Earlier today I was participating in and live tweeting from the Reconverse discussion on Recruitment Technology. A full write-up will appear on the Reconverse site soon, but I wanted to delve deeper into one particular aspect – that of the video interview.
There have been a number of tools coming to market over the last 12-24 months and the availability of such dedicated sites, improvements in performance and indeed ability to operate (at least some of them) on mobile has seen a rapid increase in usage. Certainly with some roles, I see a video interview as being a complete game-changer from an efficiency perspective. Most Sales Directors will tell you a hire decision is made within the first few minutes of meeting someone – the body language, the way the person carries themselves and so on. They’ll also tell you they interview around five people per role. If two or three of those are swiftly identified as inappropriate, but for the sake of courtesy a full interview is run anyway, time is being wasted for all concerned.
The discussion today touched on one of the major concerns firms have in implementing such tools – that of discrimination. Wherever people are involved, there’s always an opportunity for discrimination to occur and firms must take appropriate measures to manage this. One attendee today had checks in place to ensure each interview video was watched in full by the recruiter – should a discrimination claim arise in future, it gives them the ability to point to a due and fair process. Maybe not a perfect solution, but certainly good to see the effort being made.
My particular interest lies in how the video interview breaks a key aspect of the hiring process though. If the interview is being conducted by something like a Skype video call, I have no issue. However, many of the tools on the market now are approaching from a different angle – allowing employers to pose a number of questions. These are then posted to all potential candidates who get to record video responses in their own time. Whilst this might be easier for scheduling purposes, it robs the candidate of the ability to ask questions in return. I’ve always believed that the interview process should be a two-way street. The employer needs to learn about the candidate, but the candidate must be offered the same opportunity to learn about the employer.
It also concerns me that companies implementing processes like this are those most likely to use an online ATS for initial candidate registration – so first you must find the job, then upload a CV, then complete a load of forms… and then go through a video grilling too. I believe companies taking this approach need to reciprocate to an extent – and if using an asynchronous video interview tool must find another way for a candidate to ask questions and learn about the firm.
Not doing this damages the two-way street and must certainly increase the risk of candidate drop-outs later in the process when they DO finally have an opportunity to learn more about the employer?
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