HR Search’s Guide to Remote Recruiting & Onboarding

Everyone in the world is getting a crash course in working from home now but this is underpinned by a greater business challenge, that of Business Continuity. Initially, for most organisations, the Covid 19 pandemic triggered a hiring freeze and even hiring processes which were mid-way or close to closure were put on hold.

However, here in HR Search we are working closely with our client partners and candidates to keep the recruitment assignments moving forward and together we are embarking on an interesting collaborative journey indeed.

HR Search has gained real insights from our client partners on how they are making this remote interviewing and on-boarding happen and we wanted to share these with you to help show how it can work. If you would like a full copy of the case studies please get in touch with with us here. Hopefully it will help you navigate through the uncertainty of Covid-19. It may also be an opportunity to trial, what might become the new normal. We hope you find it useful!

Case study findings

The most surprising thing for me is the speed of the hiring process from shortlisting, interviewing and job offers! Some previous recruitment projects would have taken 6-8 weeks and beyond, but we have in recent hires, reduced that to 3 and 4 weeks.

What systems are HR using to recruit & onboard?

We also see our successful hires joining organisations remotely, getting an opportunity to understand the policies, structures and culture at the outset and being able to complete their induction remotely, while being connected to their line manager who invariably adopts more of a mentoring style.

Top Tips!

• Keep it simple – Onboarding can become overly complicated and harder to deliver, simple processes and communications work
• Be patient, Stick with it! – New ways of working take time to adjust to but it can and does work
• Embrace it! – Remote working is the way of the future, you have an opportunity to get ahead of the curve

The availability of people to interview on Zoom/Skype is almost fully flexible. The engagement levels on the video interviewing medium is excellent and as we are all sharing the immediate challenges of Covid 19 together, so rapport is built through empathy and a common experience immediately.

Recruiting

• Diary plan full recruiting schedule from the start
• Share links for web interviews to invitees through a calendar invite including a help number
• Prepare the interview panel with pre-set questions to avoid everyone asking similar questions
• Ensure your chosen video conference platform allows for sharing of slide for interview presentations
• Use the mute button from the start only unmuting when you are speaking
• Your Agency recruitment consultant can schedule and support the recruiting process with you

Induction

• Plan ahead, give the new candidates a great first impression. Create a welcome letter
• Send contract documents through DocuSign or a similar product
• Get all passwords and access privileges set up at least a week in advance
• Have all equipment, laptops etc. couriered to the new employee
• Google Hangout lets you share slides from your screen and is really helpful for induction and training
• Schedule meetings and video check ins into the new employees’ calendar
• Create a detailed structured onboarding & training programme for the 1st 3 weeks
• Plan in knowledge assessment assignments for the end of each week
• Schedule weekly check ins with Line Manager as well as new employee

Pitfalls

• Cost of new laptops and transit
• Getting a sense of culture and belonging
• Hands on coaching and training / shadowing and working in teams
• Uncertainty for planning ahead

For a link for the full case study please get in touch with us here!