Step into my spotlight and press record
Video interviewing is not a new concept, but is it an underutilised recruitment tool? In times of urgency, where pressures to cut costs are ever increasing, a video interview allows a recruiter a quick and cost effective means to filter applications and source the best candidates for face-to-face interviews.
Generally a human resources recruiter will receive hundreds of job applications through their company’s website, online job portals and professional recruitment agencies. The pile of resumes can soon reach a teetering height. Yet to find the best of the best, one must make time to sift through each application – a laborious and exhausting task! Hour after hour, you watch the hands on the clock turn yet you are miles away from locking in your short listed field of applicants. And of course once you have selected the final few, you need to coordinate a schedule of interview times with a panel of interviewers who have precious little time to give to the process…sigh. The self-automated video interview instrument is at hand and it is genius!
Video software now allows a would-be candidate to submit a one-way video application for any position your company has to offer. And its technical nature is quite simple. A secure log-in leads to the company branded portal. A job link for the position is provided and can be included at all locations where the job is advertised. When uploading the position one merely asks a candidate to supply general information about themselves, upload a current resume, and via video respond to a series of customised preliminary interview questions. You can set a time limit for each response and broadcast the job in a variety of languages – great for cross continental organisations with a global network of offices. Furthermore, as the video is recorded, you can view and replay the recording anytime, anywhere, as many times as you need, and share it easily and quickly with other key decision makers in the company.
Screening applicants via this process is far more efficient. As it is spontaneous and not performed, you can learn quite quickly if the applicant will be a cultural fit with your team. Recording their interview at a time that suits them and from a comfortable environment, distractions and pressures are limited, giving them the opportunity to provide a focused and genuine response. Do you remember sitting in that interview chair, staring at an intimidating panel of interviewers who continuously peppered you with questions before you could fully respond to their original question? With the applicant able to demonstrate their qualifications and experience unimpeded, you can gather enough information to know if that person should proceed to a face-to-face interview. This is valuable indeed. How many times have you sat through an entire interview where you were able to ascertain in a few minutes that the applicant was not suitable?
The one-way video interview makes sense. And as the job applicants are all responding to the same set of questions, you can apply some objectives measures to the decision making process. This is particularly valuable if the candidate pool is large. The only glitch to such a recruitment method is that it relies on technology. Australia has lagged in this regard compared to the rest of the western world. The National Broadband Network will assist in seeing us catch up.
Employees want to work for innovative companies that can take them on a journey of development and fulfilment. If your recruitment methods demonstrate that you are just as technically savvy as your potential recruits, you will attract a larger and more gifted field of applicants, who by the way are just as time poor as the overwhelmed HR recruiter. With technology advancing, the vision of video recruitment is now very real and very attainable. So reach for a lifeline and thoroughly explore the benefits of video recruitment today.
