Hiring Tools

On-campus recruiting has been decreasing in popularity over the years. Running up high travel costs and being time-intensive is less than ideal in today’s fast-paced tech industry. The pandemic proved to be the nail in the coffin for this old-school way of university recruitment.

Universities and other educational institutions across the world canceled in-person career fairs and on-campus recruitment drives. Companies needed to think on their feet to organize their summer internships as well as figure out ways to fill their candidate pipeline. This led to a forced transition to virtual campus recruiting—which turned out to be a good thing so far!

2022 holds the promise of a new start for the modern recruiter. Virtual campus recruiting doesn’t demand a huge budget, eliminates geographical constraints which widen your talent pool, and provides an improved candidate experience to today’s digital-savvy generation—it is a win-win all around.

Let’s talk about virtual campus recruiting strategy, making the shift to a remote hiring model, and speaking the language of Gen Z. The latter of which make up a majority of your target audience in this article.

Creating a virtual campus recruiting strategy: The steps

Traditional campus recruiting only happens once a year. Now that you do not have to wait until universities reopen to initiate your hiring discussions, virtual campus recruiting can be an ongoing strategy: you can nurture your potential candidates throughout the school year.

As the first company to reach out, you’ll have the advantage of students’ full attention. Here’s what you can do to build an effective virtual campus recruiting strategy:

1. Build a robust hiring plan

Before going all-out with your virtual recruiting ideas and strategies, you need to assess the skill gap within your company—then go on to hiring for those particular roles. List down your hiring needs by taking inputs from team leaders of various departments.

Ask them questions like:

• What departments need new talent?
• What skills are the current roles lacking?
• What level of expertise do you need from your candidates?
• How do you plan to build/strengthen your employer brand among student groups?

Based on the answers, your recruiting budget, and ROI targets, chalk out your virtual campus recruiting strategy to meet all your goals.

Related read: The Biggest Challenges Faced By Recruiters In University Hiring

2. Add more universities to your hiring pool

Now that you have a solid plan in place, the next step is to have a clearly defined set of requirements—to help decide on the universities to target.

The identified list of schools could be based on the job openings, budgets, and diversity policies. Gen Z expects workplaces to be inclusive and as they make up a majority of the targeted workforce of tomorrow, it’s best if your company gets started on its D&I journey soon—not that you need a reason to be naturally inclusive and empathetic.

The more schools, and the more types of schools you can include in your campus recruitment efforts, the more vast and diverse your pipeline will be. Virtual campus recruiting makes it easy to expand your horizons. Take location out of the picture as you don’t have to physically go to these schools, and then build out talent profiles for specific roles that don’t conform to the usual handful of schools. There’s top talent in all of these places.

Related read: 5 Advantages Of University Recruitment

3. Leverage social media to source candidates

Today’s college grads get everything done on their phones. They rely heavily on digital means to get them through the day. Your recruiting strategy for students being virtual is a blessing in disguise! This is how you stand out from the crowd—by leveraging social media for your recruiting efforts.

Splash your job postings on relevant social media channels like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram in a creative way that grabs eyeballs. Talk about your brand, what a day at work looks like, what current employees think about your company, showcase your culture, share snappy/fun stories—humanize your company by being authentic.

If you need to build connections with universities that you’re freshly collaborating with but do not have the budget, here’s what you can do. Use Google to search for Dean’s Lists, engineering honors programs, and so on. Search for student awards, competition wins, and membership lists for student organizations. You can get all the relevant student information if you know your way around Boolean search—if you don’t, this article will help you immensely!

Related read: Boost your social recruiting efforts with this CHEAT SHEET.

4. Show interest in students throughout their time at university

Since your entire campus recruitment is going to be remote, there’s no time like the present to connect with students and keep in touch throughout the year. Supporting a continuous exchange of ideas, opportunities, and information all through their time at the university helps to keep your brand at the forefront when it’s time to begin the actual hiring process.

