Recruitment: Virtual Loyalty?

By Mark Smith

Almost like magic recruitment agencies have shifted from in person interviews with talent to having virtual interviews over their preferred video platform. At people2people, the agency I have been with since 2005 we use Teams. It is an effective tool and there is tremendous efficiency and speed of response benefits from using video interviews...and now the genie is out of the bottle there is no going back. 

What about the unforeseen consequences of virtual interviews?
  

Just this week of our consultants placing business support candidates into temporary vacancies in Sydney asked me why is it that people are so disloyal? Why do they go back on their word, or in the worst of cases, flat out lie? I asked if he had met the candidate that prompted the question and he said he had...but virtually on Teams.

He had taken a reference and explained how temping works and what is expected.  

Trust is intangible. Much of the communication between people is nonverbal and is in response to physical cues. In person interviews help build a stronger connection between recruiter and job seeker. Communication is stronger and simple acts, such as a handshake, create greater bonds and ultimately, trust.

Now that most interviews are virtual, I would suggest one of the unforeseen consequences is a trust and loyalty deficit.   

The team at people2people are not going to abandon virtual interviews but in a post virtual world our consultants will be taking extra effort to build trust and loyalty with the talent they are representing.

What techniques are you using? Am I right? Drop me a message on Talentwolf.