how randstad can help you optimize your virtual recruitment process.

In light of the changes that have occurred in how businesses operate and how people do their jobs in recent years, a key success factor for many companies will be their ability to manage a remote workforce.

COVID-19 forced employers in many countries and industries to shift to remote operations - a change that is widely expected to have permanent repercussions. PwC's CEO Panel Survey, which reflected the views of nearly 700 corporate leaders in June and July 2020, showed that 78% viewed remote collaboration as an 'enduring shift'. 

Given how crucial it is to ensure you always have the right people in your workforce - both in terms of the number of employees and available skills - recruitment is one vital process you must be able to manage remotely.

At Randstad, one of the ways we help our clients reach their goals and optimize their processes is by giving them access to our HR technologies, which were recently brought together on a single platform called Relevate. This is available as a value-added offering to our clients who are looking for support at key stages in the hiring cycle.

Here are some of specific HR tech tools and functions available on the Relevate platform that can help you optimize your recruitment process:

talent search 

LinkedIn research has suggested that virtual recruiting is 'here to stay', with 70% of talent professionals expecting it to become 'the new standard'. 

In this new environment, it's crucial that you're prepared with technologies and strategies that can deliver results and help you achieve your goals, regardless of whether you're operating remotely or in person. This is particularly important when it comes to sourcing and assessing candidates to fill key roles in your organization and supply the skills and experience you need to succeed.

Relevate Talent Search is one of the most powerful HR technologies we provide as part of our service to our clients. It gives you access to an extensive database you can search quickly and easily by entering the skills and experience you're looking for, along with your location.

You will then be provided with a list of qualified workers who meet your criteria. Once you've found someone you think is a good fit, in just a few steps you can express your interest in the candidate and move onto the next stage of the hiring process.

There are many advantages you can expect to gain from this approach, including gaining more control over an essential phase of your hiring process and not having to waste time posting job ads, asking for referrals, advertising on social media and waiting for suitable candidates to come to you.

workforce scheduling

When you have to schedule temporary workers to fill gaps in your labor force, or you need talent to help a short-term project run as smoothly as possible, it's vital that your workforce scheduling and planning are up to a high standard. For employers that are used to traditional workplace planning methods - visualizing and assigning resources in spreadsheets, for example - executing your key processes remotely might be a daunting prospect. Fortunately, there are technologies available to support and optimize your remote workforce planning. 

Our clients have access to Relevate Workforce Schedule, which is part of the wider Relevate platform. With this tool, you can gain access to a wide selection of screened workers who are ready to fill shifts and plug gaps in your labor force at exactly the right time. The system is specifically designed to be easy to use, efficient and available 24/7.

The benefits of this sort of technology have become particularly clear amid the considerable growth in remote business operations in recent years. More and more companies are coming to depend on digital tools and systems that can be accessed at any time, from any location.

talent match

When you're engaged in remote recruitment processes and you don't have as many opportunities to meet and evaluate job applicants in person, you should be looking for new ways to assess people's skills and qualifications.

Relevate Match is driven by an AI-powered talent-matching engine that helps you find the best people for your company and your available roles. The technology is cloud-based, meaning you can access it from anywhere, at any time.

With this tool, you can feel confident that you're taking advantage of the latest developments in AI and automation, without sacrificing the human element that should always be at the heart of recruitment and HR.

Randstad's philosophy is based on combining technology with the human touch, so we make sure our HR tech tools are used to support and complement human insights and relationships.

reference checking

If the modernization of your recruitment process includes a move away from in-person, manual and paper-based practices, digital reference checking is something you might want to consider.

Assessing references is a vital aspect of recruitment. It can help you check the most basic requirements for an individual to be considered for a particular role - whether or not they have experience in a key discipline or process, for example - and can also provide the final assurances you need to reach a final hiring decision.

However, it's also true that reference checking can be a time-consuming and laborious process, which makes it a good option for digitalization and automation.

We use Relevate Reference to optimize the online reference checking process and help you evaluate applicants quickly and accurately, so you can make high-quality hires and avoid costly recruitment mistakes. This HR technology collects data and feedback at key points in the hiring cycle and turns this data into relevant insights for you to act on.

relevate HR portal

Many businesses have faced some of their toughest ever challenges  in recent years, so will have a lot to gain from adopting new HR technologies and tools that help them become more efficient and make optimal use of their time and resources.

A good example of this is the Relevate HR Portal - a central hub that lets our clients realize the benefits on offer through the automation of tasks that once had to be done manually, such as assigning contingent workers, managing timesheets and processing invoices.

Having the option to delegate these jobs to technology means you and the HR professionals on your team will have more time to focus on work that makes better use of your skills, such as supporting and building stronger relationships with the workforce.

The portal can be accessed online or via an app, and gives you secure access to various information and services in your account, including time management, billing and reports.

Specific benefits available to users of the Relevate HR Portal include:

• Fully accurate recording of working time data
• Real-time employee presence checks
• Error-free billing
• Simplified approval processes for working time data

If you're looking for a detailed overview of the tools we use to deliver the best results for our clients and jobseekers, you can download our short guide to some of our most exciting HR tech tools.