Potholes Appear in Virtual Hiring

Employers are hiring. Not a lot, but they’re hiring. And even though more than 38 million people are now on the job market, recruiters say they’re not rushing to hire just anyone when they have a critical role to fill. Pandemic or not. Employers are still seeking qualified candidates who’ll fit with their organization.

Not surprisingly in this world of social distancing, the number of in-person interviews has dropped by nearly 70 percent, according to the reference-check platform Checkster. In their place, hiring managers are relying on more telephone interviews, video interviews, assessment tests, and reference/background checks. 

Interestingly, 37 percent of hiring managers said their turnaround time had improved since they adopted more remote tools. And, many expect to continue using these tools after the crisis has passed.

This isn’t ideal, some recruiters believe. Mike Kahn, the executive senior partner at the Lucas Group’s Houston office, points out that less exposure to an actual place of work, and the actual people on a team, can hamper their efforts to sell a candidate on a position’s merits. Not only that, but arranging group interviews online is more cumbersome than getting all the players into a room. As is coordinating less-structured chats between candidates and team members or other managers.

“Eighty percent of hiring is connection and feel and fit. They’ve got to have this core skill set, but people hire people because they feel a connection,” Kahn said. “You just don’t get the same connection through a video chat that you do face-to-face.” 

 

iCIMS Wades Deeper into AI

iCIMS launched Talent Logic, which applies AI to its internal hiring data points in a bid to help employers identify and connect with candidates more quickly and efficiently. The product is based on the technology of the Dublin-based data science firm Opening.io, which iCIMS has acquired.

Opening.io’s “talent recommender engine” leverages machine intelligence for use in processes such as matching and ranking candidates, skills cataloging, salary guidance, analysis of resumes, and analyzing talent pools. iCIMS hopes Talent Logic will result in shorter times to hire, lower costs and better matches.

Given the number of workers now falling into the job market, Talent Match’s launch seems timely, especially if it helps employers improve talent-acquisition efficiency and workforce planning. It also help their diversity efforts, the company said, by allowing them to “cast a wider net.”

 

Doing Business

On the ground, the pandemic continues to drive activity throughout the recruiting space. Some moves this week:

LayOffers, which connects job seekers with recruiters, now includes contact information for some 370,000 recruiters. The information comes from ZoomInfo. LayOffers describes itself as “a supportive community” that allows laid off workers to share information, access job-search data and track layoffs. One interesting feature: The site allows recruiters to search candidates by previous employer, as well as job type, industry, years of experience and keyword.

AppVault added video capabilities to its virtual career fair platform. Customers also have the option of their own video system with the system’s live chat feature.

Staffing software platform CEIPAL improved its access to passive candidates. Its AI-Driven Passive Candidate Sourcing feature crawls public sites such as Google and Github, and delivers the results to recruiter’s CEIPAL dashboard. The system then ranks candidates to present best matches first. 

Snagajob, a marketplace for hourly and shift jobs, released On Demand, a platform that helps businesses adjust staffing needs on-the-fly in order to align with changing consumer demand. The company said the platform allows “push button” hiring when new staff is needed.

Recruiting platform BountyJobs announced a strategic partnership with the screening solutions provider Crimcheck. The integration will allow users to access employment screening and E-Verify solutions along with their search and screening processes.


Authors
Mark Feffer

Mark Feffer is executive editor of RecruitingDaily and the HCM Technology Report. He’s written for TechTarget, HR Magazine, SHRM, Dice Insights, TLNT.com and TalentCulture, as well as Dow Jones, Bloomberg and Staffing Industry Analysts. He likes schnauzers, sailing and Kentucky-distilled beverages.