7 Tips for Employers Navigating Remote Recruitment
Hiring experts explain how companies should approach recruitment when employers and candidates are working remotely.
The coronavirus pandemic has changed the professional lives of millions. Some employees are new to working from home; many others have been forced into the job market. Now job candidates and their potential employers alike face the challenges of a remote recruitment process.
It's a tough situation for both. "I think the initial reaction to the pandemic is everyone just stopped," says Joyce Brocaglia, founder and CEO of security and tech executive search firm Alta Associates and the Executive Women's Forum. "We saw hiring freezes, security professionals overwhelmed with the hiring landscape, as well as an increased amount of remote workers."
Many businesses paused recruitment to orient themselves and make sure they were poised to mitigate the risks associated with a larger remote workforce, Brocaglia explains. Most clients were going through a digital transformation before COVID-19 and saw those efforts accelerate.
While many companies have brought recruitment to a halt, some are focused on hiring at the CISO level. "We're still seeing executives move from one company to another and seeing the need to fill those executive-level roles," she says. "COVID has heightened the dangers of not having a good succession plan."
Now is not the time to lack cybersecurity leadership, and some organizations have realized their current security leaders won't effectively lead future efforts.
Josh Drew, vice president with Robert Half Technology and The Creative Group, has seen an overall slowdown in his greater Boston area, but over the past six weeks has noted an uptick in more temporary and permanent placement for both tech and creative roles.
"We expect that process to continue to pick up," he says, especially in the tech sector where mission-critical positions need to be filled. However, the hiring process will look different compared with pre-COVID-19 days, especially in major cities that are expected to be locked down for another few months. Employers will need to learn how to attract the best talent without in-person meetings or the promise of office perks.
Here, hiring experts share their advice to companies navigating the remote recruitment process. Are there any tips you've found effective that aren't listed here? Feel free to share your thoughts in the Comments section.
The initial phase of contacting potential hires has been, and remains, remote, says Drew. Most companies do a phone screen to follow up with applications and give an overview of the job.
From there, things look a little different. "Everything we're seeing in regard to a second round or final interview has moved toward a video interview," he says. The goal in these conversations is to mirror the in-person experience as much as possible while telling the company's story and detailing the specific work a new employee will be doing.
"More than ever, candidates need to see what's beyond the nice office space or that the company provides free snacks on Friday," Drew explains. The sharpest technical pros are most interested in the work involved. Chances are, you aren't the only company they're considering. Detailing the work they will be doing can help you stand out.
When demand is high for specific talent, companies "don't have the luxury of making mistakes," Brocaglia says. She advises being especially cognizant of how candidates act in video interviews.
"It's much more difficult, in some ways, to interview people just virtually," she explains.
While it's important for a candidate to be focused, it's equally important for a hiring manager to give these conversations their undivided attention. Factors like body language and the subtleties of someone's behavior may fly under the radar. Pay attention to specifics: How comfortably are they answering the questions? Are they focused? Are they using a cheat sheet? Are they speaking candidly about their roles and responsibilities?
Some organizations do mock interviews with candidates before their official interviews to ensure all systems are running smoothly and there are no technical issues, Drew says.
"Generally, both the clients and the candidates want to ensure a good experience for the other side," he explains. He recommends the testing approach to make sure everyone can log on and their sound is working. Technical difficulties "never help the situation," he adds, and it's common for someone to forget they're on mute or turn on their camera in a presentation.
If an employer is conducting several interviews in a single day, Drew suggests having candidates wait in a "virtual lobby" to separate the conversations and avoid accidental overlap.
Time and attendance are important both for employers and candidates. If someone tries to reschedule an interview three times, it's not giving a great impression, Drew says. "Multiple reschedules of an interview is typically something we see as a red flag internally, and our clients see that as well," he explains.
Job applicants hiding a suspicious past or who want to commit a crime may try to enter a company under a false identity, says Taylor Liggett, general manager of Sterling Identity. Identity verification has always been important but is even more so now, as more companies are fully remote.