Here are some innovative college recruiting strategies to nurture students:

Share compelling content about the day-to-day goings on at the workplace to keep your company top of mind. Invite students to read blog posts by, and watch videos of, your employees. Allow them to check you out on social media (which you should’ve been updating regularly). To strengthen your brand, share information about the company via webinars or seminars – the nature of work, new patents, cutting-edge research, and career paths. Include QR codes on event materials or flyers to guide students directly to these resources

Spruce up your careers site and encourage students to sign up for your talent community. Shine the spotlight on your company’s work culture, goals, benefits, and rewards. The visual content could include images, employee videos, or graphics to create a story.

Use customized recruitment campaigns that can answer questions like, What steps are being taken for the mental well-being of employees? What do your employees have to say about the culture—both pre-COVID and now? Segment and target talent by major, university, geography, diversity, and more for better results.

Run workshops and mentorships to help soon-to-be graduates, not just for your targeted students, but for all of them. This helps you keep your finger on the pulse and learn what students are interested in while increasing visibility and trust in your brand.

Offer internship opportunities so students can experience for themselves what it would be like working for your company. Bake in project support and incubation programs as part of their learning process.

Related read: Are Remote Internships A New Fad Or Are They Here To Stay?

5. Diversify your engagement strategy

Conducting one webinar to drive engagement and dusting your hands off would’ve worked in a traditional setting but not anymore. It’s important to plan and host several virtual events throughout the year if you want to keep the students engaged. These are a few virtual recruiting event ideas that are a good place to start:

Hackathons are a great way to connect with students and build relationships with them. They drive engagement and attract top talent. You, as recruiters, can even assess potential candidates’ culture fit as they work with your team during a hackathon.

With tools like HackerEarth, you can not only find qualified developers with hiring challenges but can also engage our 6.5 million strong developer community by hosting hackathons.

Virtual career fairs let you connect with students, collate information, host interviews, and assessments—much like on-campus career fairs. You can design your virtual fairs so they have employer booths that attendees can visit, auditoriums for webinars, and chat rooms where they can network with recruiters, hiring managers, and other company reps to find out about open jobs and the benefits of working for your company

Virtual information sessions like AMAs (Ask Me Anything) with your company’s leadership team, QnAs through chat, employee panels to promote various aspects of your company, and the tried and tested webinars, all serve to pique and hold the interest of your potential candidates, i.e. students. Students look forward to personal interaction with employers and have their doubts cleared, so build in time and capability to field questions.

Related read: Benefits Of Creating A Campus Hiring Strategy In India

6. Identify the most efficient tools to assess future candidates

Skills assessment is the first step to screening potential candidates in online campus recruitment. To handle large volumes of student applications, you need to arm yourself with a good coding assessment tool—that helps you identify the students’ potential by conducting assessments for diverse roles as well as objectively evaluating students based on their skills.

This is where we, at HackerEarth step in! Our coding assessment platform generates a leaderboard after every assessment, allowing recruiters and hiring managers to screen the very best developers with ease. You can upload a job description and create a coding assessment from a library of 13,000+ questions across 80+ skills, within minutes.

Coding interviews mark the culmination of your online campus recruitment. An efficient coding interview tool would have an in-built code editor, video chat, offers pair programming, and automates interview summaries. Pair programming interviews can help employers expedite technical skills assessment by assessing candidates based on real-time programming skills.

Our intelligent online coding interview platform, FaceCode comes with a state-of-the-art collaborative code editor, a built-in question library, HD video chat, a diagram board and so much more. It is completely developer-friendly. Click here to experience it first hand.

Related read: 21 Tech Recruiting Tools To Scale Your Hiring

7. Measure your goals to see if your efforts are paying off

You need to dive deep into analytics from your virtual campus recruiting strategy to figure out what is working and what isn’t. Other than the basic number of attendees metric, there are other factors to take into account before declaring your recruitment drive a success. Here are some things to measure:

• Event attendance numbers
• Students who RSVP’d but didn’t attend
• Do these students engage after the event by responding to follow-up messages and submitting applications?
• Open, click-through, and interested response rates to your emails
• The number of resumes collected and live chat interactions initiated
• The number of qualified candidates per event and college
• The number of hires you made on each campus
• What interview to offer ratio do you get
• How many offers to acceptances do you get
• Retention rates of new hires

How can creating an online campus recruitment strategy help your organization?

