On-campus recruitment is a long-haul process characterised by large volumes of candidates and offer letters. Logistics and manpower challenges of visiting campuses and conducting career fairs, high costs and time limitations are challenges faced during on-campus recruitment. Several of these challenges can be mitigated by automating campus recruitment processes.

While recruitment software is nothing new, emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence(AI) and Machine Learning(ML) have given companies the ability to automate several manual and repetitive tasks, and enable intelligent automation of recruitment. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the adoption of virtual campus hiring solutions as companies could not be physically present for campus recruitment drives. With remote and hybrid models of working here to stay, campus recruitment solutions too will continue to be a blend of the virtual and physical, with initial screening and assessments carried out remotely and the final rounds of selection conducted in-person. Complex campus recruitment can be greatly eased out with holistic university hiring solutions to deliver a seamless candidate experience.

Reasons to automate campus recruitment

There are several benefits to automating campus recruitment. Let’s take a look at some of them.

Improves talent acquisition (TA): The recruitment process can be automated at various steps of the recruitment cycle. Campus drives start with reaching out to candidates at various colleges and universities. With remote recruitment, recruiters are no longer limited by the geographical location of the college or the candidate. This democratisation of the talent economy has diminished boundaries and allowed recruiters to source candidates from any part of the country. Automation also allows for better candidate engagement and nurturing via automated emails, chatbots and video sessions, all on one holistic platform, which, in turn, helps companies come out tops in the talent war, giving them a competitive advantage.

Eases complex campus recruitment processes: On-campus recruitment drives tend to be long-winded processes. From sourcing candidates to scheduling assessments and interviews and final selections, the process is tedious and can be fraught with errors. End-to-end recruitment solutions offer automated assessments with AI-based proctoring, allowing for flexible, fraud-proof assessments. Integration with back-end systems allows for streamlined data collection and a seamless candidate experience.

Improves productivity and efficiency: Automating campus recruitment allows recruiters to focus on other processes that require manual intervention. The first level of candidate screening can be done automatically using resume parsers and online assessments. Recruiters can spend time planning, arranging for interview panels and scheduling video or face-to-face interviews for shortlisted candidates. Apart from huge cost and time savings, recruiters will also have fewer infrastructure and logistics issues given that most of the hiring process can be virtual if needed. High-volume campus drives such as for IT recruitment can benefit from online coding assessments and virtual hackathons, saving precious hours for recruiters. A transparent and streamlined workflow with automated scheduling and approvals leads to better efficiency and productivity, along with a reduced cost per hire.

Facilitates better hiring decisions: When recruitment is automated, data is captured at all levels, enabling a data-driven recruitment process, rather than one based on “gut feeling”. Companies can reach out to a wider talent pool, with the possibility of reducing discrimination prompted by region, gender, physical challenges and other common biases. Automated assessments and screening lead to such reduced bias and increased transparency in the selection process. A data-driven recruitment process reduces the probability of any kind of prejudice, including any unconscious bias. Overall, automating recruitment leads to a transparent and consistent process and adherence to diversity and inclusion policies.

Builds employer brand: Campus recruitment platforms can streamline the entire recruitment process, from application to onboarding. The end-to-end automation of campus recruitment processes leads to a seamless candidate experience. Easing out candidate experience greatly contributes to the reduced possibility of drop-offs and encourages new hires to share their experience with other people in their network.

Capturing the interest of a digitally savvy generation requires a multi-faceted approach, and automation can transform the campus hiring experience. HirePro’s university hiring solutions provide end-to-end automation of the campus hiring process, which can help companies hire the best talent and transform the talent acquisition process.

Most organisations depend on a rock-solid campus recruitment strategy to enhance and build their talent pipeline. Fresh campus recruits, who can be trained in relevant skills, bring energy and enthusiasm to the workplace, as well as the added benefit of filling up open positions at a lower cost-to-hire.

So, how can companies avoid recruiting run-of-the-mill talent and go all guns blazing to find stellar candidates?

Let us look at some of the ways to customise campus recruitment for high quality hires.

• Build a strong employer brand: “Employer branding” is the buzzword now. It is all about how your company is viewed as an employer. A positive employer brand is needed to recruit and retain star talent and build a strong online reputation. It is crucial to getting candidates excited about joining and working for your organisation. Some of the ways to get talent excited about the prospect of joining your organisation is by upleveling your Careers page, responding to reviews of the company on various websites and ensuring that every touchpoint of the candidate’s journey with your organisation (interviews, hackathons, online assessments etc) is pleasant.
• Conduct skill assessments online: Proctored fraud-proof assessments must be conducted to ensure that the quality of the campus hire is top-notch. Making use of online skill assessments at the pre-recruitment stage ensures that you save time and effort usually spent in monitoring the candidates taking the test. These assessments also help in evaluating and qualifying quality candidates. Online assessments can even be planned and customised to suit your organisation’s specific needs.
• Conduct simulator-based screening: A job simulation is a type of test where you can assess candidates’ competency and skills at performing tasks that they would actually be doing on a daily basis, if hired for the job. The candidate is provided with a comprehensive abstract problem, which needs to be solved by him/her. Backed by an auto-grading system, the results are data-driven and credible. The results of job simulation tests help in making better hiring decisions by enabling the recruitment of people who are able to visibly demonstrate a high aptitude for performing well at their future jobs.
•  Outsource interviews: Recruiters, at times, find it difficult to get the right interviewers for candidates since internal team members and senior technology experts at companies often do not have the bandwidth to conduct interviews. This is where interview experts could step in and help! An emerging trend, interview outsourcing is being adopted by many organisations to conduct interviews for niche areas. Coding interviews, technical interviews and interviews for senior candidates can all be outsourced, thus facilitating improved organisational efficiency, since senior internal team members, who would normally conduct interviews, can focus on their core work.
• Engage with candidates on a regular basis: Long gone are the days when sending across an offer letter to a candidate was considered the last step in the recruitment journey. It was a given that the candidate would join the company. The story is quite different now! Even after getting good job offers, candidates often scout around for better offers. This makes it imperative to continue interacting and engaging with the candidates and keep them eager about the prospect of joining your organisation.