"Unfortunately, we recently had a conversation with a company that fell prey to exactly this scenario and lost thousands of dollars in electronic merchandise to a recent hire who came into the organization under an assumed identity," Liggett says.
When hiring for his own team, he keeps an eye out for mismatches between candidate-provided information and data discovered during the background check or reference check. Someone's reluctance to participate in identity verification can be a red flag in itself, he adds. Liggett advises involving several people in the recruitment process to learn different perspectives on a candidate being considered. This can help a hiring manager check any personal biases and mitigate any potentially clouded judgment.
The hiring process "is completely different," says Brocaglia, because everything is done online. Organizations that eventually want someone to work on-site can't conduct in-office interviews because they don't know if or when their facilities will be open. This compounds the challenge for those with relocation requirements.
"It's complicated when companies want to interview people but also eventually plan on having them in the office, and that person needs to relocate for that job," Brocaglia says. Many could be hesitant to sell their homes or uproot their families at such an uncertain time, especially when they can't go on a house-hunting trip or school reopening has not yet been determined.
As a result, she's seeing more organizations offer advanced or enhanced relocation packages. These have more short-term living expenses to lengthen the transition into a new city, as companies don't know when they will require people to be in the office.
Brocaglia expects the ability to work from home will be a powerful lure to potential new hires.
"The biggest change we're seeing now is the ability to continue working from home," she says. "I think people are much more likely to take jobs if they're allowed to work remotely, and I see a lot of clients that would've never accepted that now ... being forced to do it."
The challenges of remote recruitment extend into remote onboarding because employees, especially executives, don't get to meet the stakeholders they'd be working with. When a CISO starts a new role, the first month or two is spent meeting these and other execs, including the chief privacy officer, chief information officer, and chief technology officer.
This onboarding period can make a tremendous difference and may influence a new hire's decision to stay with a company, Brocaglia explains. Alta Associates has a virtual program to aid in the transition, with steps that organizations can apply to their own onboarding. This includes creating a four-month plan to map out the employee's success in their role, help them develop relationships across the business, and identify successes to their boss and the organization. Employees are assigned a coach, with whom they do biweekly calls to check in on progress.
The coronavirus pandemic has changed the professional lives of millions. Some employees are new to working from home; many others have been forced into the job market. Now job candidates and their potential employers alike face the challenges of a remote recruitment process.
It's a tough situation for both. "I think the initial reaction to the pandemic is everyone just stopped," says Joyce Brocaglia, founder and CEO of security and tech executive search firm Alta Associates and the Executive Women's Forum. "We saw hiring freezes, security professionals overwhelmed with the hiring landscape, as well as an increased amount of remote workers."
Many businesses paused recruitment to orient themselves and make sure they were poised to mitigate the risks associated with a larger remote workforce, Brocaglia explains. Most clients were going through a digital transformation before COVID-19 and saw those efforts accelerate.
While many companies have brought recruitment to a halt, some are focused on hiring at the CISO level. "We're still seeing executives move from one company to another and seeing the need to fill those executive-level roles," she says. "COVID has heightened the dangers of not having a good succession plan."
Now is not the time to lack cybersecurity leadership, and some organizations have realized their current security leaders won't effectively lead future efforts.
Josh Drew, vice president with Robert Half Technology and The Creative Group, has seen an overall slowdown in his greater Boston area, but over the past six weeks has noted an uptick in more temporary and permanent placement for both tech and creative roles.
"We expect that process to continue to pick up," he says, especially in the tech sector where mission-critical positions need to be filled. However, the hiring process will look different compared with pre-COVID-19 days, especially in major cities that are expected to be locked down for another few months. Employers will need to learn how to attract the best talent without in-person meetings or the promise of office perks.
Here, hiring experts share their advice to companies navigating the remote recruitment process. Are there any tips you've found effective that aren't listed here? Feel free to share your thoughts in the Comments section.
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