Video interview software enables easy interview scheduling and recording, and makes it easy to accelerate the overall recruitment process in healthcare.

• Fitting right in

Communication skills, patience, positive attitude, self-confidence and empathy are soft skills that are extremely vital for those working in the healthcare industry. While these skills might be difficult to judge on a traditional resume, it becomes much easier to evaluate most of these skills using a video interview software to speak to potential candidates. Healthcare has traditionally been an industry that has resisted change. However, with technologies such as blockchain, cybersecurity, IoT and AI (Artificial Intelligence) making inroads into healthcare these days, healthcare professionals also need to be tech-savvy in order to be eligible to work for high-tech healthcare organisations. Video interviews provide great insights about candidates and their level of comfort with technology.
A strong culture of support, community and teamwork is essential in healthcare organisations. This makes the recruitment of candidates who fit well into your organisational culture all the more critical. Virtual interviews make it easier to gauge the organisational fit of healthcare candidates.

• Geographic constraints are a thing of the past!

Arranging logistics for in-person interviews for all eligible candidates can be quite a challenge. Video interviews are a win-win for healthcare hiring managers as well as candidates. For hiring managers, video interviews facilitate expansion of the healthcare talent pool, enabling them to reach out to all eligible candidates with the right mix of skills. These interviews provide the added benefit of connecting personally and in real-time with candidates.
For candidates, one-way interviews provide the flexibility to record answers during a schedule convenient to them, thereby increasing their chances of engagement with the healthcare organisation. There is also the advantage of saving time and money spent on travel for in-person interviews.

• In the long run

It is clear from available statistics that the world urgently needs more healthcare workers. Given its tremendous benefits, video interviews help in attracting and hiring top healthcare talent for your team. They enable the recruitment of high-quality, diverse candidates, which, in turn, lead to better patient experience.
HirePro’s video interview software allows you to conduct live video interviews and one-way interviews to find the best healthcare talent for your organisation. Do reach out to us at 080 6656 6000 or write to us at sales@hirepro.in for a demo.

Reference

• human-resources-health.biomedcentral.com
• who.int
• marketplace.org

The Banking and Financial Services industry (BFSI) is undergoing a digital transformation, spurred by the next-generation requirements for fintech. The COVID-19 pandemic has also changed the way we work, with the banking industry being no exception to that.

The resurgence of economic activity has led to increased hiring in BFSI. Competency requirements have changed for this sector, and there is a need to recruit candidates who are technically, behaviorally and digitally competent.

Recruitment in banking — a complicated conundrum

Hiring in the banking sector can be a complex and long-drawn process.

Public sector banks in India publish notifications regarding availability of positions, well in advance. In India, there are various examinations held for banking recruitment. Exams conducted by State Bank of India (SBI), Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS), Reserve Bank of India (RBI), India Post Payments Bank (IBPP) and National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) are some of the prominent ones for public sector banks. Depending on the bank and position, the mode of selection includes tests, interviews and, possibly, group discussions. Private sector banks have their own criteria for recruitment and selection. Banking recruitment is characterised by large-scale and high-volume hiring.

Digital transformation has led to a revolution in banking operations, and brought in new skill requirements. Like most other sectors, BFSI faces a skill gap, in terms of both technical and digital competencies. Banks also face competition from other industries such as the IT industry. Banks and financial institutions have new emerging roles — data scientists, software engineers, customer relationship managers who can analyse customer preferences and so on. Traditional entry-level roles at banks are also undergoing changes, and candidates are now required to be multi-skilled.

Large-volume recruitment also means that HR teams in banks struggle with traditional recruitment processes such as reaching out to candidates, administering tests and organising multiple interviews. Manual processes lead to long waits, which could lead to job offers being turned down by selected candidates. These challenges are compounded by the remote and hybrid system of working.

Benefits of virtual hiring in banks

To attract a young workforce and draw top talent, banks need to revisit traditional hiring practices. A virtual hiring platform can mitigate several recruitment challenges for banks.

Virtual recruitment offers several advantages for BFSI. Some of these are:

• Virtual hiring is eminently suited to large-volume recruitment, as is done in the banking sector. Psychometric testing for personality, numericals or reasoning, and skills-based assessments can be conducted virtually, with automated online proctoring and AI-based identity verification. This can prove to be a huge cost and time saver.
• Virtual recruitment provides access to a wider candidate pool, and allows banks to recruit candidates in remote locations, constrained by travel requirements.
• Video conferencing and video interviews help recruiters easily connect with candidates, putting them at ease, and saving travel-related cost and time for the organisation. Asynchronous interviews let candidates record their responses to standardised questions, which, in the process, provide candidates both comfort and flexibility.
• A virtual hiring platform can greatly reduce the waiting time, and speeden up the recruitment process, with online tests and video interviews eliminating the need for travel. The platform offers an enhanced candidate experience that greatly reduces the possibility of drop-offs by selected candidates.
• Virtual hiring lets banks easily adapt to the environment. They can rescale or descale recruitment, based on need. It offers HR and recruitment teams more flexibility.
• With AI technology, banks can easily identify “right-fit” candidates based on automated match of requirements and skills, leading to a far more efficient process and saving valuable recruiter time.
• Virtual hiring platforms greatly reduce bias during recruitment by using standardised interview questions, predictive analytics to find truefit candidates and collaborative decision making with multiple rounds of interviews. The interviews can be recorded and played back if necessary.
• A virtual hiring platform offers end-to-end automation of recruitment processes, along with integration of backend systems, leading to higher efficiency and productivity for HR teams and the organisation as a whole.

