Insight Blog

Recruitment and employee selection have been significantly impacted by the Internet and social media. Over the past several years, human resources (HR) departments and hiring managers have seen drastic changes in the way they recruit and select talent. In today's business environment, they have to be astute of the latest technologies to maintain an efficient and effective employee selection process and to assist their organizations in remaining attractive to prospective employees. Simply put, organizations must be cutting edge, technologically advanced and ahead of their competitors in the war for talent.

Video interviewing first emerged in the technology realm and has grown to become an immensely popular and useful tool for organizations of all sectors as well as for executive recruiters. According to a recent Office Team survey, in just one year, the percentage of HR managers who said their company at least sometimes uses video interviewing jumped from 14% to 63%. Why? Because, overall, video interviewing streamlines the recruitment and employee selection process.

Before we discuss the advantages of video interviewing, let’s first discuss the two types of video interviews:

Live, Two-way:

These are the most common form of video interviews, which allow hiring managers and candidates to talk live over an online connection.

One-way:

These are recorded, asynchronous interviews that allow job seekers to answer a series of standard screening questions at their convenience. These types of interviews are especially helpful to hiring organizations in assessing candidates prior to spending time conducting face to face or online, live interviews. Candidates have a certain amount of time in which to conduct the interviews and their answers can be viewed by hiring managers and interviewing teams when it is convenient for them to do so. This speeds up the recruitment process and gets the most interesting candidates in for interviews more quickly.

These video interviews are becoming increasingly popular because they:

• Allow interviewers to watch videos at their own convenience (or pause them, review them multiple times, etc.), compare candidates, and to add notes and share comments.

• Eliminate candidates who are not seriously considering a job opportunity because they will not take the time to do the interview.

• Provide additional insight that cannot be gleaned from traditional resumes.

Bottom-line benefits of video interviewing:

• Expands talent pool - Due to candidates not having to travel for interviews, even passive candidates are more motivated to apply for positions.

• Saves time for both employers and candidates -  Video interviewing provides the ability to interview a larger number of people in a shorter time period and allows candidates to interview with prospective employers and not have to take vacation time to do so.

• Reduces costs - Video interviewing eliminates or reduces travel costs when candidates are located out of town or out of the country. Only candidates who are highly suitable for a position need to travel for interviews. Due to reduced travel costs, video interviewing is also environmentally friendly.

• Expedites recruitment process - When candidates can do initial interviews via video, this advances the recruitment process because they can be interviewed in a shorter time frame.

• Offers scheduling flexibility for both hiring managers and candidates - Many times, there are multiple interviewers involved in a hiring process. If an interview is recorded, it can be sent to all other interviewers and they can view it at their own convenience.

• Provides greater consistency in evaluating candidates - By using one-way interviews and a predetermined script and format, candidates can be evaluated in a consistent manner which supports compliance and non-discrimination practices.

• Allows interviews to be captured permanently - By having ability to replay, review and compare interviews online, they are captured permanently and can be attached to employee files.

If the above advantages still are not enough to convince you of how video interviewing could positively impact your organization's recruitment practices, try doing it for free first by utilizing one of the following:

• Skype - This is the most popular application worldwide with more than 250 million users. Program must be downloaded and installed. Con: Hijack vulnerability.

• FaceTime - Program is only available on Iphones and Ipads.

• Google+ - Requires registration with Google and obtaining a gmail account.

If you are ready to add video interviewing to your recruitment strategy, we recommend asking the following questions of providers prior to purchasing their systems and services:

• Does the system provide both one-way automated and two-way live interviews?

• Does the solution have the ability to record interviews and share them? How easily can it be done?

• Does the solution allow for notes and comments to be attached to video files?

• What major applicant tracking systems does it integrate with?

• Does the solution allow customizable questions?

• Does the solution save interviews for a certain period of time?

• Does my organization need to purchase equipment?

As you can see, video interviewing has multiple advantages. White it will never replace face-to-face meetings, it can increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the recruitment process – and that is something that every organization is looking to achieve in this global war for talent.

Sources: Hire-Intelligence, JXT blog, Recruiting Trends, Sarah White Associates, Talent Circles blog, UnderCover Recruiter