The Challenges of Virtual Hiring: How Online Testing Software Can Help
Recruiting new employees remotely has gained tremendous popularity after the pandemic outbreak. Almost every business now hires team members virtually. As it is beneficial on the one hand, it is also challenging on the other hand.
Since you have observed the drastic changes in hiring due to virtual interviews and online testing, you might be probably thinking of adopting them too. But before that, you should know what the challenges of virtual recruitment are and how you can solve them.
Here, we will discuss the complexities an HR team or company can face during virtual hiring. You will not only know the challenges but also learn how online testing software can overcome them.
So, let’s get into the details!
Growth of Virtual Hiring
Virtual hiring has proliferated after the Covid-19 outbreak. The market size of virtual recruitment was $28.68 billion in 2019. But according to experts, it will be worth $43.39 billion by 2027. The growth is observed due to the convenience and flexibility of the process. It makes recruitment faster by easing the hiring procedure for HR members.
Challenges of Virtual Hiring
Even though virtual hiring provided a breakthrough for HR teams in recruitment, it also created challenges for them to address. Here are the top 10 challenges an HR team or a candidate experiences during the process:
Difficulty in Assessing Candidate’s Soft Skills
First, the interview is held in a virtual environment like a Zoom or Skype call. It eliminates many indicators by which an interviewer can assess the candidate’s soft skills.
These are necessary hints like body language, communication skills, and other clues equally important to the candidate’s qualifications. Without these hints, it is hard for the interviewer to tell if the candidate is a good fit for the company’s culture or not.
Miscommunication
Miscommunication is one of the virtual interview biggest challenges that affect meetings. As both parties cannot pick visual cues, they are mostly stuck in different misunderstandings, like not adjusting to each other’s nature.
An online pre-employment testing procedure can ease the task, which we will discuss later. However, many companies are unaware of how it can help in this recruitment process.
Numerous Unnecessary & Irrelevant Applicants
Since applying to an online job post is easy, human resource teams often have unnecessary and irrelevant applications. People send them their CVs without considering whether they are qualified for the job or not. But you can also counter this challenge with online pre-employment testing software.
Technical Difficulties
Technical difficulties are among the most frustrating challenges in virtual hiring due to lag, disturbance, or frequent call drops. Even if both are eager to develop a progressive collaboration, their internet, video, or audio quality may interfere and result in a bad experience.
But the real headache is that you still depend on the other’s technical situation, even if everything is perfect from your end. Such technical issues can reduce effective communication.
Ghosting
Ghosting is another challenge for HR employees due to the applicants’ unprofessional, immature, and disturbing behavior. It also happens as a result of irrelevant candidates for the position.
People often do not appear for an interview or may not even respond. According to statistics, 76% of HR employees experience ghosting by job seekers. They complain about the applicant cutting off communication earlier, while some report that candidates don’t even appear on their first job day.
It wastes the interviewer’s time and affects the opportunities of deserving candidates to apply for the position by filling seats.
Inconvenience on Call or Video
Since most candidates appear in job interviews from their homes, it creates many disturbances and inconveniences for the interviewer. During an in-person meeting in the office, both parties experience no interference.
But at home, background noises, audio or video distortion, or discomfort of a video call can largely affect the hiring process. As many candidates find it hard to focus or become camera-conscious while interviewing online, it also causes problems for recruiters.
Non-Verbal Cues
While recruiting remotely, hindrance in picking the applicant’s non-verbal cues is a significant challenge for an interviewer. The candidate’s body posture, eye contact, tone, and confidence tell you a lot about the candidate’s personality. However, these non-verbal cues are hard to pick in a virtual meeting, where the interviewer sees nothing but the applicant’s face.
Time Zone Differences
The time zone difference can be a major challenge if you are interviewing someone across the globe. First, it will be hard to set a schedule as one has just woken up while the other is nearly going to bed. Minor time zone variations are acceptable, but it becomes quite irritating when an individual is 6 or more hours ahead of the other.
Failure to assess Candidate’s Credibility
According to social psychologists, 81% of candidates lie about their qualifications or skill during job interviews. It makes virtual hiring even more challenging as the interviewer will be unsure of the credibility of any applicant’s claims. They also can’t test them on the spot as they are unaware of what’s behind the camera to assist the candidate.
Isolation Feelings for Candidates
The Covid time has already given a lot of isolation to people, and when the hiring process becomes virtual, it impacts their social interaction even more. During virtual recruitment, a candidate can feel less engaged with the interviewer, which increases the isolated feeling and makes them less comfortable.
How Does Online Testing Software Overcome these Challenges?
Using online assessment tools for hiring is one of the best methods to overcome these challenges. It reduces the workload for the HR teams and businesses so they can focus more on the right candidates rather than sorting CVs and contacting each applicant for the interview.
Online pre-employment testing also filters unnecessary applicants, providing the company’s hiring managers with only the right applicants to interview. Since they prepare the test that is oriented for that particular position, it helps them make a better selection. The test results give the company a better insight into the candidate’s experience and skills.
Challenges of Virtual Hiring: Final Verdict
Virtual hiring has grown significantly in recent years and has many benefits of convenience and flexibility. But, it also has some challenges of technical or communication issues, ghosting or absence of non-verbal and soft skill clues of the applicant, and discomfort of time zones, etc.
However, online testing software improves remote recruitment by addressing the abovementioned challenges. It has made the future of virtual hiring clearer as HR teams can filter the right candidates and focus more on interviewing their potential employees. In the end, it makes the recruitment process easier.
