Virtual Recruiters: The Future of Hiring in the Digital Age

Role of Hiring in Digital World, Post Covid virtual working

We are seeing a continual shift in the ways of working, from remote to hybrid to return to office mandates. 

In 2024, the percentage of organizations offering flexible work arrangements as a recruitment strategy decreased by 16% from 2022 .

From an employee labour market and Great Resignation, we are now seeing the rise of an employer market. However, it is interesting to note that recruitment strategy utilization rates decreased across the board in 2024. New skills shall be required to navigate this disrupted, boundaryless era riddled by AI, Gen AI, geopolitical uncertainties, and socioeconomic changes. 

1 in 4 organizations report that full-time regular positions they’ve hired for in the last 12 months have required new skills. While the top two reasons driving these new skill requirements are organizational growth (55%) and changing technology (51%), 3 in 4 report that it has been somewhat or very difficult to find qualified individuals with the new skills they need.

In this War for Talent, the skills economy is the only way to unlock productivity and performance.  In order to build the required skills, organizations will need to navigate a fine blend of Buy, Build, and Borrow. Leaders must relook at their talent strategy with a new lens. Recruitment and hiring has a strategic key role to play in setting up organizations for future success. 

The Need for Virtual Recruiters : Brief overview of Skills Landscape, Skills-first, Global Boundaryless Talent, On Demand Talent Model

We are seeing an increasingly dynamic and different “skills success profile” being shaped by emerging technologies. 

The skills that employees need for a given position have shifted by around 25% since 2015; by 2027, this number is expected to double.

To fulfil these new skill requirements, recruiters will need to access wider talent pools and diverse talent sources. This means tapping into a global, boundaryless and flexible workforce. Interestingly, this contradicts the current trend of CEOs hardening their stance on returning to pre-pandemic ways of working – 83% are expecting a full return to the office within the next three years – a notable increase from 64% in 2023* The fact is that flexibility of workforce unlocks several benefits – reducing overhead costs, drawing from a wider talent pool, and strengthens employee engagement*4, leading to productivity gains. Hence, organizations must consider building a flexible, agile workforce model. This reality extends to agile recruiters too. 

What is Virtual Recruiting? (Elaborate on Recruiter on Demand) 

Virtual recruiting is a process wherein a recruiter works remotely, and uses technology and online tools to identify, attract, evaluate, and engage candidates for open positions. A virtual recruiter carries out the entire spectrum of recruitment funnel activities i.e. Sourcing-Screening-Shortlisting-Selecting, virtually. They also uphold the labour law and governance regulations of the recruitment process, to continuously improve the recruitment process. 

Solvecube’s solution to bring Virtual Recruiting to life is the Recruiter on Demand (RoD) offering, which enables companies to engage with virtual recruiters in various formats as per their need i.e. on demand. In general, an on demand workforce is available in many formats, some being fractional CXOs, project consultants, subject matter experts, domain experts, short term talent, interim talent, gig talent, Ninja Teams, Rapid Assembly Teams, and so on. This same concept of “on demand” applies to virtual recruiters as well. Their location-agnostic presence and flexibility in ways of working can be: 

• Full time virtual recruiter to take over overall hiring actions for clients
• Project-based virtual recruiter to ramp up workforce fast and easily. For example, scaling up high growth start-ups. 
• On demand virtual recruiter to hire in an agile manner, based on changing business needs

Companies can choose to avail the services of only on demand recruiters, or a mix of full time recruiters and on demand recruiters. This is called a blended workforce strategy, wherein a mix of full time employees and contract employees help achieve the hiring objectives of the company. The decision depends on the business need and strategic relevance. 

Advantages of Virtual Recruiter

The advantage of virtual recruiting is that companies are able to tap into a boundaryless, global, wider, talent pool. This presents an opportunity for companies to choose recruiters as per their talent needs and unlock the following advantages: 

•  Access to global talent pool: Reach a boundaryless talent pool with diverse candidates (DEI-centric too). 
•  “Right fit” hires: Due to better tech-enablement such as AI tools and automation, virtual hiring can help assess for the “right fit” quickly, on multiple parameters like skill-role-culture. 
•  Cost-effective: Lower operational costs like office space, travel, venue hiring, and others leading to better hiring metrics. 
•  Faster hiring: Eliminate logistical hassles like travel, venue bookings, in person scheduling and streamline the process for better efficiency. 
•  Scalable hiring: Virtual access to talent makes it easier to ramp up and ramp down hiring needs. 
•  Digital-first messaging: For companies who wish to convey the digital-first mindset in their EVP (valid especially for hiring young professionals), it offers a better candidate experience. 
• Better candidate experience: Unlock quick, easy, recruitment processes and easy access to company information anytime, anywhere. 