Post-COVID, virtual campus recruitment is gradually moving offline since most students are now back in campus! Companies too are looking forward to directly meeting the students and engaging with them. In such a scenario, companies need to up their campus recruitment game to attract top talent. HirePro, a star player in the recruitment space, offers AI-powered recruitment, proctored interviews and assessments, as well as expert interview solutions, which can help you ace your campus recruitment strategies. Write to sales@hirepro.in to know more.

Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) refers to the set of practices, policies and strategies adopted by an organisation to ensure that its workplace employs diverse teams that mirror the society within which it operates. Organisations now acknowledge that D&I is  not just “good -to-haves” nor are they about societal justice. These policies actually benefit the long-term productivity and resilience of the business. They result in:

• Higher revenue growth
• Greater readiness to innovate
• Increased ability to recruit a diverse talent pool
• Better employee retention

It is no wonder that organisations are focussed on changing their hiring practices to be more diverse. This is particularly significant when it comes to campus recruitment, where  Generation Z enters the workforce.

Generation Z, often forms opinions about a potential employer based on the company’s ethical practices and D&I policies. Diversity and Inclusion is not just a passing fad but a strongly held belief for this generation of digital natives. So, it stands to reason that your  campus recruitment strategies should prioritise D&I as a key deciding factor.

Let’s take a look at  some of the best practices you could employ to increase candidate diversity.

      1. Position your employer brand as one that fosters D&I to students/campuses

Make sure that your D&I policies are highlighted in your campus recruitment drive. When a student or graduate visits your website or checks out your social media pages, D&I should be front and centre. A diversity statement from your CEO, information about your diversity chapter, diversity initiatives by the company and demographic stats will help to enhance your employer brand.

       2. Enhance diversity in candidate screening 

Deploy an AI powered ATS that can be programmed to screen candidates based on keywords that point to skills and experience. By default, this removes the possibility of any sort of bias coming into play. If your pool of candidates is of a diverse nature, then candidate screening with an impartial ATS guarantees that the diversity will remain intact after screening too.

      3. Promote diversity while shortlisting and hiring

A popular method used nowadays to counter bias is to conduct blind interviews.  This method makes use of blind resumes, where  candidates’ information, especially those that could result in bias, such as name, age, sex, or race are blacked out. A hiring team can then perform blind interviews through text or a compliant recruitment platform to continue maintaining the anonymity of the candidate. Candidates’ responses can be recorded and attached to the respective profiles in a good ATS. Some AI-powered recruitment platforms use chatbots to conduct the initial interviews, thus completely eliminating bias.

      4. Organise events that target diverse students 

Sponsor events and internship programmes that will attract diverse groups of students. Create formal programmes for underrepresented students. Such events should be part of their long term hiring strategy. It would be more effective if such events are conducted at regular intervals.

      5. Look for talent in the right places

There are many local communities or online platforms that encourage a certain category of underrepresented students.  For example, a group dedicated to women in technology. Find ways to connect with such communities and groups. Look for diverse talent in such places.  Partner with multicultural professional associations and student groups.

      6. Special referral policies for diverse employees

Create a diverse candidate referral programme to give your diversity recruitment a boost. Your diverse employees will most probably have a network of friends or acquaintances. You should be able to tap into this network for quality candidates.

      7. Recruit from targetted virtual career fairs 

Virtual career fairs that promote  diverse groups like women and students with disabilities can help you achieve your D&I objectives.

       8. Use the right metrics to monitor your diversity recruiting efforts

Your success most often depends on how you decide to measure your goals. A vague yardstick like, ‘improve diversity and inclusion in the next 12 months’ will not get much done.

Here are some critical metrics that you can look for:

• Percentage of diverse candidates at each stage of the recruitment process
• Percentage of minorities at the management level
• Employee satisfaction score in terms of D&I
• Awards/recognitions from special interest groups for your D&I efforts
• turnover rate in percentage of diversity hires within a year

       9. Demonstrate diversity in all candidate interactions

Make diversity and inclusion your top story. Build awareness through success stories from marginalised groups in your social media campaigns. Never miss an opportunity to start a conversation about diversity in all your interactions.

      10. Be accessible in all forms

It is natural to assume that virtual touch points and interactions are enough to attract and engage students and graduates in this post-pandemic era. It is equally important to be accessible through virtual applications via your ATS. You can host virtual career fairs and networking sessions to increase your online touch points. However, it is critical to continue to be available for in person interactions on campus.

It is crucial to keep diversity and inclusion as one of your main conversation points with students and graduates. Your ability to hire the best talent out there and build a diverse community hinges on these dialogues.

COVID-19 has changed the face of recruitment globally. As much as organisations were trying hard to adapt to technology-enabled virtual hiring, the number of hires from college campuses had drastically come down. But things have started looking up for campus hiring, and how! As the world gets on with business as usual, and moves on from the pandemic, campus hiring has seen an unprecedented spike.

Pre-COVID campus recruitment scenario

Campus recruitment requires a lot of planning, right from building campus connections to setting up infrastructure for the end-to-end process. The major challenges for organisations in campus recruitment were the number of resources needed throughout the process and the pressure of getting to the crème de la crème of the market first. Right from identifying campuses from which to recruit and setting up exclusive teams that will take care of the end-to-end recruitment process to ensuring campus hires get a first-hand experience of company culture and perform as expected, campus recruitment has been a time-consuming and resource-heavy process.

Impact of COVID — adapting to virtual hiring, reliance on technology

With the pandemic reigning on the world and everything going remote, campus hiring took a complete detour. It was no longer only about clinching the best from the top universities, based on marks and resumes. With talent available to join readily even from remote locations, organisations needed a well-thought-out strategy to hire for skills and capability rather than just marks and scores.

Trends for post-pandemic hiring

It has undoubtedly been an unprecedented couple of years of coping for campus recruitment, and it has transformed into something entirely different from what it used to be before the pandemic. Businesses and hiring, in particular, went virtual. Overnight, organisations pivoted to technology platforms that enabled virtual campus recruitment. Apart from adopting technology, organisations had to keep up with the fast changing landscapes of technology and recruitment trends to ensure they stayed ahead in the race to hiring the best campus talent. Today, organisations need to redefine their campus hiring strategies. Here are a few trends that will shape the success of campus recruitment for organisations, whether big or small.

Growing importance of employer branding: Campus recruitment today automatically means attracting Gen Z, a generation of youngsters glued to their phones. Being forced to sit at home during the pandemic, they are even more particular about finding information online. They are more bothered about the kind of work environment that they will sign up for than the aesthetics of the workplace.