HirePro’s virtual hiring platform is a complete automated remote recruitment solution, right from candidate sourcing to onboarding. Suitable for high-volume hiring, the platform offers automated screening, fraud-proof assessments, automated detection and ID verification, prevention of impersonation, flawless video interviews, offer management and virtual onboarding.

For banks, the ongoing digital transformation that requires new skills, and a changing work environment with remote and hybrid workplaces coming into play, a virtual hiring platform would streamline talent acquisition and help build a nimble, agile and innovative workforce.

The technology and Information Technology Enabled Services (ITES) industries in India have been at the vanguard of growth since the late 1990s. The pace of growth has continued to be rapid: growth estimates of the IT and ITES sectors YoY in the decade up to 2030 range from 10 percent to 30 percent.

It’s not surprising that Tech and ITES have been topping the lists of industries that are on a hiring spree. For example, just the top three IT services players, Wipro, Infosys and TCS, are expected to hire 1.05 lakh people in FY22. New product innovators are not far behind. According to international banker Credit Suisse, “…against 336 listed companies with a ~$1 billion market capitalisation, there are now 100 unicorns in India with a combined market capitalisation of $240 billion.” These unicorns, of course, need talented employees. As per Naukri JobSpeak’s June 2021 Index, hiring demand from the IT sector was 163 percent higher than June 2020. Even if we were to take a conservative view of such developments, over the next few years, the two sectors will need to source millions of candidates.

Some of the ‘hot’ roles that the IT and ITES sectors have been hiring for, circa 2021, include:

• Cybersecurity and Risk Analysts
• Smart Machine/IT Product Installers
• Cloud Security and Development
• Enterprise Resource Planner
• Android/iOS Developers
• Software Developers
• System Engineers
• Networking Engineers
• Domestic IT Helpdesk Attendants
• CRM Domestic Voice.

The IT industry requires a smart, technically trained workforce, while the ITES industry requires tech-savvy talent with superior communication and people skills.
Where is this talent to come from? The answer: everywhere. The gap between demand and supply cannot be bridged by sticking to the metros.

Thanks to the quiet drives by successive governments over the last few decades, science and engineering colleges have proliferated in the hinterlands, producing tens of thousands of qualified candidates.

In the last year and a half, pandemic-hit tech professionals have given up expensive rentals in the metros and migrated back to their hometowns. As we slowly edge into the post-pandemic world, these professionals have been bargaining with employers to remain in their hometowns and take advantage of technology to continue in their roles.

To reach both new and experienced hires, recruiters must broaden their footprint beyond tier-1 cities and reach talent in far-flung parts of the country. Online, video-driven hiring is the perfect solution for recruiting in this brave new, geographically dispersed world.

Video interviews can offer recruiters the advantages of a face-to-face interaction and assessment, minus the barriers of distance. AI-powered video interview platforms such as the one from HirePro allow recruiters to conduct impersonation-proof interviews.

Perhaps one disadvantage of going the video interview route is the very real problem of low bandwidths that still plague our country, the exception being the big cities. HirePro’s solution is custom designed to overcome this issue, and it is well-tested at multiple network speeds. Recruiters are able to reap the benefits of high quality interviews with HirePro even at bandwidths as low as 128 kbps.

Once the format is decided, what about the workflow? Mirroring the older formats, video interviews typically have multiple stages:

• Shortlisting candidates
• Screening interview
• Interview rounds with hiring managers/teams (could range from one to three or four)
• Job offer
• Background checks.

As one might expect, all these stages can be conducted at their optimal best on video hiring platforms. Once the candidates are shortlisted, the interview stage begins.

Right from the screening interview, IT candidates may have to be assessed on their analytical and problem-solving skills via live brainstorming or coding sessions. Additional capabilities platforms such as HirePro offer live coding, whiteboarding, screen-sharing and digitised feedback, which can be invaluable for technical interviews. HirePro offers a library of coding questions and supports 28 programming languages to augment these sessions.

Asynchronous interviews are possible as well, offering interviewers and recruiters magnitudes of flexibility that are not possible in campus or live settings. As any recruitment specialist will aver, scheduling synchronous interviews, especially with hundreds of candidates, can be a logistical nightmare.

Video interviews can be conducted in group formats too during any of the interview rounds, should a group discussion be deemed necessary.

This narrative highlights how the happy confluence of societal, technological and economic factors can lead to path-breaking innovations with immediate benefits for a user base. The capability to perform video interviews is one such innovation, positively impacting the recruitment community, hiring sectors and candidates.

Employee onboarding is the process of integrating new hires into the company and making them feel welcome in the team. While companies had, over the years, started digitising several parts of the onboarding process, remote onboarding received the fillip it needed during the pandemic, when companies pivoted from a mostly offline onboarding to a 100 per cent online onboarding. Onboarding has always been a crucial business function. A study found that 69 per cent of employees are likely to stay with a company for at least three years if the onboarding is done right.

Onboarding is a journey

There was a time when onboarding started after the candidate joined the company and used to be a week-long affair. It involved a series of staid presentations and mostly one-way communications by the HR department, finance and business heads, and in some cases, CEOs.

