Online campus recruitment: The future of campus hiring is here!

Campus hiring in the last decade has seen a revolution. Talent Acquisition Teams now focus on attracting the right talent. They ensure this by building on their employer brand and managing expectations. A substantial effort is put into portraying what it means to be working with their organisations. 

Gone are the days where campus hiring involved a closed room, an interviewing panel and a nervous student trying to make an impression. The wheels of innovation have turned and now campus engagements form a crucial part of campus hiring. Talent Acquisition Teams ensure that they interact with campuses by means of challenges and competitions. This strategy has helped them build their employer brand and identify the right talent. Winning teams often get a chance to interact more closely with the organisation and PPIs. This format of campus hiring relies on the candidate being proactive and making an informed decision to reach out to an organisation they want to work and build their careers with. 

A process which involves multiple touch-points with the campus has also had to evolve in light of the current situation, which shows no signs of retreating. Now, instead of elaborate engagements on campus, Talent Acquisition Teams have had to relook at how to best reach out to the right talent. With online campus engagements seeming like the best POA, careful thought and planning need to be put in, to ensure that the online campus recruitment process still has the same rigour like its offline counterpart.  

Introducing Online Campus Recruitments - The ‘new normal’

Campus recruitments, since time immemorial, have played an integral part in the recruitment sphere. Companies often lookout for fresh graduates who would add value to their organization with their unique, out of the box ideas, that’ll give their firm a whole new dimension. Even candidates, fresh out of college, would look up to such opportunities where they would get a chance to step into the corporate world and see for themselves what the real world holds for them. 

As time progressed, the campus hiring process evolved. Companies now had lucrative ways of assessing a candidate’s calibre. Campus engagements, commonly referred to as corporate competitions, became the talk of the town and soon spread like wildfire. Organisations not only wanted to hire bright talent but also the one that fit right into its system and had just the right mix of skills that they needed to thrive in the team. Corporate competitions helped organisations explore the multiple facets of a candidates’ talent and intellect. Also, the usual 3-4 month-long journey together helped both stakeholders to get to know each other better! 

A tried and tested method where both the companies and students enjoyed isn’t a reality anymore. Owing to the current scenario, recruiters now need to look for other varied ways to ensure these multiple insightful interactions with the candidate still take place to make the right decision. 

A need was felt and Unstop (formerly Dare2Compete)stepped up to the plate to hit a home run like always! in a matter of weeks, an all-new face of the recruitment industry was born. Everything, from the initial shortlisting of candidates to campus engagements to conducting interviews, went online. Recruiters now had the option of:

• publishing a job listing on online campus recruitment platforms, 
• shortlisting a candidate with a single click, 
• curating and moderating online campus engagements, 
• conducting online assessments with an AI-based proctoring system,
• and conducting virtual interviews. 

Also, hiring managers could now store the database of all the applicants in one place and communicate with them as and when the need arises.  

Sounds magical, right? 

Let’s get a brief idea of the benefits that come along with the usage of the online campus recruitment and the online lateral hiring platform: 

1. Ensures recruitment continuity 

We shall begin with the one benefit that has helped connect recruiters with potential candidates even in these testing times - continuity. An online campus recruitment and an online lateral hiring platform is far from the hassles of conducting in-campus recruitment processes. With all the stakeholders holed up in their homes, scheduling and coordination would have thrown a wrench in the wheel! Imagine maintaining data from multiple campuses, its various courses and the openings you have within your organisation. Now add a layer of remote working to the mix. The online campus recruitment and online lateral hiring platform gives you a single platform with end to end solutions for all your campus hiring and lateral hiring needs.  

2. Reduces cost and saves time

I think most of us will agree that planning and coordination take time. Especially, when it is about a recruitment process that needs to be conducted on campus, companies plan a lot in advance about the strategies that they’d like to employ, in addition to cost budgeting. But when online campus recruitments come into the picture, all of this fades away. They no more have to worry about missing a flight or not getting appropriate accommodations. All they need to do now is to log in to the recruitment portal, follow the essential steps and see their plan take shape. The same stands true for the online lateral hiring platform as well. To sum it up, hiring managers have all their recruitment essentials in one place now!

Such recruitment portals also save time, and why not? Once we eliminate the steps of budgeting and strategizing, the entire recruitment process gets simpler and hassle-free - saving both time and energy.

3. Wider Candidate reach 

If there is one thing the pandemic taught us, it is this - physical presence is no more a prerequisite to get things done. And this empowering realisation has helped HR teams too in sourcing the right candidates. Instead of a set pool of candidates from the specific colleges they earlier liked to visit, they can now open applications to a larger set of audience without worrying about the nuisance of travel and accommodation. Recruiters might come across exceptionally talented candidates in this process which can further add to the diversity and culture of the company.

This helps in the process of online lateral recruitment as well. With enhanced visibility, a larger pool of candidates is likely to apply for the said job listing that’ll most likely deliver favourable results.

4. State of the art tools - AI-based proctoring and instant KYC

Not only do online campus recruitment and online lateral hiring platforms offer quality but also ensure that the communication between candidates and recruiters is safe, secure and can be trusted. With AI-based online proctoring tools, the platforms eliminate discrepancies of all sorts. They keep a track of the device used during the assessment (mobile or laptop), the number of persons appearing on the screen/ camera and whether or not candidates switch between tabs. In case of suspicion, flags are raised. Additionally, instant KYC tools are also available that take care of the authenticity of an individual. Features like this ensure that the system stays fairly transparent which avoids confusion.

5. Enhanced efficiency

We’ve discussed the time it takes to strategize and execute offline campaigns along with the amount spent on each engagement. And where time is one factor that gets affected, efficiency is another. Online campus recruitment, as well as online lateral hiring platforms, are simple, easy to use and have a shorter turnaround time in comparison to that of a physical process. Also, recruiters have the privilege of connecting with a number of candidates at a time, thus allowing companies to recruit talent quickly and efficiently.

6. Opens more doors with minimum bias

Another crucial factor that steps in, when we talk of online campus recruitment platforms, is the elimination of common hiring biases. Virtual platforms provide equal opportunities to everybody, thereby, ensuring that worthy candidates are brought to the recruiter’s attention. 

In a constantly changing world, it is crucial for industries to quickly adapt to the winds of change. The recruitment space is all set to get attuned to the future of campus hiring and has in turn taken steady steps to ensure a smooth transition. What’s notable here is the fact that the traditional hiring strategies and processes are in for a major makeover which will most likely stick around even in the post-Covid era. 

Dare2Compete has been in the Employer Branding space for almost a decade now. It has spearheaded and is responsible for major strides that the ecosystem has made. Knowing the ins and outs of the ecosystem, Unstop (formerly Dare2Compete)has closed the loop with its online campus recruitment and online lateral hiring platform. 

It is about time for us all to acknowledge change and get accustomed to an era that’s evolving at a rapid pace. We are ready. Are you? 

If you’re intrigued about online campus recruitments, you might like to read the following: 

• Virtual Campus Recruitment will save the day for students in the days to come!
• Campus engagements kick off even before college begins!
• How to conceptualize B-School and Engineering campus engagements for enhancing employer brand equity
• Employer Branding- A Must for On-Campus Hiring
• D2C B-School Employer Branding Report 2020: Voice of students!
• Debunking the Myths associated with Employer Branding
• Best Ways to Do Employer Branding in Campuses
• 5 Tools Everyone in the Employer Branding Industry Should Be Using