47© 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com). DOI 10.1002/ert.21433

Organizations have been providing virtual human resource services for several

years as a way to meet the needs of an ever more dispersed workforce while holding down costs. Often, this entails leveraging virtual technologies to outsource payroll, ben-efits administration, and even human-capital management. Now, however, some leading organizations are taking virtual HR to another level. They are going beyond those traditional support-type services to include the use of virtual HR tools and techniques in functional areas that are more core to HR’s mission.

This new world of virtual HR falls into three basic categories: recruiting, on-boarding, and training/education. In the past, these functions have been performed primarily in person, which meant either prospects or employees would come to the HR office or HR personnel would go on-site somewhere.

That wasn’t a problem when all (or most) employees lived within a reasonable drive of the office where HR is headquartered, and recruiting was more local in scope. But as organizations have moved to expand their employee base to take advantage of market opportunities (as well as access to talent) from all over the world, that sort of in-person work has become more costly and impractical.

Virtual HR solves those issues by making it possible to create and serve a global work-force without the time and dollar investment of travel. Using online tools, HR professionals

can provide almost the same attention and experience that prospects and employees would receive in an in-person setting. Just as important, HR can group activities by need rather than by location, creating a more intel-ligent, more efficient approach to finding, servicing, and retaining the people the busi-ness needs to be successful.

Let’s take a closer look at each of these emerging areas.

VIRTUAL RECRUITING

Much has been made about how technology allows organizations to expand their talent pool by seeking out talent where it lives. Yet discovering that talent is often still a matter of traveling from region to region to set up live events (i.e., job fairs) and speaking with whoever can make it to that event that day.

A virtual job fair turns that model around completely. Rather than remaining fixed on a location and a specific time frame, organi-zations can set up a virtual environment for recruiting that operates 24/7/365. It’s extraor-dinarily convenient for prospective job can-didates as well, because they can enter the virtual job fair from anywhere they can get an Internet connection. It removes the limita-tions of time and distance, creating a truly worldwide pool of talent from which to draw.

With a virtual job fair, organizations can use webcasts, webinars, and video to interact

Three Ways Virtual Technologies Are Making a Difference in HR

Mike Nessler

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focused, engaging, and interactive, all while connecting new hires to the critical informa-tion and resources they need.

Virtual on-boarding makes it easy and far less expensive to on-board a global work-force. There is no travel involved, so no need to worry about passports, flight delays, or other factors that can affect attendance. On-boarding sessions can be scheduled in a way that makes sense from an organizational standpoint as well. Rather than focusing on all new hires in a region for a particular ses-sion, new employees can be grouped by job function, language, experience, or any other criteria that is deemed important or conve-nient. And unlike in-person on-boarding ses-sions that are restricted to a particular time frame, all of the presentations and activities can be captured and stored online so new hires can refer back to them as-needed.

On the corporate side, company experts can be brought in and out as needed, with-out disrupting their schedules. This option includes those whose expertise is specific to a particular group, allowing new hires to gain insights and tips from their peers where previously travel restrictions would have pre-vented this knowledge transfer.

The net result is a more consistent, more cost-effective on-boarding process that ensures every new hire receives the best information to help him or her get off to a good start with the organization.

ONGOING VIRTUAL TRAINING AND EDUCATION

Virtual HR isn’t just for new hires. It can be a valuable component of an organization’s ongoing training and education as well.

One of its biggest advantages, of course, is ensuring consistency throughout the

with students, job candidates, and employee prospects around the world. Prospects have the opportunity to learn about the organization and browse through areas that interest them. Because organizations can require prospects to upload their résumés as part of the admis-sions process, they can quickly identify those candidates they consider to have the highest value and engage with them on a one-to-one basis through tools such as text-based or video chat.

Whether an organization is looking for local knowledge and experience for satellite offices or to bolster its core functionality by tapping into a broader market for talent, vir-tual job fairs provide a cost-effective, people-smart solution.

VIRTUAL ON-BOARDING

Scheduling a traditional orientation in a room filled with new hires is a fading practice. When most of your talent is distributed across broad

geographic locations, the cost to fly in new hires from around the world and put them up in a hotel for several days—or fly company executives to a location for local on-boarding—becomes astronomical. It makes far more eco-nomic sense to conduct these sessions virtually.