• Virtual campus recruiting allows organizations to access a wide range of talent from various geographical locations and backgrounds, fostering a more diverse workforce.
• Online recruitment reduces travel and accommodation costs associated with traditional campus hiring, making it a more cost-effective strategy.
• With the increasing prevalence of remote working, especially in tech and digital sectors, virtual recruitment aligns well with the current work trends and expectations of new graduates.
• Digital tools and platforms used in online recruitment enable more efficient screening and selection processes, allowing for quicker and more effective candidate assessment.

Moreover, engaging with students through virtual platforms can enhance an organization’s brand as a forward-thinking and technologically adept employer.

Now that you have a strategy in place, it’s time to get the internal team on board. Here’s how:

• Leverage technology: Invest in reliable virtual recruitment platforms and tools for seamless interaction, interviews, assessments, and presentations.
• Develop engaging tech-first content: Create compelling and informative content about your organization, including virtual tours, employee testimonials, and interactive Q&A sessions.
• Train recruiters and representatives: Ensure your team is comfortable with the technology and trained in online communication etiquette and engagement strategies.
• Build relationships with top universities: Partner with universities and career centers to integrate into their virtual career fairs and recruitment programs.
• Customize your approach: Tailor your recruitment strategy to each campus, considering the specific talent pool and academic specializations available.

While you align your internal tech hiring team with this new process, do not forget to take stock of the challenges and plan ahead for them. Some of the problems tech recruiters face commonly face when hiring online include:

• Connectivity problems or software glitches which can disrupt virtual interviews and presentations, impacting the recruitment experience.
• Creating a personal connection and engaging candidates effectively in a
• Assessing cultural fit through virtual means compared to face-to-face interactions.
• Competition for mind space. This where employer branding can improve your chances of attracting the best candidates.
• Adapting traditional recruitment materials for digital platforms.

Shake up your virtual campus recruiting strategy!

Recruitment strategies for universities do not have to be only career fairs and company presentations. You can play around and add a little spice to your virtual campus recruiting strategy as seen in this article—Gen Z appreciates out-of-the-box efforts to catch their attention.

Be it organizing hackathons to garner engagement, throwing out dress codes to make interviews seem less intimidating, or curating custom campus recruitment strategies, keep experimenting until you find something that works for you. We hope the virtual campus recruiting tips in this article will help you step up your campus recruitment game.

Campus recruiting takes time but it’s worth the wait, don’t you think?

Hire IQ by HackerEarth is a new initiative in which we speak with recruiters, talent acquisition managers, and hiring managers from across the globe, and ask them pertinent questions on the issues that ail the tech recruiting world.

Next up in this edition is Colet Coelho, Head of Talent Acquisition, at Recruit CRM. Being Women’s History Month, we wanted to understand the diversity mandates at Recruit CRM and more importantly, as a woman in tech, what would Colet like to change for welcoming more of such awesome women into the tech recruiting space.

Settle in, and let’s get to it!

P.S. If you missed the first edition of HireIQ where we sit down with Charles Rue from IHS Markit, you can read it here 🙂

HackerEarth: A lot of recruiting jargon has made headlines in the last two years. Candidate experience, remote hiring, employee burnout, and of course the ‘Great Resignation’. If you had to pick one jargon/phrase to attach to the future of ATS platforms, what would it be and why?

Colet: If I had to pick a jargon out of the mentioned, I would pick two—candidate experience and remote hiring. The candidate experience we design reveals a great deal about who we are as an employer. Prospective workers will judge our company based on their experience with the recruiting process, and a negative applicant experience will discourage future job seekers from applying.