Cut to the present; onboarding now starts even before the candidate’s first day at office and ends only a few months or even up to a year after the candidate has been with the organisation.
The Gen-Z (roughly born in the years 1996 to 2012) is the latest wave of professionals entering the workforce and their demands from their work are different from that of the previous generations. To keep Gen-Z employees excited about their new workplaces, organisations need to have clear communication plans in place. Organisations must distinctly convey their vision and how these new employees fit into it. Not communicating well with Gen Zers could be a recipe for disaster, leading to demotivated employees who eventually quit and jump ship.

Focus on the human touch

The initial months after joining an organisation can be exciting as well as overwhelming, even for seasoned professionals. Add to that, the stress of employees who would have joined the organisation during the pandemic and did not have a chance to interact with their colleagues in person.

To mitigate these challenges, managers must reach out to employees as soon as they accept job offers, and engage with them frequently, setting clear expectations on the work required of them. An onboarding buddy system could be rolled out for all the new hires to help them ease into the organisation. The key is to maintain the human connection, make employees feel a part of the org-family and bring a sense of camaraderie, despite the isolation!

Choose the right tech tools

The pandemic has pushed companies over the technology tipping point and accelerated digitisation in all areas; from internal operations, to customer and supply chain interactions. The adoption of technology makes the onboarding processes smooth and seamless. No wonder technology has made inroads into several aspects of onboarding; be it orientation, constant communication during the pre-boarding stage, first-day experiences, training and assessments, or goal setting and expectation management. Given that technology is the future of onboarding, organisations should be willing to embrace it to navigate the new workplace and be future-ready.

Background screening is vital

Finding the right and the most qualified candidate for a post is certainly no walk in the park for recruiters. Even after the candidate is selected, companies must not fail to perform a thorough background check of the candidate during the pre-boarding stage, even if this step is a laborious process. When the job market is difficult, several candidates do not hesitate to overstate educational qualifications or enhance their job histories. In fact, a survey done by Checkster, a reference checking company, found that 78 per cent of candidates admitted they did or would consider misrepresenting themselves on their application. Background checks also serve the purpose of vetting the information provided by potential candidates. What needs to be kept in mind is that your employees’ past history can speak volumes on their success and fit in your organisation.

When companies get the onboarding of their new hires right, it is an affirmation to the new hires that they made the right choice in deciding to join the organisation. Global analytics and advice firm Gallup found that only 12 per cent of employees strongly agree that their organisation does a great job onboarding new employees.

As we look into the future, it seems quite apparent that along with work, onboarding is also set to become hybrid — with certain processes that will remain best done in person while others are done online. With drastic changes in the world of work, onboarding is bound to undergo several reinventions as companies get innovative in their attempts to nurture and retain top talent. The good news is that in the new world of work, introduction of the right kind of technology and an increased focus on wellbeing herald a better future than we have known before.

HirePro customises the onboarding experience as per a company’s needs. HirePro’s SaaS-based platform automates the post-offer engagement and ensures adherence to compliance guidelines. Write to sales@hirepro.in for further information on customising your onboarding process.

References

www.gallup.com
www.shrm.org
www.checkster.com

Organisations have had to rework their old onboarding methodology to fit into the virtual mould. With virtual workspaces becoming indispensable for an organisation’s growth and success, so has online employee onboarding. Pre-onboarding is the relatively new entrant to the onboarding vocabulary.

What is pre-onboarding?

The period between a new hire accepting a job offer and joining is the pre-onboarding period. It is a crucial time because this is when new hires could be considering other offers too. Assuming at par financial packages, the only differentiating factor between job offers could be the quality of the virtual association before joining. Processes implemented during this period can also be referred to as the post-offer follow-up (POFU) processes.

Onboarding vs pre-onboarding

Onboarding begins the day a new hire officially joins the organisation. It lays the foundation for a new hire’s future experience with the organisation. Traditionally, this is when the formalities of a new job usually need to be fulfilled—filling up forms, meeting people, getting to know the organisation and its culture, and getting familiar with the work processes.
Many companies are implementing some of these activities in the pre-onboarding period and many are in the process of doing so. Pre-onboarding sets the stage for the onboarding process.
Virtual onboarding is no longer a novel idea; almost all tech companies are on it now. There are tools available to make it an easier process. HirePro’s AI-powered onboarding tool does just that. It automates the post-offer process and can be customised to fit any ATS a client uses.

Why is pre-onboarding important in the employment process?

The thread that binds a new hire to an organisation until joining day is a tenuous one.Bersin by Deloitte says that 4 per cent of new hires leave their jobs after a disastrous first day and almost 22 per cent leave within the first 45 days of joining. The virtual workspace has opened doors for everyone. While companies can now get work done from anywhere, the present-day talent pool is taking advantage of the virtual set-up too. Losing an employee so early in the talent acquisition process is expensive for the organisation.

To give their new hires the best virtual pre-onboarding and onboarding experience possible, organisations must make the most of the virtual platforms available.

