The Modern Recruiters Arsenal

Video Interviewing

To start off, I am sure all of us had the need to travel to do an interview at some point in our lives. This may have even required you to take a full days leave for you to make the interview itself. Now, picture if this interview was a video interview instead of a face-to-face one. Can you agree that this would have made your life a little bit easier? Perhaps you would not have needed to leave 2 hours ahead of time for the actual interview (which was only 15min away) just to make sure that you arrive on time and don’t encounter any “unforeseen” circumstances. I could not have been the only one, right?

Todays technology is evolving at a rapid rate, even though video interviewing has been around for quite some time now. It has been able to gain quite a lot of traction due to the COVID-19 pandemic which has resulted in many employers and potential candidates remaining within their households and having no other option but to conduct their interviews by either telephone or video calling.

A survey was conducted quite some time ago, revealing that 47% of 506 companies actually used video interviewing to reduce the time spent on hiring new employees. These were the days when Corona was still only seen as being a beer.

By having companies adopting the use of video interviewing, they are able to reduce their expenses on travel quite significantly, which is one of the positive sides seen by adopting such technology.

Another survey which I came across showed that 57% of interviewees preferred live video interviews as compared to the 34% who preferred the face-to-face option. The last remaining 9% preferring one-way pre-recorded video submissions.

From the stats highlighted above, a question should be asked as to why these candidates preferred the live video interviews? From my perspective, I have been seated on both ends when it came to these live interviews and the one aspect which stood out for me was the matter of comfort. Being in a familiar environment, this actually reduced my level of stress by a small margin thus allowing me to be more confident within the interview itself. On the other hand, this may actually cause some candidates to become too comfortable within the interview in the fact that they conduct their interview from their bed, they are still dressed in their evening gown and haven’t even looked in the mirror to see what their hair looks like. Both parties need to treat these interviews with utmost professionalism, because even though this is not a face-to-face meeting, it is still a crucial first impression.

Once the initial video interview has been completed, companies are able to now save the face-to-face interviews for only the candidates which truly stood out for them. One skill which can be tested by making the use of a video interview is the candidate’s technological ability. If they are simply not able to comprehend why their webcam is facing the ceiling, would they really be suited for an IT support role? Let’s just say that’s all I needed to know from that interview.

With recruiters utilizing video interviews more and more, artificial intelligence is beginning to play a pivotal role in this process. An example of a large organization utilizing the use of AI in their video interview process would be Unilever.

Unilever are using AI in the following ways:

The personality of the candidate is determined through them partaking in 20 minutes of brain games before the actual interview is conducted. This helps them determine if the candidate is the right fit for their culture.?

The second step of the process involved the interviewee being asked preset questions through the use of their mobile devices. This is where AI really begins to get involved.AI now begins to read the candidates facial expressions and then maps out their current mood and assess their personality traits during the interview.

Once the interview has been completed, the incorporation of video interviewing software is used to match the best candidates for the open role and also provide the recruiters with important key aspects of each candidate to take into consideration.

By having organizations incorporate video interviews into their recruitment processes, this also provides the candidates an overall view of the company as being innovative which is an important aspect when it comes to employer branding. An example could be Google, if they did not utilize video interviewing, would candidates really see them as being an innovative company?

The last point to touch on with the use of video interviewing would be the fact that it would give organizations a competitive advantage over those who still only conduct telephonic interviews. This can be seen by the fact that they are able to stand above other organizations by the way of doing things differently. If you can stand out from the crowd, that is what will make people remember you and the same can be said for businesses.

To conclude, video interviewing in my eyes is an important process which businesses need to adopt to stay relevant in the current trends within the recruitment process and also with today’s world currently going through a pandemic, video interviews will be more important than ever before so make sure that your business is on board or ensure that you are using an efficient recruitment agency who currently utilizes video interviewing already such as Alexander Hughes. 

By incorporating video interviewing into the process of candidate selection, Alexander Hughes is able to find the right talent much quicker thus saving our clients vital time and money. With a tradition of excellence since 1957, a global coverage of 54 wholly-owned offices in 46 countries and a team of 130 Consultants, Alexander Hughes is dedicated to working with our clients to find, assess and attract the vital human capital that they need in order to achieve their strategic business objectives.

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