Although, providing an excellent candidate experience can be a problematic aspect of the remote hiring process. Enhancing the overall candidate experience in remote recruitment is a vital function of an Applicant Tracking System. ATS platforms automate hiring while streamlining this entire process.

Recommended read – Remote Work And Recruitment: An ATS Story

HackerEarth: How have your internal hiring policies changed in the last two years? Since DEI has been a priority in the tech world, have you initiated any new processes for improving inclusion at your workplace?

Colet: Our hiring policies have been pretty consistent. Since we have always been a remote functioning organization, the last two years haven’t affected our recruitment methods too much.

Our organization has a fair distribution of employees from different backgrounds, ethnicities, and locations spread across the globe. We host regular meetings with all our employees where everyone is heard and allowed to present their views forward.

To create an inclusive culture, starting at the very beginning is critical. We preach, advocate, and encourage inclusivity as an essential component of our organizational principles. We’ve started sharing it on our social media, websites, and in interviews so that any potential employee is aware of our inclusion goals.

We have also begun to streamline the recruiting process by enabling candidates from various community outreach initiatives, job fairs, and hiring consultants to participate. This guarantees that we have a varied range of abilities.

Inclusion at the workplace is pointless if people are not valued for who they are.

The pronouns that a person prefers are entirely up to them. We will begin to include a section on the pronouns employees prefer on their identity cards. In addition, we will guarantee that all of our job descriptions include gender-neutral language.

HackerEarth: As a woman in the tech recruiting space, what are some of the changes you would like to see in how companies attract talented women? How about expanding the conversation to include the non-binary community, and if yes, then how can recruiters begin to do that?

Colet: Flexibility is one of the top perks a firm can offer an employee, not just to women but also men. As a woman in the recruitment sphere, I’d like to see companies offer women more flexibility regarding where, when, and how they work.

To attract non-binary candidates, recruiters can start by allowing a range of pronouns in different areas. Leaving gender boxes unfilled or providing the opportunity to add additional gender or pronoun categories in both paper and online HR forms/platforms will encourage non-binary employees to apply as well as feel like they belong in the workplace.

HackerEarth: Data has become an important tool for recruiters today. In your opinion, what do you think are the three most important markers/data points that recruiters should be looking at when hiring? Additionally, do you think there is a data point that recruiters are overlooking?

Colet: The three most important data points that recruiters should always consider are quality of hire, cost-per-hire, and time-to-hire.

While assessing hiring quality might be subjective, it is probably one of the most critical criteria to monitor. Poor performance can indicate that you have an individual performing the wrong job, regardless of how quickly you fill a role or how much you lower the hire cost.

The cost per hire is simply the money spent on recruiting in a given year divided by the total number of hires made. The recruiting costs vary for every organization, so it’s a good idea to benchmark the typical expenditures for various jobs in your firm. The time-to-hire metric measures how fast an applicant progresses through the various phases of the recruiting process.

The total amount spent on recruitment in a given year divided by the number of recruits is the cost per hire. Again, the recruiting expenses differ from one organization to the next. Therefore, it’s good to benchmark the average expenditures for various roles inside your company.

A critical marker that recruiters occasionally tend to neglect is the source of hiring.

Knowing where your best candidates and applicants are coming from is quite helpful, especially when it comes to recruitment marketing. With this indicator, you can discover those sources and channels that bring in the most qualified candidates for your available positions.

Recommended read: The Great Resignation In The Tech Industry – How To Prevent it

HackerEarth: One of the questions we love asking tech recruiters is – when it comes to skills versus experience, what would you choose and why? What are some of your trusted markers for a skill that you would use to gauge a developer’s competency when hiring?

Colet: While I’m constantly emphasizing soft and hard skills as a recruiter, I can’t ignore the importance of work experience to evaluate a candidate. Therefore, when I search for an ideal candidate, I am looking for a combination of the right personality, soft skills, technical or hard skills, and practical industry experience.

