Hiring goes virtual as more companies embrace remote working

Companies have resulted to hire and onboard new staff members remotely as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to shape changes to the labor market/work.

With many teams having fully embraced remote work in the past 12 months, hiring and subsequent on-boarding has followed a similar trajectory.

While the start of the pandemic ushered in mass layoffs, redundancy and pay cuts, firms have in recent months resumed recruitment.

But for those already immersed into the new world of work, it has meant breaking the tradition of face to face interviews for novel platforms including Zoom, Teams, Webex and Skype.

Tens of hundreds of Kenyans have for instance garnered their first jobs or transitioned into new jobs after virtual interviews and remote on-boarding.

Like remote working, hiring and training has slowly metamorphosed into the realms of virtual and remote spaces.

To effectively hire and train staff remotely however, the Executive Director of the Institute of Human Resource Management (IHRM) Quresha Abdullahi says firms must first amend their human resource (HR) policies to cover themselves from the eventuality of litigation.

“Company policies ought to change to allow interviews through alternative channels. This is to seal loopholes that might open one’s self or the company to litigation,” she said in an interview with Citizen Digital on Friday.

Further, Abdullahi says HR practitioners must now understand technology better as IT skills take center stage.

She further recommends the curation of key training material including short videos informing of standard operating policies by firms to their new recruits.

For Abdullahi, a vigorous and meticulous hiring and on-boarding process delivers on not just quality but also accompanies major cost saving benefits.

“It’s not just about the quality but also the cost savings involved. A lot of resources will be saved by the employer and quality time can now be put to work as teams work remotely eliminating wastage such as time spent in traffic jams,” she added.

At the same time, remote hiring has erased geographical boundaries as companies overseas hire local staff and clears them to work remotely.

Nevertheless, remote hiring and training presents its list of challenges including hitches in IT-related connections and deceit by some job candidates.

“You may not know who is taking exams on the other side for written tests. One can see candidates passing in a particular skills test but the same is not reciprocated in practice. There are also some skills in terms of the behavior and habit that are difficult to tell in a virtual setting. “Here background checks must go over and beyond,” added Abdullahi.