How do you Humanise Vacancies with Video?

Before asking candidates to submit recorded video interviews, what video content do you share with prospective applicants?

As you can see from the statistics below, candidates now expect to be interviewed by video, as part of most job application processes. Equally, candidates want employers to provide more information on the vacancy, the work culture, career prospects, and training that come with each job opportunity. In the absence of employers providing this information, jobseekers will search for it themselves, and often come across outdated or misleading information. This often leads them to either not apply for roles, or to remove themselves from the interview process (ghosting).

As 79% of employers are conducting interviews by video, the lack of direct engagement makes it easier for candidates to opt-out of attending an arranged interview, or simply not submit a requested asynchronous video of themselves answering pre-written questions. Asynchronous video interviewing is not really an interview, but in fact a recorded audition, where the candidate is unable to interact with the recruiter, ask questions about the role and company, or gauge how their answers are being received and understood by the hiring manager. Whilst exceptionally efficient for employers who can spend less time considering each applicant, this is perceived as unfair and impersonal by candidates themselves. In a candidate scarce marketplace, losing otherwise excellent candidates like this cannot be afforded.

If a virtual interview process is to be perceived by candidates as an interactive 2-way experience, then it is essential that employers (in the form of hiring managers) make the first step by providing video content to prospective candidates, not only in the job advert itself, but throughout the hiring process. This simple step has been shown to dramatically increase levels of engagement and satisfaction in the candidate experience. This in turn enables candidates to self-select themselves much more accurately for a vacancy (fewer irrelevant applications), and encourage applications from those with preconceptions about a company, who were never going to apply to a long-winded text-only advert. Candidates want to picture themselves in a job, and see who their new boss will be.

If you want to improve the measurable calibre and volume of applicants, avoid ghosting throughout the process, and improve the overall candidate experience, then employee-generated, authentic video from hiring managers and future colleagues is by far the best way to share your culture, and incentivise quality applications.

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Key job interview statistics 2022

• Only?2% of candidates?who apply for a job are selected to attend a job interview. Largely due to many irrelevant, speculative applications.
• Employers will interview an average of?6 candidates for every job?vacancy they advertise. This number is coming down, in a candidate scarce market.
• The average job interview process consists of?2 interview stages. Very often, offers are made to candidates who have never been met in-person.
• The average interview process in the UK takes?27.5 days?to complete. This gives ample opportunity for competing employers to swoop in, and for candidates to go off your opportunity.
• Pre-pandemic, the average job interview was conducted face-to-face, post-pandemic it is now carried out by video-call. However, many interview techniques remain the same.
• There has been a?57% increase in the use of video interviews?from 2019 – 2022 - both real-time and asynchronous interviews.
• More than half of employers?say they will continue to use video interviews after Covid restrictions are lifted.
• The most common reason why a candidate would fail a job interview is a?lack of understanding of the role. Simply put, the employer did a poor job of sharing that information.
• 4 in 10 employers?would reject a candidate if they?showed no enthusiasm. And a poorly informed candidate will struggle to get excited about your job.
• 78% of candidates?say they find it difficult to find information about companies prior to interview. Expectations have been raised by the wider online experience, so companies which are not transparent will appear secretive.

How are job interviews conducted?

Pre-pandemic, the average job interview was conducted face-to-face, post-pandemic it is now carried out by video-call.

Pre-pandemic 79% of employers conducted first-stage interviews via telephone or face-to-face meeting. As of January 2021, video-interviews are the most popular method of conducting first-stage interviews with 86% of employers favouring it.

Pre-pandemic 94% of final interviews were carried out face-to-face, post pandemic this figure has dropped to just 17%.

How do candidates feel about video interviews?

• 25% of candidates find video interviews more stressful than face-to-face interviews, citing the following reasons for disliking them:

Source: https://jobdescription-library.com/job-interview-statistics

"Recruiters have to be able to answer questions on culture. They have to be able to answer questions about the company’s stance on diversity. They have to teach leaders and managers how to think more broadly about their own choices and coach them to gravitate not toward who they ‘like’ but who adds to the organization." – Lauren Gardner, Vice President of Global Talent Acquisition at Microsoft

"Companies have dabbled with video interviewing and remote assessments in the past, but the lockdown realities of COVID-19 have sparked them to create an end-to-end virtual recruiting process for the first time. And they’re both noting and embracing the cost and time savings that that change has brought with it. So, in the same way that a hybrid workforce of onsite and remote employees will become the standard, a hybrid hiring process that combines virtual and in-person elements will become the norm.

The challenges for companies will be twofold. First, businesses will need to refine their virtual processes and, as they nail the technology, make sure they continue to look for ways to add human touches back into their systems. Second, they will have to decide when they’ll use virtual and when they’ll use in-person, how will they optimize the candidate experience and assessments advantages of in-person yet continue to leverage the speed and efficiency of virtual.?

Candidates for entry-level positions may experience a completely virtual hiring process, not setting foot in the office until they’re onboarded, if then. Executive candidates, on the other hand, will continue to receive a more bespoke process with numerous onsite visits and face-to-face one-on-ones."

Source: https://www.dhirubhai.net/business/talent/blog/talent-strategy/future-of-recruiting