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Forget about written tests, the future of recruitment and candidate testing is in virtual reality.
That is one of the insights Nathan Perrott offered at the RechTech2015 event this week. He is the Director of Technology & Candidate Solutions at AIA Worldwide. Perrott held a presentation at the event where he discussed some of the technological innovations recruiters should look out for in the years to come.
While things like the drone camera Lily may be useful, the impending arrival of virtual technology into people's homes may have been one of the innovations that excited Perrott the most.
Virtual reality has previously been used to help veterans get jobs, but the planned launch of Oculus Rift in the first quarter of 2016 will create more possibilities for recruiters to use virtual reality, as everyone will now have access to the technology. Perrott believes recruiters should get ready to use the new technology to attract, source and test potential talent.
“It is definitely going to add the most value to situational judgment testing environment or assessment testing where users have to do something in a virtual reality,” Perrott tells Executive Grapevine.
“It is going to open up the door to experiencing the job. At least, that is if the job allows that. For example, experiencing the job of an aviation engineer could be really exciting. But [offering the VR experience of] a financial control clerk is not going to do the job [of attracting talent]. Some organisations that have a really lovely working environment can use virtual reality to show that. Or if they want to show off the company culture, then they can show different company events. Those could be either professional or social events like Christmas parties, within reason of course.”
While Perrott is excited about the possibilities of virtual reality, he does issue a warning.
“First of all you need to understand what the objective is that you are trying to achieve,” Perrott explains. “Virtual reality and 360 videos are solutions to problems. They shouldn’t be the first consideration. You need to ask yourself what problems you have, what your audience looks like and then deciding if virtual reality and 360 videos are the right tools to execute that.
“That’s where lots of companies get technology wrong. They see the innovation trigger of the hype-cycle. They go, 'Wow. That’s new and exciting. It is a bit of a fad. Let’s use it. I don’t care how.' Then they try to reverse-engineer a solution for it. That’s the wrong way of doing things.
“If you think that virtual reality is going to overcomplicate the recruitment process – be that through SJTs or RJPs – and is not going to add much value to show the company culture, then it is not probably the right thing for you.”
