• We were not provided a geographic focus for this project, so we assumed a broad approach and looked globally. If a more targeted approach is desired, for example, the United States, this would have to be clearly communicated to us in any reply.
• According to recruiters working for three established tech companies (Bolt, Veriff, and Supermetrics), COVID-19 is affecting recruiting efforts by companies are hiring less for in person work, but more for remote work.
• "According to MeetFrank’s data, the number of remote work offers has nearly doubled compared to the situation in January. The rise in the number of remote work applications is even more drastic, a 105% rise in the third week of March, compared to the same period in February and a staggering 135% rise compared to January."
• "Finnish marketing software developer Supermetrics recruiters Marika Salkola and Viivi Marttinen said they are still recruiting to all our open positions, but the biggest problem lies with deciding on starting dates, especially for candidates outside of Finland as the country is about to close entry for all foreigners."
• "Seeing an opportunity to help organizations find, engage, and recruit using online events, Eightfold.ai has created and launched Virtual Event Recruiting. Eightfold.ai is best-known for its Talent Intelligence Platform, the first AI-powered solution and most effective way for companies to identify promising candidates, reach diversity hiring goals, retain top performers, and engage talent."
• According to Jeff Luttrell, SHRM-SCP, senior director of talent acquisition for global outsourcing firm Alorica in Irvine, California, the recruiters at Alorica have had to "shift to an all-virtual recruiting and hiring process. Luttrell said his team is using a variety of online communication and collaboration tools to pull it off. They've also created videos of recruiters providing step-by-step instructions on how candidates move through the application process and adjusted the paperwork process to include electronic signatures. Recruiters have been texting more with candidates and using chatbots to serve job seekers, applicants and candidates has grown. Luttrell and his team have also gotten better at holding virtual job fairs. "It's been a lot of trial and error," he said. "We had to deploy technology quickly, because [the pandemic] happened so fast. We made some mistakes in the beginning. We learned that Microsoft Teams is not so good for virtual events, Zoom is better. This will probably change recruiting at our organization." He said that virtual candidate experience is going to be a focus going forward."
• Figures from analyst firm Gartner show 86 percent of businesses have been conducting virtual interviews during the pandemic, and 85 percent are using new technology to onboard employees.
•  Eighty-four percent of recruiters are transitioning their hiring processes to facilitate remote exchanges. Of these, fifty-eight percent are now using social media networks like LinkedIn, Facebook and even Instagram to connect with potential hires. A growing cohort of recruiters are also turning to videoconferencing to screen (61%) and interview (80%) candidates, as well as AI and text messaging to connect with candidates.

Summary Of Our Early Findings Relevant To The Goals

• As discussed at the top of this document, we were not provided a geographic focus for this project, so we assumed a broad approach and looked globally. If a more targeted approach is desired, for example, the United States, this would have to be clearly communicated to us in any reply.
• Our initial hour of research did not find any publicly available data surrounding specifically new recruits out of college. Even when first person accounts were scanned we found no references in the initial hour surrounding whether they were freshly out of college or not. Our scopings will reflect this finding.
• Our initial hour of research was spent scanning to ensure the feasibility of all our proposed next steps, and providing some salient data points surrounding the ask, to set the table for further research.
• Please select one or more of the options provided in the proposed scoping section below.