• Reduce chances of early attrition: A well-planned pre-onboarding process leads to more streamlined processes, more engaged new hires, and less employee turnover. New hires who are exposed to very short onboarding programmes end up feeling confused and lost; so a programme that stretches from 90 days to a whole year will best serve the interests of the organisation. This being a relatively long period of time, it could be effectively programmed to start cultivating a strong corporate culture.
• Tackle pre-joining jitters: The uncertainty of the first few days of a new job are always nerve-racking, even if it’s virtual. Gallup recommends HR leaders to begin a new hire’s experience by addressing psychological needs instead of starting with the formal requirements. The questions troubling a fresher could be mundane, but nevertheless worrying. What is the boss like? What is the team manager like? Will I get along with the team? An organisation can use this opportunity to empower the new talent with relevant information.
• Get administrative work done: A large part of administrative paperwork can be completed during this period so that it doesn’t crowd the first days of work and make them tedious.
• Get to know the new hire early: Virtually meeting the new hire and answering any questions about the organisation and job profile will boost the employee’s confidence and give him/her a good feel about the organisation.

How to enhance a new hire’s understanding of the organisation:

• Send a personalised welcome email before the first day and create a great first impression. After all, “You never get a second chance to make a good first impression!”
• Present the mission and vision of the organisation to the new hires. They will need enough information to feel empowered and inspired to help meet the organisation’s goals.
• A virtual address by either the CEO or someone senior will help the new hires get to know a person they are unlikely to interact with on a regular workday.
• Present videos to explain the culture of the organisation. New hires need to know how the organisation resolves problems and rewards people, and how people behave with each other everyday.
• Introduce the team to the new hire. It will ease the stress of fitting into a new team.
• A video to explain a day in the life of a young employee will be an interesting presentation too. The organisation’s thoughtfulness will be appreciated.
• Establish a virtual buddy system. New hires can be matched with a seasoned employee who could advise and answer questions. Research shows a significant boost in new hire proficiency when a buddy programme is implemented.
• Stay in touch with a new hire until joining day. This can help alleviate doubts and questions. An organisation with a process that keeps an ongoing communication with a new hire is unlikely to lose talent.
• Help the new hires get familiar with new tools. Send them the necessary learning materials too.
• The pre-onboarding process can be made enjoyable by including activities such as virtual coffee chats, lunches and office tours, among others. All these experiences drive engagement and retention.

Put your best foot forward

Pre-onboarding is not for the benefit of the new employees alone; it has an impact on business too. For example, it hardly needs mentioning that today’s generation is a plugged-in generation and every time they change a job, they talk about it on social media. An effective pre-onboarding and onboarding experience increases the chances of them sharing positive and constructive information about the organisation.
As per a Brandon Hall Group study, organisations that have a strong onboarding process improve productivity by over 70 per cent, and new hire retention by 82 per cent. A complete starter programme that includes pre-onboarding, onboarding, and training can enhance employee ramp time by 30 per cent. Undoubtedly, organisations must continuously look at improving the onboarding experience using virtual onboarding tools.

References:

• www.forbes.com
• www.greenhouse.io
• www.linkedin.com
• www.allthingstalent.org
• www.gallup.com

The duration of a hiring process is often a source of frustration for recruiters and hiring managers. Over the years, employers have seen their time-to-hire, which is 3–4 weeks on average, progressively increase. Besides, it is a well-known practice for job seekers to continue looking for a job even after they have received a job offer.

In today’s candidate-driven market, where candidates generally have more than one job offer in hand, Post-Offer Follow Up (POFU) initiatives have a huge impact on why they would choose your organisation over others. Candidates tend to reach a decision after gaining insights about their future workplace and home in organisations that will value them more.

Here are some reasons why POFU initiatives are recommended for your organisation:

Provide access to information and keep candidates engaged

The lack of direct and clear communication, basic information and proactive guidance may deter candidates from joining your organisation. POFU initiatives include post-offer package or pre-onboarding kits consisting of introductory videos by top management, videos on company culture, a list of points of contact to reach out to for queries and details of pre-onboarding formalities; weekly newsletters; and sharing useful resources and links via email. These initiatives help candidates understand your organisation better and give them the flexibility to access information at their convenience. Communicating with candidates on a regular basis and responding promptly to their concerns keep candidates engaged and invested in your organisation, thereby increasing the probability of in-demand candidates joining your organisation.

Bridge gaps between candidates and your organisation

One of the reasons why making offers to candidates do not always translate into successful recruitment is that the candidates are often unfamiliar with your organisation and its work culture. The information they possess may stem from your organisation’s website and social media accounts, as well as word-of-mouth. However, these sources may not always paint an accurate picture of the experience they are likely to have if they were to join your organisation. POFU initiatives such as arranging a meeting or an interaction session with a handful of current employees give them an opportunity to network and bond. Sharing their background, goals, interests and hobbies, makes them feel welcome and comfortable. Keeping the tone of these interactions casual and approachable helps them imbibe the organisation’s culture in an unintimidating environment.

Improve offer to joining ratio

Extending an offer letter to a candidate does not constitute the final stage of recruitment as candidates may continue to apply for jobs elsewhere, attend interviews and weigh their options for several days before accepting your offer. POFU initiatives that ensure meaningful candidate engagement throughout the recruitment process help in substantially increasing the offer to joining ratio. POFU interactions with candidates through texts, calls, emails and newsletters not only help you to feel the pulse of the candidate but also provide the candidate a wholesome idea of what they can expect from your organisation. Besides, nourishing candidate experience at every stage ensures successful onboarding of the most sought-after candidates.