Diversity and inclusion: Today’s campus hires want to see substantial diversity and inclusivity in campus recruitment. Many organisations have made efforts to develop a robust D&I policy, but candidates today want to see companies doing more for representation and inclusion at all levels in the workplace.

Personalised candidate experience: With hiring going remote and in-person communication being close to nil, it is a huge challenge for organisations to forge authentic connections with their candidates. With advanced technology available today, it is possible for organisations to personalise the hiring process to suit the needs of their candidates and provide superior candidate experience. It is the end-to-end experience, which organisations provide, that attracts top talent.

Better job security and perks: The pandemic has put thousands of people in a state of vulnerability. Though organisations have taken noteworthy steps to put forward relief plans, Gen Zers expect more security and stability in the job offers that they receive. They expect more support and better perks than what was given to the earlier generations, which will give them assured financial safety.

Organisation adaptability to changing scenarios: The onset of the pandemic threw organisations off-track in many ways. It led to challenging scenarios for employers and employees alike. After witnessing the instability ushered in by the pandemic, campus hires expect organisations to be in a better position to adapt to changing scenarios and organisation leaders to be better prepared and strategise for unexpected challenges that may arise in due course of time.

Conclusion

With campus hiring surging, organisations need to up their game and keep a close watch on the trends for hiring and retaining the best candidates from the available talent pool. Despite meticulously planning the visits to colleges for campus recruitment, a majority of the process may still become permanently virtual. Organisation heads need to strategically think and utilise available tools from the market that will help them sail through the tough sea of campus recruitment.

Resources: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com

Organisations globally are paying more attention to diversity, equity and inclusion in their hiring strategies. Emerging technologies, the Covid-19 pandemic and social justice movements in 2020 have compelled companies across countries to lay greater emphasis on diversity. In India too, the trend of diversity in recruitment is ever-growing, more so in hiring freshers off campuses.  Diversity in a workplace is when a company employs a wide range of diverse individuals with different characteristics such as people of varying genders, age, religions, race, ethnicities, cultural backgrounds, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, languages, education, abilities and disabilities etc. An inclusive workplace is where employees feel valued. Their differences are not just acknowledged but these differences add to the organisation’s overall culture and business outcomes. It includes groups that are underrepresented or marginalised in society and helps create an accepting culture that has a strong positive effect on individuals and the organisation.

Companies that are launching Diversity Programmes focus on developing an inclusive hiring process that not only meets the mandate and improves employer branding but also helps to attract talent from all over the country. Besides, organisations with a diverse workforce tend to financially outperform because using diverse perspectives to find solutions to business problems is likely to yield better outcomes, especially when faced with complex challenges. Employees and job seekers also consider a company’s diversity to be an important factor. A CNBC workforce survey reports that 78 per cent of employees prefer working at an organisation that prioritises diversity and inclusion. Glassdoor found that one out of every three candidates would not apply to companies that lacked a diverse workforce. Virtual hiring, remote work and untapped talent pools have emerged across the globe and driving us further towards diversity in recruitment.

In India, diversity is also making strides in campus hiring drives. Companies such as Accenture, Intel, PayPal, Cognizant, Capgemini and many more are adding a lens for diversity and inclusion in their campus recruitment programmes. This is done by sensitising their hiring managers and stressing on diversity of gender and sexual orientation while hiring from campuses for internships and full-time roles.

Listed below are three clear benefits of a culturally diverse workforce:

Builds a good talent pool

When new employees with different personalities, varied skill sets and mindsets work in a team, they develop distinct opinions, ideas and solutions. As a result, the team has a variety of ideas to choose from and can adopt different approaches to a problem. Workplace diversity also improves the conflict resolution skills of the team members and managers, leading to better overall performance.

Fosters inclusivity in the team

Diversity in campus recruitment helps new hires feel included and valued, which promotes a healthy and positive work culture. These young professionals are enthusiastic, excited and knowledgeable. They bring the unique benefits of diversity to a team, including high cultural competence and awareness. When people from different backgrounds work together, there are possibilities of building strong bonds with one another through cooperation and better communication.

Cultivates a competitive workforce

A focus on diversity in campus recruitment is the first step to building a competitive workforce. When the workforce includes people of different ethnicities, personalities, cultures, languages, races, age groups etc., it fosters a sense of competitiveness. Employees strive to perform better as they are compelled to think differently and come up with creative and innovative solutions, which, in turn, increase the team’s productivity and performance.

Closes the gap

When a campus recruitment plan is designed with the goals of hiring for diversity in mind, it seeks to remedy an existing gap of underrepresentation of certain marginalised members, communities and groups. In addition to strengthening the team with a broad range of skills and viewpoints, prioritising hiring diverse candidates is an important step towards closing these existing gaps.

Hiring for diversity has become an essential part of today’s recruitment strategy. Diversity in campus recruitment has led to an expansion of the talent pools of companies where youngsters from diverse backgrounds, values, skill sets, orientations and different cultures come together. When companies give emphasis to diversity hiring, greater innovation and higher profitability are some of the real and tangible benefits that they gain. Companies need to harness diversity in recruitment to build successful teams if they are to build and sustain an inclusive workforce that is productive, creative and competitive.

Campus recruitment or campus hiring continues to be one of the most preferred and time-tested recruitment options for most organisations. This form of hiring gives companies access to large talent pools in targetted locales and domains. Also, since the scale is large, it saves time and money, as compared to other forms of hiring. Campus hiring provides organisations with some much-needed energy and fresh thinking. It is also known to result in better retention rates than lateral hiring. The freshers can be easily trained and moulded to suit various roles as they come with an open mind and some amount of flexibility. Custom campus recruitment is also a great tool for branding and networking. In this exercise, a relationship is built and nurtured with the educational institutions that gets extended through students, alumnis and employees. Another essential benefit is the diversity and inclusion in campus recruitment, which may otherwise prove to be a challenge.

Typically, placement time is one of the most eagerly awaited sessions in the campus. The hustle and bustle, anticipation, preparation, those little fist-pumps of triumphs, the misses etc. are all part of campus hiring stories. This is also where some great careers take off. Some companies trace their origins back to campus startup ideas, hackathons and the likes. However, when Covid-19 hit the world, a lot changed for campus hiring too. Thankfully, the setback was brief as organisations and institutions recouped fast with the help of technology. Gen Zers, who were about to start their careers, were digital natives anyway. They were watching and waiting to see how the industry would cope and how it might affect their careers.