Although, a lack of corporate experience is not an indicator of poor potential, especially when hiring youth. The ability to work in a team structure, make decisions and solve problems, communicate verbally with people inside and outside an organization, and plan, organize and prioritize work are skills I focus on evaluating when hiring.

My usual evaluation method is looking at past projects and giving real-time assignments to measure a developer’s expertise when recruiting.

HackerEarth: Let’s talk a bit about workplace culture 🙂 In the era of hybrid, how do you suggest companies can keep up employee morale and boost engagement?

Colet: I truly believe that open communication and prioritizing employee well-being are the way to maintain morale at work. Honest communication facilitates trust, and employees who have faith in their supervisors to act in their best interests are less stressed during times of transition and uncertainty. Considering employee mental health is also a critical factor in ensuring high morale, especially concerning feelings of isolation and the rising risk of burnout.

Ultimately, leaders cannot just guess or intuit what would make staff feel the most upbeat and engaged. They are the only ones who can tell you what works for them.

So I suggest that companies solicit constant input from employees through employee engagement surveys to gather personal knowledge and then develop a curated strategy that tailors efforts to people’s preferences and requirements.

HackerEarth: Recruit CRM also helps companies with sourcing. What are some non-traditional modes of sourcing you have seen your clients use in the recent past that you think have great potential? Alternatively, do you think there are untapped platforms that tech recruiters can use to their advantage?

Colet: I’ve seen clients use quite a few non-traditional methods of sourcing that have turned out to be quite the successes. For example, sourcing through social media and Boolean searches. Social networking has evolved into one of the most effective tools for hiring today. LinkedIn, Github for developers, and Behance for creatives are the most well-known professional platforms.

However, popular social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat are valuable tools. I feel like Quora and YouTube are two such platforms that haven’t been tapped by recruiters yet but can prove to be of great help in finding potential employees.

Recommended read:Boolean Search Strings – 5 Essential Tips For Recruiters

HackerEarth: And lastly—a piece of advice for recruiters around the globe to navigate the pandemic-induced ups and downs of the recruiting business.

Colet: The last two years have been tough on recruiters. The pandemic and its consequences decimated some talent acquisition teams, piled additional pressures on others, and proved to be a historic change agent, as virtually recruiting and onboarding a remote workforce became the norm for many.

Since virtual hiring is here to stay, I would advise recruiters to focus on making virtual recruitment as streamlined and fine-tuned as possible using an ATS. In addition, a common challenge resulting from the pandemic is the difficulty in filling job openings.

The difficulty in getting applications is an excellent opportunity for some clever employer branding.

Take advantage of this chance to establish your employer brand and set your organization out of competition. Address the main worries of your present workers and future applicants by assuring them that your firm is solid and helpful.

About Colet Coelho:

Based out of Mumbai, India, Colet heads the Talent Acquisition team at Recruit CRM, aiming to bring the best talent onboard and scale the current team of 50 to over 150 in the next 2 years. Here is her LinkedIn.

The great resignation has been on the minds of many IT organizations and their business leaders ever since nearly 4 million people quit their jobs back in November 2021. Consequently, hiring talented tech talent has become a lot harder than before.

Will 2022 break away from this trend wonder recruiters across the globe. Instead of waiting for the tide to turn, why not step up your game—invest in a recruitment tech stack that turns heads and helps you attract the very best talent out there?

The right recruiting software mix will help you streamline your entire recruiting life cycle, create a strong brand recall, and have potential candidates be excited about working with your company! On that note, let’s look at what tech stacks are and how do you choose one that caters to all your needs.

What is a recruitment tech stack?

A tech stack is a collection of technologies that are used to create a product or service. A recruitment tech stack would consist of a set of automated tools and technologies for every step of the hiring process—right from sourcing to onboarding. Your tech stack should have strong built-in analytics, seamless integrations with other apps, and be mobile-friendly.

