Can video be used to streamline the recruitment process?

The colossal growth of social media and its subsequent adoption by commercial enterprises is familiar to everyone

Businesses of all sizes have found it necessary to utilise the power of such platforms to improve their business operations and engagement, with social media deriving much of its strength from its ability to spread a message organically through networks with counterparts in the real world.

Against the backdrop of our high-tech contemporary world, businesses are increasingly seeking to streamline operations and explore innovative ways of achieving their goals in their constant drive for growth and greater turnover. The age-old problem of recruiting the best staff for your business is one of the operations that could stand to be transformed via the application of technology.

Here we look at how video interviews could be used to overhaul the process of candidate shortlisting, allowing firms to put out to pasture the traditional approach of telephone interviews and save time and money in the process.

Time is money

Everyone who has been in business knows that time is the most precious resource of all. Spending more time than is necessary reviewing resumes and conducting screening calls to weed out the ill-matched candidates can be an expensive affair, with studies showing that video interviews can occupy as little as 30 per cent of the time taken to interview prospective candidates on the telephone.

The streamlined video process works by sending a link to each applicant, with which they can download a free and secure app to their phone. The app contains a set of questions from the recruitment team, which the candidates then record themselves answering.

To simulate the pressure of a face-to-face interview, the app only gives candidates one chance to record their answers. The company can choose whether the candidates are allowed see the questions beforehand.

This is not solely intended to make the candidates feel uncomfortable; instead, by removing the opportunity to obsess over getting the perfect answer by doing multiple takes, candidates are freed from many of the constraints presented by modern technology and provided with a chance to excel. In this way, video interviews utilise modern technology to bring new life to traditional business practices whilst simultaneously driving up efficiency of services and delivering better overall outcomes.

Efficiency savings

Across industry and commerce, character attributes and skills such as the ability to think fast, confidence and presentation are considered vital. Video interviewing promotes and selects these characteristics. Benefits are also enjoyed by the candidate by cutting out travel costs, wasted time, and interview preparation that might be in vain.

From the point of view of the interviewer, video interviewing truly comes into its own. Recruitment managers traditionally receive hundreds of near-identical CVs for every vacant role and sifting through them can be very difficult. With video interviewing, there are no phone calls to schedule and candidates can be re-watched multiple times at the touch of a button across multiple devices.

Video interviewing is just one business application of social media technology. Many further opportunities are yet to be explored, making this an area to watch over the next few years.

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The British Institute of Recruiters is the Professional Body operating The Recruitment Certification Scheme

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