Some organisations scored well here as they were already prepared for such disruptions. For the rest, it was about evaluating tools with the best of online assessments, fraud-detection, requisite analytics and more. Remote hiring tools that met the required criteria like those offered by Hirepro were used effectively by many organisations to ensure that they didn’t miss out on some great talent. It was a new experience for many. However, Gen Z took it in its stride and the show went on. For organisations, it meant a positive change in the campus recruitment strategy. Here are some essential points to succeed in the campus recruitment trends and strategies post Covid.

      1. Plan and strategise for campus recruitment

If you fail to plan, you plan to fail! Indeed, in the post-Covid recruitment landscape, a well-planned campus recruitment strategy counts a lot. It starts with the yearly organisational hiring plan, which has provisions for campus hiring. This will need to be backed by some insights on the organisational skill gap analysis from hiring managers or teams. It is essential to know and map the fresh graduates who need to be hired from campuses. There could also be a possibility that the organisation is looking to fill only DEI requirements. Then, predominantly, the skill gap and the DEI may determine the campuses to be visited. The organisation may already have an understanding with some institutions. These may need to be reviewed based on current needs. New relationships based on skill requirements may have to be evaluated too.

Once the strategy is in place about who to hire, from where, and how many to be hired, then the next step is to initiate action towards this. Some promotional material about the organisation needs to be created. It is best not to recycle old ones. They may already be in circulation and may not arouse new interest or curiosity. Let the placement team at the institution feel that the organisation has evolved and has something different or more to offer. Once the placement team gives the go-ahead, the plan to start student engagement should be put into motion gradually.

Student engagements should start with sponsorships of relevant campus events, student ambassador progammes etc. If it aligns with the company policies, some hackathons or coding events may also be conducted, as it could lead to some of the best coding talent in the campus. Once these engagements have started, introduce your organisation through formal talks, webinars, alumni connections etc.

    2. Get discovered –– Increase online presence

The campus recruitment is no less than a show in the eyes of Gen Zers who are graduating. This is the first tech-savvy generation and fully believes in constant online engagement. For them, if it’s a happening thing, it has to be online! Their expectations about their career and almost every aspect of life is different from that of the previous generations. To attract and retain this unique talent, organisations need to tweak their online presence. It’s not enough to have a website and social media presence. Something more compelling and engaging needs to be out there.

Employer branding is very significant and this needs to be felt by them. Engage with the students during the months leading to the placement sessions, in as many ways as possible. Identify the right people from your organisation who can connect easily with them to gauge their aspirations, likes and dislikes. The company HR policies may also need to be tweaked to match their expectations.

That done, the next step is to ‘sell’ your organisation’s work culture as one of the best that they can get. Create intriguing content through constant engagement in social media handles, especially meant for them. Also create a unique landing page on your website, which will arouse their interest. Make them feel special. Invite them to explore your organisation, your workplaces, work culture, growth roadmaps and more. This needs to be done through multiple social media channels with innovative content. Blogs, videos, alumni talks, alumni employee testimonials etc. are various ways to reach out to them. One key aspect is to ensure personalisation wherever possible. This is a sure-fire way to connect with this generation. Also pay attention to some nuances like ensuring content is delivered seamlessly across all devices. This generation does everything on the go and you have to be found by them with your increased online presence.

      3. Adopt tech-enabled solutions

Adopting tech-enabled recruitment solutions is a must to cope with the pandemic disruptions and to attract Gen Z. Of course, traditional methods are not to be totally discarded. They should be a part of the process. However, increased online presence, incorporating online applications, conducting online assessments etc. help immensely. Simply put, virtual campus recruitments are the way to go. The benefits range from reduced cost and time to better efficiency and unbiased hiring. The best talent can be spotted more accurately with carefully customised online assessments.

Virtual career fairs, webinars on FAQs and other relevant topics and even video interviews can be easily conducted through automated solutions. Choosing the right, fully automated solution can help conduct 8–10 thousand assessments and 5–6 thousand interviews on a single day. That’s the unbeatable ease and scale of tech-enabled solutions. The tech-solutions should be custom campus recruitment solutions that present enhanced brand value to those looking for long-term and meaningful employment. This will be their first experience with your organisation. Make it count.

     4. Create unforgettable branding experiences

Branding should happen consciously and unconsciously in every engagement with the students in every placement-related activity. One common mistake many organisations make is to believe that once the assessment process is over and offers are rolled out, the job is done. In reality, the job has only begun and there is a need for constant engagement with these students till they come on board.

Some interesting ways to keep the Gen Zers engaged and invested in joining you is to conduct office tours, share newsletters or hand out branded goodies. Make sure that the information you share reinforces their choice to join you. Share interesting information like milestones, awards and achievements to give them proud, feel-good moments. Also, share employee achievement news and career roadmaps to give them a glimpse of their future prospects.

The bottom line is to ensure that the end-to-end campus recruitment becomes an unforgettable branding experience.

2022 and beyond sees huge disruption to recruitment and hiring. The Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated the adoption of virtual recruitment and hiring across all levels. Business needs are evolving rapidly, and recruitment strategies should adapt quickly to satisfy changing business expectations and objectives.

The pandemic majorly disrupted work trends, and many of them are here to stay. These workplace disruptions have caused significant shifts in HR operations, with recruitment being no exception. Organisations need employees who can support critical workflows and this requires them to be focussed on skills rather than on roles. They need to encourage employees to be multi-skilled; which dictates that recruitment practices go beyond the traditional talent pool. At the same time, the pandemic has also caused a radical change in employee expectations. Organisations need to step up and revise the Employee Value Proposition (EVP) to attract and retain the best talent.

The “now normal” requires that hiring practices cater to the evolved ecosystem. A solid campus recruitment program is an essential part of a comprehensive recruitment strategy. Campus recruitment offers companies the opportunity to build their employer brand with a young audience, and hire a high-energy and diverse workforce at a lower cost-per-hire.

Campus recruitment: Then and now

The pre-Covid campus recruitment scenario — HR folks visiting campuses to promote events, a steady stream of students attending assessments and interviews, and recruiters in campuses making presentations in an attempt to recruit top talent from colleges — all these seem like a distant past. Geographical distance, time and logistics were limitations. While virtual recruitment platforms were available even then, the pandemic transmuted them to a necessity and accelerated their adoption.

