Why you should use virtual assessment days in your hiring process

Less stressful for candidates

As part of your assessment day, you will have one-to-one interviews, which are typically the most stressful part of the hiring process for the interviewee. Candidates may be stressed about travelling, being in an unfamiliar space or even maintaining eye contact. Taking the interview online relieves many of the pressures of a face-to-face interview. Therefore, potential employees who are nervous and might underperform in person may benefit from an interview conducted in a more neutral space.

Finding the team players

Virtual assessment days allow you to find out which candidates work well with others. Communicating through the internet means it can be easy to talk over another person. For example, a candidate who might be charismatic in person may dominate an online space and not give others the space to talk within group discussions. Therefore, it is important to see how your candidates interact over virtual communications and if they encourage and support each other. Having an indication of their online communication and collaboration is especially important if your team will be working in a remote or hybrid arrangement during the job.

Identifying those who know how to use technology

A virtual assessment day is a straightforward way to see how well your potential employee copes with working online, despite what they have written on their CV about their technology skills. The day will likely consist of online interviews, tests and presentations, and so you will easily find out which candidates are effective when working remotely.

Tests are simpler to run online

By using virtual assessment days, you can easily carry out online tests and assessments. If the job role requires competency in a specific field, a virtual assessment day allows for the seamless implementation of assessments and a simple way to collect and process the results. Therefore, virtual assessments avoid the complications of paper-based testing and can save you both time and cost in the employment process.

More health-conscious and inclusive

Virtual assessment days not only accommodate for the potential of disruption due to pandemics, but are also likely to expand your number of candidates. You will receive applications from people who otherwise could not sacrifice the time and expense of travelling to interview in person for one position. Additionally, mobile workers from other countries will have the option to attend, which will help to diversify the range of candidates you can interview.

More environmentally friendly

The elimination of the need to travel is key to the eco-friendliness of a virtual assessment day. Once you consider additional in-person necessities like catering, printed documents (e.g. exams) and presentation equipment, the environmental cost of an in-person event can rise dramatically, all of which is avoided virtually.

More flexible

In-person assessment days are usually the last step in the recruitment process; however, virtual assessment days need not be. Organising the day online has the benefit of being more flexible and easier to plan (no venues, travel expenses or catering are required) as well as allowing for more candidates to attend. You may even decide to host multiple virtual assessment days so that you can narrow your choice down without inflating the cost.

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