Yet on-boarding cannot be the “death-by-PowerPoint” presentations that typify many in-person programs. Because of the increased opportunity for distraction (you no longer have a fully captive audience because of the ubiquitous use of personal electronic devices), the on-boarding process must be

Virtual HR isn’t just for new hires. It can be a valuable component of an organization’s ongo-ing training and education as well.

Winter 2014

49Three Ways Virtual Technologies Are Making a Difference in HREmployment Relations Today DOI 10.1002/ert

some of the newer, more complex HR func-tions that are going virtual and go into detail on how three organizations leveraged virtual environments to recruit, on-board, train, and help truly change the way their organizations manage strategic HR functions.

KPMG Career Fair Attracts Over 10,000 Attendees

With 15,000 tax professionals in 148 coun-tries and 731 cities, KPMG and its member firms help clients address international fed-eral, state, and local tax issues. When the company wanted a global virtual event to access new talent, build relationships, and

reduce costs, it decided to use a virtual envi-ronment platform. The result was the KPMG World Jobs Fair. Thousands of financial pro-fessionals and college graduates interested in career opportunities with a global financial leader attended this unique 48-hour online event, which educated and aligned candidates with hundreds of openings at KPMG member firms around the world.

“As an increasing number of companies conduct business internationally, there are growing opportunities for professionals in KPMG member firms, especially in emerg-ing markets such as Brazil, Russia, India, and China,” said Timothy P. Flynn, chairman of KPMG. “We’re also focused on adding thou-sands of jobs in developed markets such as the United States and Europe.”

organization. The quality of any training and education program is dependent on the instructors. Do they follow the curriculum as it has been laid out? Is the message they’re delivering the same throughout the organiza-tion? Do they cover all the course material?

A virtual training and education program ensures that consistency by providing one central resource that delivers the same mate-rial to every audience. That resource not only provides access to the content, but also makes it easy for everyone in the organiza-tion to gain access to subject-matter experts as well as their peers, providing 360-degree learning.

Another advantage of a virtual training and education program is the way it can blend formal and informal learning. Prerecorded webinars can be combined with live events that bring together personnel throughout the organization, allowing them to learn from one another as well as the instructors. This for-mat helps encourage participation, energizing audiences throughout the program.

Of course, there are financial benefits as well. A virtual training and education program drastically reduces the cost per attendee. It also boosts productivity by allow-ing trainees to participate from their desks rather than moving to another room—or another location entirely.

It can be a tremendous enhancement to any organization’s training and education efforts. But for those with a widely dispersed workforce, it can have a particularly large impact.

ILLUSTRATIONS OF HOW HR CAN GO VIRTUAL

It’s one thing to talk a good game. It’s another to produce results. Let’s explore

When the company wanted a global virtual event to access new talent, build relationships, and reduce costs, it decided to use a virtual environment platform. The result was the KPMG World Jobs Fair.

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global opportunities through an event like the KPMG World Jobs Fair helps people expand their skills and cultural perspective.”

CareerBuilder.Com Helps Clients Drive Global Recruiting

CareerBuilder.com has successfully produced several industry and customer job fair events. The company now brings this solution for-mally to market, serving individual enterprise clients as well as providing a free series of events to attendees.

Key features of the CareerBuilder.com vir-tual recruiting solution include:

• Candidate qualifi cation and ranking analytics,

• Job-seeker and employer communications tools, and

• Professional networking.

CareerBuilder.com’s objectives are to work with organizations to reduce the cost of travel and other hard costs associated with live in-person hiring events, drive employment brand, reduce cost per hire, and increase accessibility to the workforce. They have been able to reduce the time to hire by 60 percent, lowered the “cost per hire” by 70 percent, and reduced travel expenses significantly. The estimated cost per attendee was $2.76.

CareerBuilder.com helps clients with the design and promotion of the event as well as with the execution of the full-day program. Utilizing this virtual platform has enabled CareerBuilder clients to be where they are not, and to let their brand have direct tar-geted exposure at all times. It is fully cus-tomizable and can be streamlined to scale for very large companies or even the midsize to small-size company.

After three months of planning and devel-opment, an international virtual event was delivered that introduced more than 10,000 attendees to KPMG recruiters and industry professionals. In a virtual Main Hall, Exhibit Hall, Conference Hall, and Resource Center, job seekers explored opportunities in specific countries and learned about the company’s culture, values, corporate citizenship goals, training and development, and work/life programs. They visited booths, watched live webcasts, chatted with KPMG professionals, and applied directly for openings.