Enhance your employer brand

Regardless of whether a candidate decides to join your organisation or not, ill-conceived or inadequate POFU initiatives adversely impact your employer brand, denting your organisation’s image as an employer of choice. POFU initiatives such as providing constructive feedback to candidates at every step of the hiring process show that you genuinely care about their professional development. Candidates who have had a positive POFU experience and decide to accept the offer tend to stay with organisations for a long time. In fact, candidates who decide not to accept the offer but have had a favourable POFU experience are more inclined to apply for future opportunities in your organisation as they will continue to hold your organisation in high regard.

Make candidates feel valued

After an offer has been made, candidates may feel left in the lurch in the absence of any conscious efforts to keep them engaged. Sparse communication or lacklustre interaction from their points of contact within your organisation can leave them feeling alienated. Showing candidates that you value them can have a positive impact on their decision to join your organisation. POFU initiatives in this direction include constructive two-way feedback between your organisation and the candidates, and discussions on their career development. When candidates see that you care about their opinions, take time to provide suggestions for improvement and are willing to support their continued learning, their decision to accept your offer gets strengthened.

Conclusion

Most candidates believe that the way they are treated during the hiring process is indicative of how they would be treated as an employee. Well-crafted and implemented POFU initiatives, which show candidates that you are supportive and invested in them, go a long way in improving candidate experience. POFU initiatives not only speed up the onboarding process but also improve the likelihood of retaining employees in the long run. HirePro, an AI-powered end-to-end recruitment platform, enables you to deploy POFU initiatives seamlessly and effectively. Explore HirePro to harness AI-powered automation for frictionless screening, assessments, interviews, offer management, communication, onboarding, and more.

Organisations have embraced technology like never before, and practices such as virtual hiring, virtual onboarding, remote working, etc have become the norm today. Ever since the pandemic struck, HR services have switched to the process of virtual onboarding to continue their work uninterrupted.
Virtual onboarding is the process of integrating a new employee into an organisation virtually, instead of in-person, using online resources like video conferencing, webinars, etc. Onboarding procedures include document submissions by candidates, familiarising new employees with their roles and teams, a company culture walkthrough, and sessions to explain terms of service.
A good technology partner can help organisations ensure a smooth onboarding process for their new hires. Human Resources now work with exponentially larger talent pools unbound by geographical locations. But how does this sudden shift impact employer branding? Let’s take a look.

Offers a competitive edge

Highly effective virtual onboarding and orientation are known to increase retention by up to 82 per cent. Therefore, many leading organisations maximise efficiency and effectiveness by engaging new employees early on, much before their first day on the job. Onboarding is the first step in the path to productivity, collaboration and continuous development. The ever-evolving work environment of the present day is compelling employers to develop onboarding and orientation programs that engage employees early with tools and support that go well beyond the first week at work.

Demonstrates company values and culture

A sound onboarding programme makes a powerful first impression and infuses the organisation’s cultural brand with the new hire. It can make up for the lack of in-person interaction by creating virtual opportunities for new hires to engage with people in the organisation and helping them get to know the organisation’s culture.

Makes it easy for the new hire

Impactful onboarding programmes that fuse company culture with information, and augment it with assigning a colleague or mentor during the initial training period, could help create a sound path for the new hire. Not only do buddy engagements ease the new hire, but they also ensure work and team alignment. This commitment creates the right level of expectations, raises performance and brings tremendous returns early in the career.

Accessibility to the leadership team

Virtual onboarding makes accessing the organisations’ leaders simple and seamless. By sharing articles and recorded orientation videos from senior executives and arranging one-on-one sessions with the new hire, a sense of inspiration and confidence is instilled right from the start. It also builds a strong sense of purpose and conveys to the new employee that he or she is important to the organisation. It emphasises that the organisation they have chosen has an approachable, active, and involved leadership.

Proof of tech-savviness

Millennials and Generation Z employees are likely to have a favourable outlook towards virtual onboarding and view the organisation as technologically advanced. Most workers will appreciate the opportunity to onboard remotely in their space and at their pace given that the process needs to be simple, smooth and seamless. Using new tools and applications may be challenging for some, however, through guidance and necessary assistance the employer can create a comfortable and friendly environment.
Though virtual onboarding is a more efficient system in terms of time and cost, it is not without its set of challenges. The new employee could take longer to understand his or her role and get integrated into the team. There may be gaps in communication. The culture and values may not be very clear at the start. Adopting the right virtual onboarding tools and best practices can mitigate these challenges and enhance the employer’s brand image.

It is critical for recruiters to seamlessly implement the virtual onboarding process and ensure that the entire process of remote onboarding is easy, engaging and encouraging right from day one, thereby demonstrating a meaningful and collaborative work culture for the new employees. HirePro’s AI-powered and highly customisable virtual onboarding platform enables employers to deliver a smooth virtual onboarding process.

The Big, Big Reshuffle?

How the pieces are positioned across the Great Employment Chessboard in 2021-22

Sometimes, it pays to take a step back from the hustle and bustle of daily life — the hiring drives, sifting through resumes, reviewing results, planning for next year — and reflect on happenings in the marketplace. Innocuous shifts today could signal tectonic movements down the road. We may be caught up in the eye of a storm and mistake the calm for smooth seas ahead.