The Solvecube Way to Unlock On-Demand Virtual Recruiting Services

Solvecube’s Recruiter on Demand (RoD) service is a flexible, scalable, and cost-effective solution for companies wanting to quickly add on, or enhance their recruitment efforts. By availing Solvecube RoDs, companies can now hire experienced talent acquisition professionals and recruiters, both full time and on demand, as and when they need it. Solvecube’s AI-powered talent platform allows enterprises to choose from a pool of 2250+ experienced recruiting professionals, (both onsite and virtual recruiters), with 8-10 years’ experience. They work exclusively on their hiring needs, across domains and industries. These on-demand recruiters have the expertise to use the clients’ HR tools and systems, and seamlessly integrate with the team to deliver talent acquisition services. The key advantage is the needs-basis, business forward approach – clients can utilize these services for as long as the business needs it. This is especially useful for organizations who find it infeasible to build full-fledged recruiting capability inhouse, those who find traditional talent acquisition consultants expensive, or those who find it difficult to operationally manage an external recruitment agency and similar talent solutions. Since these RoDs are also knowledgeable about overall TA processes and legal and regulatory aspects, they offer an enhanced TA perspective. Solvecube RoDs thus offer a distinct cost benefit without compromising on the quality of recruiting expertise. 

How Virtual Recruiter works @ Solvecube

You can hire RoDs by first connecting and conversing with Solvecube leaders and seeking advisory on your TA needs. 

• Consult and Converse: Solvecube’s senior-level expert and decades-long experienced leaders offer talent advisory on how to curate the ideal workforce mix with a strategic workforce plan. With this, you can identify when, where and for how long you need recruiters and TA leads, based on your business needs. A suitable Relationship Manager is identified and assigned to you after signing an MSA, to hand hold you on this RoD journey. 
• Tap into tech: Solvecube’s AI-led talent platform opens up access to a wide pool of 2250+ certified and trained recruiters to choose from. AI-powered assessments help you arrive at the “right fit” recruiter, based on several parameters like skill-role-culture.
• Tap into touch: You can also avail the services of a Solvecube-assigned Relationship Manager (RM) to select the right RoD for you. An RM handholds you through the Solvecube technologies and processes, and helps you Source, Shortlist, Select and create targeted Rank-ordered shortlist of RoDs. The RM thus helps you hire RODs effectively and efficiently, within 48 hours. 
• Onboard RoD: SolveCube then signs contracts on the platform with the selected RoD/s by establishing clear SoW/s, performance metrics and milestone payment schedules.
•  Execution: The ROD/s deliver on your talent acquisition goals, as outlined in the contract, acting as inhouse recruiters. 
•  Invoicing: Once the goals are met, SolveCube raises invoice with you as per the contracted schedule and makes payment to the RoD at the Solvecube end.
• Closure or continuation: Process continues until the end of the contract, which can be closed or renewed as per your choice. You can enjoy the flexibility of extending the recruiter capacity as per your changing business situations.

 Closure 

Solvecube’s tech-forward on demand recruiting services helps organizations unlock agile, business first, cost efficient hiring, and comprehensive talent acquisition support. It presents the advantage of “hiring right”, with platform-access to a global, virtual, expert, experienced, talent pool and an allocated RM to help hire from this pool. At the same time, it enables companies to seamlessly manage governance, contract & payment through the one-stop SolveCube platform. This minimises the operational hassles of managing an external talent acquisition consulting firm as well as costs – proven cost savings >50% with Solvecube’s recruiters on demand approach. 

Perhaps the overarching value-add is not merely in the core recruitment process, but the human support and handholding that Solvecube leaders extend. 

“We understand this journey of building talent for building great businesses”.