We are talking sourcing tools, applicant tracking systems, screening and assessment software, engagement tools, coding interview platforms, automated background checks, onboarding software, and so on.

However, your recruitment strategy might not require all of these tools. There is no silver bullet that works best for everyone. The modern recruiter is always trying out new technologies to see what combination of resources suits their ever-changing needs.

Having said that, to stay relevant in this post-pandemic world, you need to prepare your recruitment tech stacks for the new normal, which is mostly remote. Be equipped to conduct fully remote hiring drives and successfully hire candidates without ever meeting them.

Recommended read: Boolean Search Strings – 5 Essential Tips For Recruiters

How tech stacks matter in technical recruiting

There are multiple benefits to having technology be the frontrunner of your recruiting strategies. A tech-enabled recruitment experience goes a long way in attracting and retaining top tech talent.

• Saves time and improves efficiency in the overall hiring process.
• Keeps large volumes of candidate data organized and ensures nothing gets lost.
• Creates a pleasant candidate experience.
• Keeps your talent pool warm and nurtured.
• Eliminates bias in hiring decisions.
• Better communication between candidates and recruiters.

A carefully curated recruitment tech stack can slash your time-to-hire and cost-per-hire metrics by a significant amount. Let’s look at the most important elements of a tech stack next, to better your hiring processes.

Recommended read: 21 Tech Recruiting Tools To Scale Your Hiring

4 must-haves in your tech stack

Here are some technologies to keep in mind when building your tech stack:

#1 Applicant tracking systems

The first thing you need to think about is an applicant tracking system. By investing in the right ATS you’ll be able to reduce your overall time to fill roles. You’ll also be able to create and nurture a pool of passive candidates that you can call upon in the future.

An ATS can go from simple (collating all the candidate information) to quite complex (with various approval levels and AI-enhanced searches). An ATS is also more secure than a spreadsheet or email.

A good ATS has features like:

• job posting across multiple job boards and websites
• automated screening of candidates’ resumes, which also lowers human bias and errors
• database assistance where you can store all applicants’ information
• view the status of each candidate throughout the interview process
• send out assessment invites from the ATS itself to the selected candidates and prepare a performance report in real-time
• initiate offer letters directly from the ATS, get them signed by the candidates, and save the documents digitally on the cloud

#2 Automated employee referral programs

Investing in an ATS has multiple benefits as seen above but the real advantage is you can set up a robust employee referral program with it. Studies show referral hires stay at a company for longer on average with 47% staying longer than 3 years.

Employee referral programs promote company culture and build better-engaged tech teams. Leverage existing data in your ATS to reach a wider audience.

Here’s how:

• Implement auto-posting where you send job openings to your internal employees on an ongoing basis
• Automatically use the data in your ATS to suggest the right people to your connections
• Keep track of where the referred candidate is in the hiring cycle and send updates to the referrer
• Link your ATS to your payroll system, so any referral bonus can go straight into your employee’s salary
• Assess the success of your employee referral program and tweak accordingly—number of shares via email or social, number of referred candidates, number of successful hires, and the quality of those hires

#3 Chatbots for better candidate experience

Adding a chatbot to your careers site or investing in an ATS that comes with one takes your candidate experience to the next level. Chatbots can bring your website to life where candidates can strike up a conversation with the bot to clear any basic queries and frequently asked questions.

You can also leverage natural language processing and train your bots to pre-screen candidates, answer candidate queries, and schedule interviews. Some even offer candidates the ability to check the status of their applications.

This vastly decreases the burden on recruiters and frees up time for them to take on other important tasks.

#4 Screening and virtual assessment tools

Virtual assessment tools are how you can better hire candidates for jobs, reduce employee turnover, and improve the quality of hire at your organization. These coding tests are where you get to see if what the candidate mentioned in their resume pans out.

A live coding assessment tool helps you with an objective evaluation of each candidate, provides detailed reports, and instant feedback—all with minimal technical know-how!