With more than 40 participating countries, the KPMG World Jobs Fair more than lived

up to its name. The company received more than 9,300 job applications in a virtual envi-ronment free from geographic limitations. “It was huge,” adds Lisa Rolston, KPMG associ-ate director for eSourcing Strategy and Brand-ing. “It surpassed my expectations. We were the first of the Big Four to do it, and I’ve been asked when we’re going to do it again. We attracted a ton of graduate students and also a large number of experienced people.”

Rolston also believes the accompany-ing media coverage helped from a branding perspective. Articles on the event appeared in publications such as The Economist and The Financial Times. “Clients need profes-sionals with global audit, tax, and advisory skills,” concludes Flynn. “Taking advantage of

CareerBuilder.com helps clients with the design and promotion of the event as well as with the execution of the full-day program. Utilizing this virtual platform has enabled CareerBuilder cli-ents to be where they are not, and to let their brand have direct targeted exposure at all times.

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Winter 2014

Client Creates a Virtual Benefits Fair

A leader in HR solutions for businesses cre-ated a virtual environment that will serve as support for the company’s yearly benefits-enrollment program.

A virtual environment was initially created in order to better train the company’s clients. Now, however, the company is broadening the environment’s application and using it to help employees in the United States have bet-ter control over the open-enrollment process from the comfort of their personal computers.

The new environment, known as the Virtual Benefits Fair, was designed to help employees take advantage of their benefits. The company reported that more than 20,000 documents were downloaded, and an average employee visit lasts in excess of an hour.

According to a spokesperson for the client, the new program will “save companies time and money” and “improve the open enroll-ment outcomes that organizations have tar-geted for their employee populations.”

Company Drives Innovation Training Across Several Dozen Countries

There were no misplaced bags, cancelled flights, or lost hotel reservations; it was a global conference without the problems of international travel. Instead of lining up for their airplane seats, attendees sat in front of computers at their offices or even their homes. This was what one client wanted—a worldwide audience brought together virtu-ally, using just a few clicks of a mouse.

A year earlier, leaders at this company decided to create an innovation initiative to change their culture and engage all employ-ees in the process of innovation. The first step included training employees in basic

ideas, the process of developing innovative ideas, and the use of its new Idea Manage-ment System. With employees in dozens of countries, it was impossible to bring them together physically, because of financial and time constraints. However, the client chose to partner with an organization that specializes in virtual events to create and host his first virtual training conference.

“We were launching an innovation pro-gram, and the pressure was on to do some-thing that looked and felt innovative. Our partner provided a gorgeous interface with locations that looked really good,” recalled one executive. The red-trimmed confer-ence venue was exactly as he and his design team had imagined it—crisp, spotless, and effective—and it easily aligned with brand-ing requirements. On entering the confer-ence, visitors were greeted by the CIO. He explained the event goal, as well as the fea-tures and courses available within the vir-tual environment. Employees were free to navigate between six booths and one training booth. Learners could launch courses hosted on the enterprise’s learning-management sys-tem to supplement symposia offered within the conference. They could also link to the Idea Management System, where they would directly submit ideas from the event. At dif-ferent locations, senior executives appeared as virtual hosts.

The official launch day of the innovation program saw more than 2,000 participants from 31 different countries come together to learn and network with one another. The attendance exceeded the client’s goals, and both employees and management were extremely happy with the results. The event went off without a hitch: no guest speaker missed a flight or got caught in traffic, and whenever an employee wanted to view a

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The event was so successful that the internal team received a Spot Award from management for their efforts. The site continues to be the first stop for innovation for the company, and the team is now using it to launch and train employees on new products and tools being developed. Currently, the company is working on a Virtual Engagement Center (VEC) in order to host multiple virtual events in the future.

training session, it was available at the click of a button. After the live event ended, it was placed on-demand so that employees could access all content whenever it was conve-nient for them.

“Doing the training virtually was great. It would have been too expensive and time-consuming to bring everyone together any other way,” a company spokesperson said.

Mike Nessler is executive vice president of the event services business at InterCall, a subsidiary of West Corporation and the world’s largest conferencing and collaboration services provider. He can be reached at mjnessle@intercall.com.