As 2021 ages and a fresh, new year makes its way onto the calendar peg on the wall, it’s time to look back on the year gone by and sift through the tea leaves to ponder: what’s up ahead?

For recruitment specialists and HR leaders, we’re in one such moment today. Put aside the recruitment platforms and video interview tools for a minute. Pause the campus drives you’re planning for a bit. The pandemic is waning — or is it? What does it all mean for the recruitment industry?

“Over the past year, no area has undergone more rapid transformation than the way we work. Employee expectations are changing, and we will need to define productivity much more broadly — inclusive of collaboration, learning, and wellbeing to drive career advancement for every worker, including frontline and knowledge workers, as well as for new graduates and those who are in the workforce today. All this needs to be done with flexibility in when, where, and how people work.”

Satya Nadella, CEO at Microsoft. Microsoft’s Work Trend Index reports that 41 per cent of the worldwide workforce are considering a job change in the next year, and 46 per cent are planning a ‘major career transition’.

As per the US Bureau of Labor and Statistics¹, four million people tendered their resignations in July 2021, underscoring the ‘Great Resignation’ idea proposed by Prof Anothony Klotz of Texas A&M University. Harvard Business Review notes, “…Resignations peaked in April and have remained abnormally high for the last several months, with a record-breaking 10.9 million open jobs at the end of July².” The attrition has been particularly severe in the technology and healthcare industries, and most felt in the middle management tier.

Closer home in India, tech services giants Wipro, Infosys and Tech Mahindra have experienced attrition rates of over 20 per cent for the quarter ending September 2021, a big jump from previous quarters. In fact, the numbers are probably starker in India than globally: Microsoft’s 2021 Work Trend Index reports that a whopping 62 per cent of the Indian workforce has contemplated calling it quits this year, compared to 41 per cent globally.

“Our customers are seeing double-digit attrition numbers and they’re looking to partners like us. They are also automating a lot of things because of the shortage of labour. All these three things put together are creating a need for more tech services and jobs.”
– Sanjay Jalona, L&T Infotech. [Attrition rate: 19.6 per cent]

Why the Big Quit?

The writing has been plain on the wall for a while now: We’re in a talent crisis, precipitated by the pandemic. As industry insiders, analysts and HR leaders attempt to dissent the reasons why, some clear patterns have emerged:

• • Globally, employees are burned out⁴, particularly those working remotely. HBR found that quit rates were higher among employees who were in roles that had experienced heavy workloads during the pandemic. This is probably healthcare (uptick of 3.6 per cent in resignations) and technology (increase of 4.5 per cent).

67 per cent of all employees opine that burnout has worsened during the pandemic. Employee Burnout Report: COVID-19’s Impact and 3 Strategies to Curb It, Indeed.com⁵

• Some sneer⁶ that this is a phenomenon brought on by millennials who have never experienced hardship before. But the pervasive feeling of gloom and doom brought on by the pandemic has acted as a forcing function for many.
• Even mid-career professionals (especially mid-career professionals) are beginning to question if the fat paypacket is worth it if they’re stuck in traffic for two hours a day and shuttle between a tiny apartment and tinier cubicle. HBR estimates that employees between ages 30 and 45 have demonstrated the greatest increases in resignation rates.
  The forced ‘WFH’ has given the time for many to contemplate: Hometown or city? Suburbia or central business district? Traffic, noise and pollution in urban isolation over serene surroundings closer to family? The lure of the hometown or the suburb has been irresistible for many: PwC estimates⁷ that almost a quarter of all employees are planning (or implementing) moves 50 or more miles away from an office location. Anecdotal evidence in Indian companies suggests that many employees have opted to go ‘complete hometown’, taken pay cuts to permanently settle in their ‘native’ and work in the same roles.
  One thought that is driving this mid-career phenomenon is that companies may have become averse to hiring less-experienced candidates, as they prefer more experienced and trained personnel working remotely. This is evidenced by the dip in attrition among younger workers. This move by companies has resulted in higher leverage for mid-career professionals, giving them more choices and opportunities to explore.
• The move to completely remote work — particularly for knowledge workers — has closed the hallway conversations and coffee-break-time chats. The feeling of meaningful connection with a team is lessened, making it easier to evaluate other jobs or openings.
• Remote job openings have quintupled, as per some estimates. While hiring managers may rejoice that their talent pool has opened up, the flip side of the equation is that the number of companies accepting remote work as the norm has increased too, leading to more competition.
• There are many untold, hidden stories in the numbers: a record three million women have dropped out of the workforce⁸ in the US during the COVID crisis, underscoring the ongoing childcare and eldercare crisis that the country is facing. In India, media reports note⁹ that the Labour Participation Ratio (LPR) is at an all-time low of 42 per cent – meaning close to 60 per cent of employable people are just not looking for work.