HackerEarth Assessments offers plenty of useful features. Here’s how HackerEarth does it:

• Provides a rich library of 13,000+ questions across 80+ programming skills to create highly accurate assessments
• Enables you to create your own assessment for any role in under 5 minutes or based on job descriptions, with the option to devise custom questions
• Gives you the choice of creating different types of questions like MCQs, subjective questions, or project-type questions that simulate on-the-job problems
• Allows seamless integration with popular ATSs like LinkedIn Talent Hub, Lever, Workable, and more, which means you can sync all your candidate data with your ATS
• Sends out invitations for candidates to take the assessment you created on our platform. You can also see at what stage each candidate is in throughout the hiring process, and avail performance reports, all from your ATS—without swapping between multiple apps
• Provides deeper insights into a candidate’s capabilities with summarized, automated performance reports

The use of AI in recruitment continues to spread and it is expected that the modern recruiter is savvy with the latest recruiting technologies and strategies. In 2022, change the way you hire and build great tech teams—and the first step is to start with building your dream recruitment tech stack!

Before we get into how to make your proctoring experience fool-proof and hassle-free, let us take a look at what remote proctoring is. Remote proctoring is a way in which candidates can appear for tests remotely, from any location of their choosing, instead of arriving at a traditional test center.

Instead of an in-person invigilator as in traditional tests, a person or remote interview software proctors the test virtually from another location.

Employees for the remote online proctored exams are trained to monitor students/candidates virtually, watching them work from their homes or other locations. The exams are monitored through video and audio surveillance. When done properly, online remote proctoring creates controlled and safe conditions to take examinations, while providing candidates and employers with more flexibility, and the ability to assess several candidates at once.

What is Remote Proctoring?

Remote proctoring is a method of overseeing exams conducted online to prevent cheating and ensure academic integrity. It uses technology such as webcams, microphones, and screen monitoring software to observe and record test-takers during their assessments. Proctors can monitor live or review recordings to identify any suspicious behavior. This method allows institutions to conduct secure exams for remote students, offering flexibility without compromising exam security. Remote proctoring systems can also employ advanced features like AI to detect unusual activities, making the process more efficient and reliable. This solution is particularly useful for online education and certification programs.

How Does Remote Proctoring Work?

Remote proctoring, a cutting-edge digital solution, brings the rigorous oversight of traditional exam settings into the digital realm. Here’s a basic breakdown of how it operates:

Initial setup: Candidates must typically download specific software or access a secured platform.

Identity verification: Before starting the test, candidates may be asked to show a government-issued ID to the camera, answer security questions, or even give a biometric sample (like a fingerprint or facial scan).

Environment scan: Using their webcam, candidates might be instructed to pan around their room to ensure no unauthorized materials are present.

Continuous monitoring: Throughout the assessment, software or live proctors monitor candidates using their webcam and microphone. Any suspicious activity, like looking away frequently or talking, can be flagged.

Review and reporting: Once completed, any anomalies or suspicious events are compiled and reported for review.

Types of Remote Proctoring

Online remote proctoring can be of 3 types:

1. Live:
   Live remote proctoring is a form of proctoring in which a qualified person monitors the candidate as they take an exam through live audio and video feeds. These proctors are trained to ensure authenticity, looking for any red flags such as suspicious eyes or facial movements.
2. Recorded:
   As the name suggests, with recorded proctoring, the candidate is recorded while taking the test and the recordings are then played back to look for suspicious behavior. This form of proctoring has an advantage in that there’s no need to schedule appointments since the tests can be taken anytime as convenient for the candidate.
3. Automated:
   This form of proctoring is the most advanced and requires no manual intervention whatsoever. With the help of AI, the remote proctoring software will detect any unusual movements or malpractices during the exam.

