For many people, remote working was a fairly normal occurrence long before UK Lockdown happened.  Businesses started to accept and embrace the option for colleagues to work from home even just part of the week to strike a good work/life balance, focus on projects uninterrupted, and deal with personal errands without losing a day of productivity.

But one thing that wasn’t yet the widespread norm was Remote Recruitment.  Typically, even when roles were home-based or hybrid, the recruitment and interview process would still involve face to face meetings.  It’s been a new experience for many, both on the recruiting side of the table and for individual candidates.  But the great news is that a robust and user-friendly intranet doesn’t just benefit your existing colleagues in their roles, it is a fantastic tool for the recruiting process.  At every stage of the recruiting process there is a tool in your SMLWRLD intranet’s arsenal to help support the hiring manager and the candidate.

1. The Vacancy

The job description is written, the business needs have been identified, the person specification defined.  It’s time to start the process of finding the perfect candidate.  Your SMLWRLD intranet is built with Document Management that makes it simple to upload, share and locate important policies and procedures.  You can also link these to more than one team or location if relevant, without having to upload it multiple times, and the intelligent tool even identifies related content.  With the Document Asset Management (DAM) it’s easy to share multimedia files including photos, videos, slides and PDFs.  So that the job description, the recruitment policies and procedures, and any associated files that the hiring manager or HR manager need to use are easy to find and refer to throughout the hiring process.

2. The Interviews

So now the hiring manager has a shortlist of candidates to interview.  This is where the remote aspect of the process presents a unique set of challenges for both sides of the process.  Interviews via Microsoft Teams or Skype can be stressful enough (thank you, patchy WiFi), but your SMLWRLD intranet has been built on a Microsoft tech stack, which means it can be seamlessly integrated with Teams and Outlook, and even coordinate login details with Skype.  So organising interview appointments and logging in are one less concern.  Phew!

3. Welcome Aboard!

The job offer’s been accepted and it’s the candidate’s first day. This is where the lack of office location and face to face engagement can make things tricky all round.  This aspect of remote recruitent is the most challenging, according to 50% of our poll responders.  So how can your intranet help, firstly, the hiring manager getting them onboarded, and secondly, embed the new team member and help them feel welcomed and equipped?  Well, for the hiring manager you can set up intelligent forms and workflows which send alerts to particular individuals or departments – for example to IT to set up their laptop.  All your HR admin can be conducted over the intranet; the “must-reads” feature is particularly useful for mandatory documents.  For the candidate, they can be set up with a welcome pathway from when they first login, directing them to which admin they need to complete, where to find documents and policies, and how to contact certain departments.  Why not upload an onboarding video, giving them a guided tour of their SMLWRLD intranet?  

4. Social Hub

One of the best things about joining a new company is being part of a new team, but it can be hard if you can’t meet them face to face. At SMLWRLD we know what that’s like, with several staff joining from remote locations all over the world since the 2020 lockdown.  But your SMLWLRD intranet isn’t just all business and no heart.  You can set up Communities, whether that’s for departments, social groups, campaigns or whatever you like.  You can then automate your new colleague joining their relevant group, where their peers are waiting to welcome them on the chat forums.  Or set up a Staff Thank You area where colleagues can give each other a shout-out and congratulate their new team member.  And don’t forget that your SMLWRLD intranet has Teams and Skype integrated, so your colleagues can chat face to face anytime.

5. Training and events

Of course all new recruits need training, whether it’s the mandatory HR courses, how to use your systems and tools, or upskilling your team.  Your SMLWRLD intranet has a Learning Management System (LMS) to deliver e-learning, track progress, manage user groups and display completion rates.  This is in addition to a Calendar and Event Management System (EMS) to build bespoke calendars for events, conferences, webinars, social gatherings, whatever you need.  Your events can be open to all, have a set capacity, incorporate RSVPs, be added to individual’s calendars, and lots more useful bells and whistles.  This isn’t just for the short term, it’s providing your team with tools and pathways for career development.  

6. Feedback

Getting feedback on how well your intranet setup is supporting your workforce can be tricky.  And sometimes it’s less about what people say, and more about what they’re experiencing.  Your intranet comes with a suite of reporting tools and analytics to help you understand how well it is performing.  Some of the insightful tools include:

• Search terms - see what users are using the search bar for.  Are they looking for content that they can’t see at a glance? Is that content missing or out of date?  Are the search terms lining up to the terminology used within the content? All of this is helpful in improving your user experience.
• The Data Centre - where you can build your own bespoke reports for many things, including pages, teams and sections.  One use for this is to see what the most popular content is in a particular day, week or month.   
• Feedback loops - ask your users if they found what they were looking for, put out surveys or ask them to rank their visit.
• Track comments, likes and shares of the content.

So there you have it, the full cycle of Remote Recruitment, and how your SMLWRLD intranet supports all aspects of the experience.