Recruitment is the first step in employee experience. During the pandemic, campus recruitment used technology as a backbone to hiring. Post-Covid, it is quite clear that virtual and hybrid campus recruitment are here to stay.  The normalisation of remote and hybrid models of working means that companies can expand their geographical reach to candidates using virtual recruitment platforms. Companies can contact candidates at top universities and college campuses, and hire the best of the best, without having to worry about where they are located. However, to attract Gen Z, companies need to up their ante with custom campus recruitment solutions that will make them sit up and take notice.

Campus hiring: Trends and Strategies

As companies undergo digital transformation and realign themselves to become adaptable, flexible and resilient, they also need to hire a future-ready workforce. Hiring top talent from campuses requires a well-founded campus recruitment strategy.

Let’s take a look at some of the campus recruiting trends that are here to stay.

There is an increased focus on employer branding. Getting top quality job applicants from campuses requires that companies build a positive employer brand. To do so, companies need to look beyond traditional campus recruitment practices such as job fairs, presentations and sponsoring college fests. Keeping in mind that Gen Y and Z are digital natives, brands need to build a strong online presence. Virtual tours of the office, webinars and short reels or stories on social media will attract potential candidates. Arranging virtual informal interactions with employees will help college grads understand the organisation. Hackathons will help tech companies establish their brand and get the right candidates for the job. Sponsoring college fests and providing internship opportunities are other ways to hire top talent.

Companies can now recruit from a diversified talent pool. Virtual recruitment has now become the path to pursue. Companies are no longer limited by distance; they can source candidates irrespective of their location. With virtual and hybrid working models here to stay, companies can reach out to top talent from a wider pool and hunt for candidates with the right skill set, without having to worry about candidate location. They can now look at hiring from the perspective of skills requirement rather than seek candidates to merely fill an open position.  They can reach out to candidates via a variety of channels including college bulletin boards, virtual groups and social media platforms. Omnichannel recruitment helps companies to touch base with remote candidates.

The GPA influence is waning.  There have been huge disruptions to business in the recent past. This has made employers aware that, in the long run, hiring multi-skilled people who are flexible is more beneficial than hiring the brightest candidate with the highest grade point average. Accordingly, in campus recruitment, recruiters have started looking  for cultural fitment and a holistic skill set so that young talent can be moulded based on business needs. Internship within the organisation or in a relevant industry has a high influence on hiring decisions, as employers can see candidate capability first-hand. Employers are now focussing on candidate potential as against candidate credentials.

Apart from internship experience, the candidate’s major at university, extra-curricular activities and any other work experience are beginning to count too. Attributes such as team-working abilities, problem-solving skills, verbal and written communication skills, analytical and technical skills, work ethics, leadership and organisational skills, flexibility and adaptability are starting to feature in the must-have criteria for selecting candidates.

EVP matters. Today’s college graduates have high expectations of the company that they work for. Employee Value Proposition (EVP) refers to the promises made by the organisation to the employees about the benefits that they will receive in return for their commitment to the company. Apart from monetary benefits, young employees are looking for autonomy and flexibility. In a remote and hybrid working scenario, a vending machine or ping pong table no longer holds value, and companies need to have a concrete EVP, which can become a deciding factor for candidates. So organisations need to consciously rethink the EVP.

Gen Z’s workplace expectations include a well-defined career path, working for brands that are in line with their values and offer flexible working models and schedules, besides opportunities for continuous learning. Studies show that Gen Z is more aware of diversity in both race and gender; so workplace diversity and inclusion should be highlighted in the EVP and the employee handbook.

Gen Z also looks for support during times of crisis. Well-detailed wellness programs and mental health support may tilt the balance in your favour. Organisations that are open to and ready to fulfil most of these expectations will remain as the top prospective employers for recent graduates. While it is not necessary to bend over backwards to satisfy all expectations, it is a good idea to study and understand what young college graduates are looking for, and attempt to incorporate reasonable demands.

Virtual and hybrid recruitment are here to stay: While the all-encompassing adoption of virtual recruitment was necessitated by the pandemic, hybrid recruitment is becoming popular as the effects of the pandemic are waning. Organisations would do well to redefine recruitment strategies to include virtual and hybrid recruitment, keeping the long-term perspective in mind, and also plan for technology infrastructure for online hiring. From the perspective of campus recruitment which is a large-volume and complex activity, it will lend flexibility to talent acquisition, offer a better reach to a wider talent pool, and prove cost effective.

Both virtual and hybrid recruitment offer several benefits. A robust campus recruitment platform that can handle high-volume recruitment and end-to-end automation will cover many aspects such as automatic workflows, AI-based online assessments, remote proctoring and seamless candidate experience with automated communication. It will let recruitment staff focus on the critical aspects of planning. A hybrid model of recruitment offers the flexibility of conducting assessments and the initial round of interviews online, on the campus hiring platform, while asking short-listed candidates to appear in-person for final rounds of interviews. Onboarding can be online or offline, depending on the candidate location and company policies.

Catch them young

Companies need a solid campus recruitment strategy to build a workforce of the future. The virtual and hybrid working models necessitate revamping of traditional campus recruitment as we knew it. The pandemic has shaken up the ecosystem, and the changes are going to be long-lasting. Hiring needs to be aligned with business goals, and HR staff need to work with business functions to understand gaps and skill requirements. Recruitment teams need to be agile to keep pace with rapidly evolving business needs.

As with the hybrid working model, recruitment too is going to be partially online and partially on-site. Internal teams will need to be “prepped” to handle hybrid recruitment. Fresh recruitment workflows will be necessary so that responsibility and accountability are maintained in the system. A strong and robust technology platform that provides a seamless hiring experience, will provide recruitment teams the necessary agility to straddle both worlds. For instance, coding and functional assessments could be conducted online, whereas interviews could be in-person. With HirePro’s end-to-end custom campus recruitment and university hiring solutions, recruitment teams have the flexibility and agility to conduct both virtual and hybrid campus recruitment.

An adaptable and flexible hiring organisation will support the future workplace. To capture top college talent, hybrid recruitment will help companies engage with candidates both in-campus, and online. Companies are increasingly using robust technology platforms to support new hiring trends. While technology gives organisations the flexibility to conduct both virtual and hybrid campus recruitment, they also need to adapt their internal processes and engage with potential candidates to hire the best college graduates.