¹www.bls.gov/news.release/jolts.nr0.htm
²www.hbr.org/2021/09/who-is-driving-the-great-resignation
³www.newindianexpress.com/business/2021/nov/21/the-great-attrition-its-a-difficult-time-to-be-a-boss-2386165.html
⁴www.hbr.org/2021/02/beyond-burned-out
⁵www.indeed.com/lead/preventing-employee-burnout-report
⁶www.buzzfeednews.com/article/annehelenpetersen/millennials-burnout-generation-debt-work
⁷www.pwc.com/us/en/services/consulting/workforce-of-the-future/library/workforce-pulse-survey.html
⁸www.cbsnews.com/news/covid-crisis-3-million-women-labor-force/
⁹ www.thewire.in/economy/why-the-drop-in-indias-labour-participation-rate-cant-be-ignored-by-policymakers

A Data-Driven Plan to Combat the Big Quit

Now that we know that the ‘Great Resignation’ is indeed happening, what can hiring managers and recruiters do to navigate this movement? How are HR leaders to meet recruitment targets and ensure that their greatest assets, namely, people, are supported?

Industry specialists at HirePro have put together a three-step plan, backed by our analysis of happenings, that may serve as a foundation for recruiters:

1. Be data driven

• Recognise the trends in your particular industry. While healthcare and tech have experienced upticks in their attrition numbers (20%+), manufacturing and BFSI (18%) have been relatively better off¹⁰. Do your due diligence to determine whether the problem exists.
• Identify the retention rate in your company. Benchmark it against historic rates. HBR recommends the following formula for retention rate calculation:Turnover Rate = Number of Separations per Year ÷ Average Total Number of Employees
  Determine the rate per quarter for 2021, and check it against rates for pre-pandemic years.

The data will indicate whether the problem is real in your company. If it is, it is time to go to the source — your employees.

2. Identify root causes

• Seek out WFH employees (past and present) and perform qualitative research to find issues.
  Interviews with current remote employees, as well as with employees who may have quit over the last year, may elicit key insights.
  Despite the support companies are giving employees, many still feel burned out and unsupported by the employer for reasons big and small — from inadequate internet connectivity to being online for longer hours. Find the reasons.
• Quantitative surveys of employee satisfaction may bring more insights. Now may be a good time to send out an employee satisfaction survey to your pool of talent. A simple but rigorous survey can elicit feedback that can drive your planning for 2022 and beyond.

3. Develop retention strategies that work for your organisation

HR leaders are evaluating and building a panoply of strategies to support employees through 2022. Here are some suggestions.

• Evaluate if complete WFH may work for your teams (with possible pay cuts). Support remote workers with the tools and technologies they need to stay productive. Many companies, especially the small and medium ones, have gone completely virtual, offering a new way of living and working to everyone in the organisation.
• Combat employee ennui with reskilling and upskilling initiatives. Evaluate if paid time off will help — time dedicated to reskilling and reorienting to new career paths or volunteering. Your highly skilled mid-level employees are valuable. Find out what it takes to help them navigate the new normal.
• Build F2F meets and events into the 2022 calendar to foster team spirit. Establish a cadence of face-to-face meetings, whether weekly, monthly, or quarterly; they can serve as the elixir of personal connect that many are hungry for.
• Keep an eye on pandemic developments and evaluate when the time is right for return to office, complete or partial. Work with your CxO suite on a long-term strategy for the company. Many factors such as productivity, costs and customer demands come into play for this conversation. Several large orgs in India, such as CapGemini, have started return-to-work initiatives.

I would expect to see a post pandemic work organization as one that moves away from a one-size-fits-all approach towards one that allows individual and asynchronous organisation of work and work settings.
Professor Dr. Isabell Welpe, Organizational Researcher at the Technical University of Munich.

Going forward, not all roles need to be all remote all the time. Conversely, not all roles need to be all office all the time either. The hybrid workplace is well and truly here to stay. The onus will be on the HR leader to build a supportive, productive workplace with a framework of policy, technology and adroit planning that supports the organisation’s strategic objectives.

HR leaders who recognise the movements across the great employment chessboard and plan proactively can build this workplace, converting the ‘Big Quit’ to the ‘Big Reshuffle’.

Finding the right fit for a role is often a mad scramble in the current job market. Most recruiters dash off an offer letter as soon as they identify the right candidate and then wait for the candidate to join their organisation. This is like dropping a vital catch during a cricket match. They missed a vital link in the recruitment process — onboarding. Your onboarding process should be so engaging that candidates should feel compelled to join your organisation, and stay on too. “With up to 20 per cent of staff turnover occurring within the first 45 days of employment, a standardised onboarding process is essential,” states a recent HBR article.

A few years ago, onboarding was a purely transactional onboarding process that required new hires to share relevant documentation, and the company to share policies and handover hardware. The story has changed since. Today, onboarding is an opportunity to introduce new hires to their team members and the organisation’s culture. Your onboarding process should enable an employee to get acquainted with the new work environment and allow you to set expectations. A successful onboarding process will enable the new hire to understand his or her role in the organisation and become productive at the earliest.

Every organisation can choose an onboarding style that suits its culture. Some organisations prefer to have a more formal onboarding process that includes workshops and training sessions. While others choose to use a buddy system where the new hire is encouraged to shadow other people in the team and learn on the job.

A transparent and engaging onboarding process has become more crucial than ever. With remote work becoming the norm, a strategic and streamlined virtual onboarding process is the name of the game. In a remote work environment, new hires do not get to personally meet anyone during the recruitment and hiring process. Virtual or remote onboarding introduces new hires to the organisation without bringing them into the workplace for conventional onboarding meetings and training. Instead, these activities take place via video conferencing, webinars, online interactive exercises, and other technologies.

