Dear All,

Online Hiring & On-boarding has been well received during the pandemic by both candidates and hiring managers stated the expert panel during the recent HR-forum organized by the Swedish Chamber of Commerce in Hungary

We would like to thank our panel of HR experts for their great contribution: Anita Mészáros (Intrum), Dr. Patrik Molontay (HUMANFIELD Executive and Specialist Search Ltd), Orsolya Szabó (Essity) and Alexandra Sáfár-Vincze (Ericsson) and two Hiring Managers, Dániel Szabó (Intrum) and Péter Orbán (Ericsson).

New methodologies

Our HR experts agreed that they could successfully implement the online recruitment and selection processes and transform the process even more digital. They saw the advantages with more flexibility in time and location, however they also highlighted the potential technical challenges and the lack of non-verbal communication opportunities from both sides.

We also learned that online Assessment Centers can be very valuable experiences and how to transform the basically personal process to a pure online process. The recruiters have to take more time on the preparation, both their own and the candidates’ preparation in order to make the candidates more comfortable in this situation. Besides, an extra facilitator is needed to make the process smooth and avoid technical challenges. Instead of a 1-day program, it is suggested to re-plan the process and prepare a max 4 hours event and also work with smaller teams to be able to observe the candidates better.

Candidate & Hiring Manager experience in recruitment process

Our external expert highlighted that the Hungarian labour market is candidate-driven as there is a serious labour shortage. Employers who want to get the best candidates have to be very effective in their processes and show the company’s professionalism through the recruitment process.

Candidates in the Service and IT sector have already been used to online interviewing processes, however, applicant to production companies for instance had to adapt to the new processes.

There are differences among countries as well. For instance, in Hungary and Croatia, candidates became more cautious in changing jobs and companies had to start to put extra efforts into building trust, e.g., through having more interaction with the candidates from higher HR levels as well. In countries where the unemployment rate is higher (e.g., in Greece), the recruiters face large number of applications and had to re-plan their processes, for instance by changing to more focused searches via LinkedIn and involving more external partners.

Candidate polls show that most candidates are satisfied with the online selection processes. In order to reach this, recruiters had to make efforts on introducing some rules that candidates should feel comfortable. For example, to invite the interviewers a bit earlier that the candidate should not wait for them in front of the screen and of course, also spend time in proper introductions of the panel.

Hiring managers appreciate the decreased time that they have to spend with the selection, however, they agreed that having at least one personal meeting would make them more sure in their decision as you can see only one part of the non-verbal communication via the screen. Having an HR expert online during an interview might make them more confident professionally in the process.

Future learnings for the area of recruiting and on-boarding.

Both HR and Hiring managers agreed that the on-boarding process should definitely include personal presence to some extent. While the selection process seems to work well even in a 100% online way, digital on-boarding did not work that well and needs to be further improved.

In case of a team where everyone is newly recruited, online on-boarding goes quite smooth, however, integrating a new member to an existing team still creates challenges which can result in contract termination within probation period. Mindfulness programs and introduction of regular casual events consciously can help alleviate some of these problems

Next step:

The Swedish Chamber intends to continue the discussions within the HR Forum and we are open towards ideas for topics to discuss or what areas you are interested in more details. Please contact us with your ideas and suggestions on marta.boddi@swedishchamber.hu

The next topic will be most probably a discussion on home office solutions and how companies are planning to get back to the “new normal”.