Today, recruiting is a tricky game. With the business landscape changing, the recruitment game is no longer restricted to looking for one or two skills associated with a role. While specific tech skills are a must for any role, organisations are also assessing candidates’ emotional intelligence and soft skills. They believe that gauging a candidate on these skills helps better understand a candidate’s long-term fit. Top recruiters want to know how a candidate exhibits skills such as collaboration, flexibility, problem-solving, decision-making, etc. in dynamically changing business scenarios.

It is a given that technology is changing rapidly, and people need to update and stay relevant. Therefore, recruiters look for a suitable mix of tech and soft skills for a role. In the changed scenario of virtual hiring, it becomes more important for recruiters to use the right tools and technologies to ensure this. From adapting tech-enabled assessments to video interviews, recruiters use various means to find the right candidate. This change is evident even in campus recruitment that has now gone virtual. From candidate application to selection processes, campus hiring has become remote. The scale is now manageable without compromising on quality or diversity, thanks to tech platform providers who efficiently chalk and execute the complete programme.

Hiring trends indicate that recruiters are looking for a mix of skills. In the quest for the best talent, assessment tools lend recruiters an edge with regard to time, cost and quality.

Let’s now look at the top tech and soft skills that recruiters are looking for in candidates in 2022.

     1. Technical skills: Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been one of the top trending technical skills for a while now. And why not, considering that AI is impacting all aspects of our lives? From virtual assistants and chatbots helping us shop to robotic surgeries in healthcare or driverless cars, AI has become all-pervasive. All major global organisations continue to invest in R&D using AI. Therefore, it continues to be a top tech skill in demand. Machine Learning (ML) and Deep Learning (DL) are associated with AI and they will continue to evolve.

Data is at the core of this technology. Everything that AI does is based on data. Data Science helps analyse patterns and behaviour from the data, which ML and DL models use to become intelligent and make predictions. Where and how is all of this data available? This is where Cloud computing comes in. With most of our personal or enterprise data sitting on a Cloud somewhere, Cloud skills are also highly relevant. Learning these technologies may be the stepping stone to a great career in the industry. Some freshers keep track of the trends and ensure they stay updated by doing courses outside the curriculum. Technical skills can be checked by recruiters using customised coding tools.

     2. Functional skills: Every role that recruiters hire for will require some specific functional skills. In lateral hiring, candidates come with previous experience and feedback that can help recruiters assess their role-specific functional skills. However, in the case of freshers since there is no prior experience, it will require some carefully customised functional assessments to gauge this capability. For HR roles, candidates need to have good communication and people skills. The role will also require a good amount of administrative and management skills, alongside financial literacy and advisory skills to assist employees.

Marketing roles will require candidates to be digitally savvy as digital marketing is the most potent marketing tool today. Additionally, communication and negotiation skills and the ability to assess the market, the target audience and competitors are valuable assets. While hiring for finance roles, recruiters seek good financial literacy with an analytical mind. Planning and strategic thinking are also coveted capabilities in finance roles. When it comes to operations, one’s capacity for strategic planning, problem-solving and decision-making play a significant role, as do the relevant technical skills. Recruiters can tailor functional assessments to test skills relevant to every role.

     3. Emotional intelligence: Emotional intelligence encompasses skills that help understand emotions and manage them. Statistics suggest that more than 80 per cent of competencies displayed by top performers fall under this category. Also, companies whose employees have high emotional intelligence are more likely to record great profit and growth. Emotional intelligence training is said to bring about a major leap in productivity. Thus, it happens to be a top skill that recruiters look for. It refers to a candidate’s ability to perceive, analyse and respond to other people’s emotions in various scenarios.

Also, in the present scenario, chosen candidates may have to work with teammates whom they may never get to meet in person. It is essential to gauge how people build camaraderie in a virtual environment. Therefore, it is a must-have skill to build productive teams. It tells you how people respond when things turn stressful in dynamic business scenarios. Tailor-made psychometric tests bring out the various candidate attributes of emotional intelligence.

     4. Communication: Communication skills have always been considered a critical element. In the virtual working scenario, this assumes even greater significance. Communicating the right message at the right time to the intended recipients can help to address many team issues with ease. Whether emails, voice and video calls or chats, it is one’s communication skills that keep it going.

Communication is a two-way process where listening is considered very  important. For example, what, when, and how to respond during online communication is essential. Recruiters can assess this skill throughout the recruitment process, from the start to the final interview, based on candidate interaction.

     5. Adaptability: Though not easy, embracing change is inevitable; people and businesses coped with the pandemic and the changes it forced on every aspect of life. Businesses and employees need to adapt to changing scenarios. For instance, rapidly evolving technologies and constantly changing customer needs dictate the need for new products and services.  Organisations and employees that failed to adapt could not thrive; many even perished. Adaptability is thus a skill that top recruiters should look for to build successful and productive teams. Some realistic scenario-based questions posed to candidates and their responses to the same can help assess this skill.

     6. Willingness to learn and grow: This skill is linked to adaptability. It is an undeniable fact that unless one is willing to learn and evolve, one cannot adapt or grow. An organisation’s growth depends on its ability to innovate and hit the market early, and this growth mindset should be reflected in every employee. Recruiters check for this with pointed questions during interviews or through psychometric tests that can assess the attitude to learn.

     7. Problem solving: Understanding the problem-solving attitude is essential to evaluating a candidate comprehensively. Problem-solving is not limited to solving business problems only. It could be managing unforeseen scenarios, handling a crisis in the absence of seniors in a team, identifying bottlenecks and suggesting solutions, handling uncooperative team members, or balancing professional and personal life as one grows in the career. This skill is linked to critical thinking and is essential to career growth. Recruiters always prefer candidates with growth potential as the organisation can groom leaders for senior positions. Recruiters can assess the problem-solving attitude of candidates through situational questions during interviews or assessments. Candidates can also be requested to provide examples from their personal or academic life that relate to them.

     8. Active listening: This skill is  closely linked to communication skills. Active listening goes beyond merely paying attention or flipping through mail communication. It means paying careful attention to what is being communicated. Employees need to take an interest, engage fully, ask the right questions and ensure a positive outcome. Recruiters can check for active listening skills during interviews or through customised assessment tests.