When Covid-19 forced most of the world into remote work environments, organisations resorted to virtual onboarding to meet the changing resource demands. Even now, when we are returning to normal, a hybrid model of office and remote work seems to be the way forward. Virtual onboarding offers unique advantages that have changed the way we view the entire onboarding process.

A well-managed virtual onboarding process:

• Is easy to set up
• Saves time and resources
• Delivers consistent training quality
• Enhances employee engagement

You might have been able to get away with a reactive, on the fly onboarding process when it was in person. But today it is imperative that your virtual onboarding process is designed to be seamless, dynamic and informative. In short, the impact of virtual onboarding post covid-19 on employee retention cannot be underestimated.

It’s an employee market out there!

Josh Bersin recently predicted that we are entering the hottest job market in a decade. While this prediction must sound like manna to most job seekers, it sounded warning bells all over the recruitment world. A look at the unemployment trend depicted by the Center for Monitoring Indian Economy will make those warning bells toll with more urgency. The unemployment rate in India hovers around 7.8 percent in Dec 2021. This is a significant improvement from an unemployment rate of 9.06 per cent in 2020. This rate ballooned to 11.84 per cent in May 2021. Now it’s inching down.

A recent Gartner report states, “ IT spending in India is forecast to total $101.8 billion in 2022, an increase of 7% from 2021”. This forecast also lends credence to the prediction that the coming year will be an employee’s market.
A favourable job market encourages employees to look around and shop for better conditions. This, in turn, will mean that organisations will have to scramble to fill existing roles as well as the new roles. Job advertising, employment branding and other aspects of recruitment will be marked as survival skills by organisations in this market.

But is it enough to spread your net and extend an offer to the best candidate? In today’s job market, candidates are more likely to make a decision after they have two or three offers in hand. In such cases the candidate will evaluate the offer made, on the basis of a few factors such as:

• Stronger career path and more opportunities
• Better compensation and benefits
• Employer brand and company culture

It’s imperative that you make such a good impression with the candidate that they keep your offer at the top of their list. An onboarding process that allows the candidate to engage with the company will go a long way in keeping you high up in the employee ranks. You will see a marked improvement in your offer to joining ratio if you implement a strategic and engaging virtual onboarding process.

The high price of attrition

Organisations pay a high price for attrition in a tight labour market like the current times. It can cost two to three times the first year’s salary to replace someone. This calculation is based on what you would have spent on advertising, recruiting, onboarding and training the new hire. It also includes the loss of productivity. The chart below demonstrates that it’s worth your while to spend time and effort on onboarding and acclimatising the new hire.

A study by Digitate indicated that a negative onboarding experience makes employees twice as likely to move jobs in the future. If a new hire walks out of a role because of a negative onboarding experience, it will effectively double your cost and time to hire. The data given below clearly demonstrate why you should have a structured approach to your virtual onboarding process.

• Organisations with a strong onboarding process improve new hire retention by 82 per cent.
• According to research done by the Corporate Leadership Council, a positive onboarding process increases productivity by about 20 per cent when they’re subjected to an effective staff onboarding programme.
• A study by Wynhurst Group indicates that newly-hired staff are 58 per cent more likely to work at their respective companies if a well-structured employee onboarding practice is put in place.
• According to Human Capital Institute (HCI), 87 per cent of organisations that have a buddy programme as part of their onboarding process say that it’s an effective way to improve new hire proficiency.

In fact, the efficiency of your new hire process could even impact your ability to attract employee referrals. A study by Digitate indicates that only 20 per cent of new hires are likely to recommend an employer after a mediocre onboarding experience. This is a huge loss for the organisation as employee referrals are a very reliable pipeline for suitable candidates.

The million dollar question!

So, how does a good onboarding process impact your offer to joining ratio and retention?

It enables you to give clear direction and optimise the performance of new hires.

It is to your advantage that your new hire joins the mainstream as early as possible and becomes productive. An AI powered onboarding platform would introduce new hires to your systems and processes quickly and efficiently.

It helps set short-term goals for new employees and keeps them engaged.

If new hires are left to fend for themselves, they will lose interest and eventually start looking for new jobs. A virtual onboarding process that keeps in constant touch with the new hire and helps them set short-term goals will keep them engaged and connected with the organisation. This also helps in optimising their productivity from the get-go.

It increases employee motivation and efficiency

Businesses can lose billions of dollars because of ineffective staff onboarding. New hires who fail to understand their job descriptions are one of the main reasons for this loss. A well- designed virtual onboarding process reduces the costs associated with staff training. It also increases employee motivation and efficiency.

It builds a sense of community

Some companies throw their new hires into the deep end without any training. This is not the most efficient way of onboarding a valuable resource. Virtual onboarding processes where the manager introduces the new hire to teammates and shows them the ropes is a much more effective practice. It makes new hires feel more comfortable in their new environment and gives them a sense of belonging to a community. A smooth onboarding process increases the chances of retaining the new hire.

A recent HBR article states, “Organisations with a standardised onboarding process experience 62 per cent greater new hire productivity, along with 50 per cent greater new hire retention.” If you want to reap the benefits of the hard work you put into recruiting top talent, you need to invest in a top of the line virtual onboarding solution. The Hirepro onboarding platform offers a great virtual onboarding experience.

Reference

• www.news.gallup.com
• www.humantelligence.com
• www.hbr.org
• www.joshbersin.com