Some drawbacks and challenges of remote proctoring are –

• Complex technology requirements and stable internet connection might not be possible for test-takers in remote areas
• Heightened student anxiety especially in those who are not comfortable with technology and prefer traditional test-taking methods
• Scheduling and booking restrictions

3 Things To Know About Proctoring Remotely

1. The online proctoring market is projected to reach US$ 1,187.57 million by 2027

As remote hiring grows, proctoring has a vital role in ensuring the credibility and authenticity of the tech assessment process. The remote proctoring market is expected to grow significantly in the coming years. The increasing demand for remote hiring platforms since the pandemic has skyrocketed its market share – the Global Online Proctoring Market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 16.4% over the next few years. The market is estimated to be worth around $1200 million by 2027.

2. The USA has the largest sales region for Online Exam Proctoring in the world

Today, the USA has the largest sales region of remote proctoring in the world. While remote proctoring has been used for years in other countries to enhance security and prevent cheating in tests, its popularity has increased throughout the United States since the 2000s.

The United States is the key developer of online exam proctoring platforms. In 2019, the US market size was valued at $114 million USD and it’s expected to reach almost $323 million by 2025!

3. AI has transformed the online proctoring market

The future of online proctoring is AI-powered. By harnessing the power of AI, you can ensure exam integrity and security by leveraging machine learning technologies. This is because artificial intelligence solutions are most suitable for addressing identity concerns as well as privacy issues in an efficient and secure way without compromising anyone’s rights or freedom. Here is how AI proctoring works-

1. API-based facial recognition can verify the candidate’s identity and prevent any misconduct
2. The audio facility allows the software to record all sound throughout the exam, including talking and background noise
3. Eye movement detection is also used as a security measure in AI-powered proctoring software
4. The facial detection capabilities ensure that there is no case of candidate switching during the course of the exam

Future of Remote Proctoring

As digital transformation continues to reshape education and hiring, remote proctoring stands at an interesting juncture. In the future, we might see virtual reality or augmented reality environments for more interactive and immersive test settings. As AI evolves, the accuracy of anomaly detection will likely improve, making automated proctoring even more reliable.

We can anticipate more features that cater to candidates with disabilities, ensuring that proctored assessments are inclusive. As more institutions and companies adopt remote proctoring, we might see the emergence of global standards and best practices.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is remote proctoring secure?

Yes, when implemented with trusted platforms and adhering to data protection standards, it’s a secure method to oversee exams.

Can remote proctoring detect cheating?

While it significantly reduces the chances of cheating through monitoring and environment scanning, no system can claim 100% cheat-proof status.

Do candidates need special equipment?

Typically, a computer with a webcam and microphone, a stable internet connection, and sometimes, specific software are required.

How are privacy concerns addressed?

Reputable proctoring services comply with data protection regulations, ensuring that personal data is collected with consent, stored securely, and used only for the intended purpose.

Make your online assessments cheat-proof with HackerEarth

HackerEarth’s remote assessments platform has built-in proctoring features that ensure exam integrity without compromising privacy and security. Here is how HackerEarth does it:

1. Random webcam snapshots:
   Randomized webcam snapshots are a great way to catch any type of malpractice attempt, like peering into another screen or verbal communication with someone in the room.
2. Custom timers :
   Timers are a great way to keep the candidates focused and discourage them from wasting time or cheating.
3. Plagiarism Checker:
   Our system automatically investigates each candidate’s code against all other applicant submissions for the same test and can track unusual similarities. You don’t need any human intervention – just sit back while this advanced software does its job and looks out for any plagiarized content that has been flagged.

Important add ons:

• To protect against cheating, you can limit access to certain IP addresses
• The Copy and Paste feature in the code editor can be disabled
• Upon leaving the test environment, the candidate will be automatically logged out
• Negative marking could be used during the MCQ questions
• Candidates can be restricted to full-screen mode for the entire assessment
• Built-in mobile phone detection plus automatic impersonation detection to ensure authenticity

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If you are looking for a more convenient and secure testing experience, remote proctoring may be the right choice for you. While remote proctoring may have some hiccups in its early days, it is now a viable and secure option for test-takers. With the right technology such as HackerEarth in place, remote proctoring can be the future of online testing.