     9. Creativity: This is one skill recruiters would appreciate in most candidates, irrespective of the role. The ability to think out of the box and come up with innovative ideas can help teams to streamline their work and be more productive. Creativity is handy in any role, whether technical or non-technical. It is also intrinsically linked to problem-solving, as very few people can come out with multiple or unique solutions to solve a problem. In fresh hires, organisations look forward to their fresh thinking, ideas and energy that can be infused into existing teams.

This is an exhaustive checklist that recruiters need to address on their journey to getting the best from out there. It may appear daunting to perform such a comprehensive check, but equipped with the right tools, it becomes possible and easier, especially in the case of campus hiring. Hence, a comprehensive campus hiring strategy needs to be made by linking these skills to the respective roles and customising assessments accordingly. An established tech-enabled enterprise recruitment platform like HirePro can help execute this exercise smoothly.

Resources:

• https://www.udacity.com
• https://www.recruiter.com
• https://www.majerrecruitment.com.au
• https://www.cnbc.com
• https://in.topresume.com
• https://www.ihhp.com

Among the many challenges thrown up by hiring processes, coding assessments can be exceptionally tricky. A combination of factors—sound technical knowledge, process management, social skills and intuition, to name a few—comes into play when hiring talent for software development. However, several proven methods do exist to help you screen and recruit applicants for hiring the right coders.

Getting started

In the first phase of interviewing, some companies prefer to conduct a non-technical screening in the form of a basic phone chat. This is to help hiring managers understand whether the candidate is a good fit or not for the organisation, in terms of personality, work experience, compensation expected, joining time, etc.

Hiring managers can also query candidates briefly on their technical knowledge and get to know their thoughts on software architecture and teamwork. Candidates who make it through this filtering process should be called for live coding assessments.

Coding assessments serve a two-fold purpose:

• They help to verify that the skills a candidate lists on the resume are genuine. In many professions, candidates’ networking strengths help them land jobs regardless of appropriate skill levels. Coding tests render such issues irrelevant. Also, a coder’s technical skills are not always proportionate to their education level, much like a self-taught musician whose innate talent could be superior to that of professionally schooled artistes. A well-designed coding skills test levels the playing field and gives visibility to genuine talent.
• Once you have identified the right talent, you will want those candidates to come and work for you. This means that your assessment, rather than being an academic exercise, should reflect the nature of the work that they will be doing in reality, with examples of authentic problems and tools that they will use.

An online interview and coding assessment platform (a. k. a. developer assessment platform) is a pre-employment screening tool that offers several advantages to engineering hiring managers, including:

• Clear insight into candidates’ technical skills and programming abilities
• Data-based decisions after assessing coding skills
• Reduced bias during recruiting

Such technology-based platforms are an efficient and time-saving tool for both large-scale campus hiring as well as lateral hiring for middle-level or senior hiring managers.

HirePro’s customised assessments can help you test candidates on personality, aptitude, technical and domain skills and behavioural competencies. Assess your candidates using our pool of standardised tests that are readily available, or customise the tests to suit your enterprise’s unique needs.

Assessing tech skills

Technical skill assessment is arguably the hiring challenge that gives most candidates the jitters. Even experienced coders feel stressed out displaying their skills while racing against time. The pressure on them is worse if the coding assessment is not properly aligned with the job requirements and the candidate’s work experience.

A badly designed coding test can fail to assess applicants correctly, filtering out those with genuine skills and accepting others who may have rote-learned some skills. With that in mind, let us look into the nitty-gritty of conducting an effective tech challenge.

Phase I

The first phase of screening can involve a collaborative coding session lasting from 30 minutes to one hour. The difficulty level should be designed to weed out candidates who have exaggerated their skills on their resumes. At the same time, you should be able to understand the candidate’s capabilities and thought process.

Thus, the challenge in the initial phase is, paradoxically, not to make the screening process too difficult. For instance, while conducting a coding assessment, a company may insist on candidates using a basic text editor or whiteboard instead of an IDE (Integrated Development Environment). This may not augur well. Software developers typically use an IDE while working at their jobs. Why stress them out by denying them the same tools during an interview? Allowing them to use IDEs, on the other hand, will enable them to stay relaxed and work faster. It will cut interview time and allow you to analyse how the coders use these tools during their regular jobs. Remember, a lengthy and overly tough test can demoralise candidates. They may not accept your job offer even if they do make the grade.

Phase II

Follow up the first coding assessment with another, more complex tech interview. The purpose is to replicate a typical workday that throws up several challenges. Candidates should be able to come up with creative solutions to tricky problems, collaborate with group leaders and display the entire range of their skill sets.

Best practices in assessing technical skills

We have discussed how technical interview processes are sometimes flawed in terms of design, the tools used, relevance or duration. Here are some common errors and tips on how to avoid them:

When coding assessments are improperly matched to job qualifications, the chances of hiring the wrong candidate increase. Worse, if hiring managers lack the required technical skills, they may not even know whether they are conducting an effective test. The way out is to develop coding assessments that are customised to your business and the skill sets you require to succeed. Work closely with your in-house coding team or RPO provider to create tests that capture real-life situations in your company. Use a platform that can be customised to develop a good process and recruit the candidates who perform best.

A candidate’s technical savviness is based on nuances that go beyond a particular programming language or technology. While these are undoubtedly important, they are not the most crucial elements of the assessment process, the reason being that highly competent software developers do not waste their time rote learning what can be accessed easily from, say, an API document. Therefore, the assessment should focus on the coder’s basic technical strengths, understanding of computer science and problem-solving capabilities. So, present the coders with a problem and ask them to resolve it in a programming language of their choice. If you are using online tests, do not focus too much on the site-generated scores. Rather, look at the specifics of the candidates’ solutions.

Assessing language skills

Verbal communication skills are easily assessed in an interview, either in-person or over a phone call. While verbal skills are relatively less important if the job requirement does not involve user contact, they still play an important role during a coder’s interactions with the team or while brainstorming ideas.

To evaluate writing skills, ask the candidates to provide writing samples, ideally before the interview, so that you can analyse their work and be prepared to critique them during the interview. Written samples on technical subjects give you an opportunity to evaluate both writing skills as well as the candidates’ level of understanding of the topic. Sometimes, technical candidates express a dislike or hesitation when asked to submit writing samples: this itself is a useful filter in your hiring process.

Assessing behavioural skills

As a means to analyse a candidate’s personality and temperament, interviews are inherently flawed; you will only get to know an individual while working with them. Nevertheless, it is critical to get some insight into candidates’ personality traits and behaviour patterns before hiring them. Here are some suggestions:

Before the interview, get a non-technical employee, say an administrative assistant, to chat briefly with a candidate. Later, ask the employee how the candidate responded when it became known that the employee was a non-technical staff member. Was the candidate respectful and cordial or condescending and impatient? The staff member’s feedback can give you an insight into the candidate’s attitude to others, regardless of their position.

Start the interview with a few minutes of informal, non-technical conversation. This will encourage the candidate to open up, allowing you to observe considerable details about the individual’s personality.

During the interview, offer constructive feedback whenever possible to the candidate. Observe whether the candidate appreciates your feedback or becomes defensive.

Here are some sample behavioural questions you can ask a programmer:

• Tell us about the first time you were made the leader of a project. Describe the challenges you faced. What was your learning?
• Describe a critical problem situation you faced at work where nothing went right. How did you manage it?
• What do you think are your biggest strengths? Why should we hire you?

Assessing values and moral code

The hardest part of the hiring process is being able to establish a candidate’s moral code and ethical behaviour. Nevertheless, this is an important aspect of hiring, one that must be given due importance considering that a software developer can cause immense damage to a business if there is no clear sense of right and wrong.

Here is an example of an assessment based on a work scenario involving an ethical dilemma:

Ram urgently needs information stored on Hari’s computer, but the latter is on medical leave and temporarily inaccessible. Company policy states that employees cannot access other workers’ computers. However, Ram and Hari are good friends. In fact, Hari has shared his password with Ram on occasion. Ram decides to log in using Hari’s password. To his dismay, he discovers that Hari has been storing customer credit card data on his computer, a clear violation of company regulations.

• If Ram informs his seniors about Hari, his own position could become shaky for logging into Hari’s computer in the latter’s absence.
• If Ram does not inform his seniors, the customers whose card information Hari has retained could become victims of card fraud or theft.
• To whom should Ram be loyal—his colleagues or the company and its customers?

As in real life, present problems to which there is no obvious answer. The candidate’s responses will give the interviewer a good insight into the individual’s thinking, priorities and values.

Post-interview feedback 

At the end of the assessment process, provide some brief feedback to candidates along with a job offer or regret letter. This is one way to stand out from other organisations. It also allows you to be seen in a positive light, even by candidates who did not make the grade, and keeps the door open for them—and their cohorts—to consider your company in the future.

Effective recruitment is an evolving process, one that needs constant re-evaluation and adjustment. Every organisation has its own culture and preferences. Inevitably, there will be successes and setbacks. Learn from past failures, tweak your systems and move forward.

HirePro’s combination of cutting-edge technology and passionately committed people helps customers recruit the best talent and build outperforming teams.

To know more, call us at 080 6656 6000 or write to us at sales@hirepro.in for a demo.

Sources:

https://codesignal.com/

https://getliker.com/

https://coderpad.io

https://business.linkedin.com

https://www.toptal.com

https://examples.yourdictionary.com

https://www.recruiter.com

The recruitment life cycle starts with a requirement to hire a candidate for an open role and ends with his or her successful hiring or placement. It is the process of getting a new employee all the way up to onboarding them as your new hire. The hiring cycle represents only a part of the recruitment operations. Read on to learn about the various stages of the recruitment life cycle.

     1. Planning
The recruitment process starts with planning to hire a new recruit to fill a position in the company. Once the need is established, the ideal candidate for the role, the qualifications, skill sets and experience necessary are defined. An accurate job description clearly outlining the role and responsibilities is created on this basis and circulated through various direct and indirect channels. This crucial step determines the success of the full cycle hiring process.

     2. Sourcing
After a compelling job ad is created, the next step in the recruitment life cycle is sourcing, when the job opening and description are advertised to attract desirable candidates. It involves a spectrum of activities like posting the vacancy on job boards and career websites to identify potential candidates who possess the required skill sets and experience and also reflect values similar to your company’s, using social media to propel the job ad and gathering profiles through LinkedIn, Instagram, etc. A trusted and favoured method is to encourage employees to recommend candidates from their existing networks. Many large and small companies rely on recruitment partners for better-matched candidate profiles and to reduce cost and time.

     3. Assessing
After sourcing an array of potential applicants, what follows is the assessing stage, where a shortlist of promising candidates is created and formal technical and non-technical assessments are conducted to evaluate the skill sets and proficiency of candidates. Recruitment specialists like HirePro have a wide range of customisable assessments for multiple domains and roles that help identify the right talent and improve the overall assessment process. The last step involves scheduling interviews with potential applicants to narrow down the list further.

     4. Selecting
After the assessment comes the selection process. By now, recruiters will probably already know the final shortlist and have a fair idea of the ideal employee. However, the final decision is made in consultation with team managers and the leadership after going through all the data and reviewing the candidates’ performance. Once the decision is made and the final set of candidates are selected, invite them to the next stage.

     5. Interviewing
Another critical phase in the employee recruitment stage is conducting interviews with the best talent identified thus far. Halfway through the recruitment cycle, recruiters have a good understanding of the shortlisted candidates’ experience, skills and knowledge. They will prod the interviewees further with behavioural interview questions for insights to understand the candidates’ motivation and ascertain how good a cultural fit they might be. At this stage, a recruiter is fairly sure about what they are looking for in a candidate. By the end of the process, the one chosen will be handed an official job offer. The potential hire will be informed about the terms of hiring, their salary and benefits, working hours and so on. Typically, this stage also involves negotiation.

     6. Onboarding
Onboarding is the final stage in the cycle. After the candidate accepts the offer, the new hire is familiarised with the organisation and introduced to his or her team. Better known as the employee onboarding stage, it consists of a formal orientation, mandatory training programmes and sessions with team mates and colleagues. This is an extremely important phase for the future success of a new hire. Recruiters must make sure that they have a good onboarding strategy and create an engaging onboarding programme because this will eventually contribute to whether or not the employee wants to continue working for the company.

The recruitment life cycle, or end-to-end hiring process, is an essential component of any business and, if leveraged well and managed effectively, it can help substantially increase the chances of achieving your strategic recruitment goals.