Video’s role in the hiring process continues to expand.

By Audrey Roth

Leveraging video interviewing for hiring is not a new concept, but fresh technology has allowed video to revitalize and reshape the hiring process. Video now plays a pivotal role in accessing talent pools, improving employer brand, and creating an attractive candidate experience -which is becoming more and more important in today’s competitive market. In fact, a December 2013 study written by Montage and conducted by Google Consumer Surveys finds that 32 percent of individuals who rejected a job offer within the last year was primarily due to a negative experience during the hiring process.

Video interviewing becoming more than a blip on recruitment’s radar is clearly understood by the maturation of its benefits to improve sourcing, screening, and interviewing.

Appeal to candidates. According to research by Montage, 75 percent of active job seekers surveyed agreed that 
the experience when applying or interviewing for a job influences their decision to work there. Organizations should be concerned with how their process operates. “[Candidates] view the employer to be more innovative and forward thinking, and they are more interested in the job as a result of that. They look at this opportunity and they say, ‘Wow, if they’re investing in technology in the hiring process, they’re going to be investing in technology when I’m an employee, and that’s good for me and my career,'” says Kurt Heikkinen, president and CEO of video interviewing solution provider Montage.

Neil Cohen, vice president of organizational development and human resources at Affiliated Distributors, says that the use of video interviewing is now part of the process for all of their candidates, provided by Async Interview. “We have gotten an overwhelmingly positive response from our hiring managers and from candidates who view us at ‘tech savvy’ and appreciate the ability to do the pre- screening at their convenience,” says Cohen.

For candidates, video interviewing also provides the opportunity to capably represent themselves as the right person for the position. As Danielle Weinblatt, CEO and founder of interview management platform Take the Interview, explains, “You can give them the opportunity to be more than a resume.”

Capture genuineness. The realistic and emotional components that can be recognized in facial expressions and body language via videos and not traditional screening methods -like over the phone -make video interviewing attractive.

Lisa Corso Moyer, director, head of talent acquisition for Thomson Reuters, uses WePow for video interviewing 
and says the visual process captures a better view of the candidate.

“Managers felt an extra layer of visibility and were able to connect to the candidate in a more comfortable way.”

Convey employer brand. Video interviewing technology can allow for a branded experience by configuring company logos and elements of the employee value proposition into the interface.

“We want to build products that not only add value but connect emotionally with our users. A big part of that is employer branding,” says Rodrigo Martinez, CEO and co- founder of global video and mobile interviewing provider WePow. “When a candidate is responding to an interview powered by WePow, it’s not about WePow at all. It’s about our clients. We become one with our clients’ brand.”

A customized, branded interface is the perfect backdrop to connect with candidates about what your organization – and the job -has to offer. “You’re more likely to source higher quality candidates if you’re authentic with your content,” says Weinblatt. “You’re obviously more likely to retain those candidates if you’re honest about what the position entails and what you’re looking for.”

Conduct better, more-productive interviews. By leveraging time-saving and efficient video interviewing technology in the earlier steps of the hiring process when you are sourcing and screening candidates, by the time final face-to-face interviews occur, the hiring manager can engage in a more pertinent and meaningful conversation. This can lead to a more educated hiring decision. “There are certain things you can do when you’re not starting at the initial point, so you can really further that discussion and go to a deeper place, ultimately conducting a better interview,” says Weinblatt.

This process is also conducive to finding more suitable hires. “We’re seeing candidates that were hired through the use of WePow that have proven to be better quality hires,” says Martinez.

Access a larger candidate pool. By utilizing asynchronous -
or pre-recorded -video interviews, hiring managers and recruiters are able to “conduct” many more interviews in 
a fraction of the time compared to phone screens or face- to-face interviews. It not only allows access to a larger amount of candidates, but also allows access to candidates in different geographical locations that would have otherwise been inconceivable to even find. With the growing population of workers who telecommute or are part of the contingent workforce, this is an important function.

Create collaboration ease. Due to the nature of technology, recorded video interviews can be viewed an unlimited number of times by as many team members as needed. Heikkinen says it’s becoming more common for several people within an organization to meet the candidate before coming to a decision -and video interviewing eases the processes.

“Those people oftentimes aren’t located in the same place. They’re traveling. They’re on different schedules. Video allows them to meet the candidates more quickly and allows them to collaborate around a decision, because through our platform, you can record an interview and share that with many stakeholders,” he explains. “They get deeper insight quicker, they can collaborate with their feedback, and make a more effective hiring decision.”

What’s Next

As video interviewing becomes more widely utilized, taking advantage of the technology for other aspects of the recruiting process is the next logical step, and the path has begun with sourcing candidates. Organizations are realizing that as the millennial workforce grows, they need to cater their processes to attract this young set of workers. One way to tackle this is through technology and innovation.

“They have a different expectation in terms of engagement. The traditional interviewing process just does not meet the expectations and needs that they have,” says Heikkinen.

Preferences of millennials are driving organizations to experiment with newer ways to leverage video technology – like sourcing and screening.

“We’re still fairly new in exploring the right way to deploy

for the maximum results, but our robust intern program (100+) and next intake of graduate program candidates seems a great starting place for us to evolve it,” says Moyer of Thomson Reuters.

An interesting new approach to source candidates by leveraging video is through virtual career fairs. Candidates log online during a designated time to connect with participating organizations. This creates a much larger talent pool for a lot less.

“There’s tremendous cost savings when you don’t have to travel to 20 or 30 different campuses and you can use video to really reach and engage that talent,” says Heikkinen.

“Video interviewing is great for building talent pools. In the case of college recruitment, it allows students to learn about an organization in a very engaging manner (through the use of video and other rich media) and gives university recruiting teams the ability to engage and interact with many more students on or off campus,” says Martinez.

Organizations can also host virtual information sessions through video. Heikkinen says that the technology can allow as many video participants as suitable for the occasion, whether it be two students or 50 students, all hearing from a hiring manager or another member of the hiring company in a fully branded experience. “There are various tools within this technology that they can use: a show-my-desktop-feature, a whiteboard feature, the ability to play video within 
this application. So it’s a great way which our clients have used to market their job opportunities in real time to a talent pool.”

Even traditional career fairs are getting into the video game. Organizations use videos at their booths to introduce the company culture, and have the ability to quickly video interview high-potential candidates on the spot.

A new sourcing and recruiting platform, Match-Click, provides a means to source candidates with the engaging innovation of video. The provider has recognized the same facet that video interviewing recognizes: Engagement can be obtained through video, so why not utilize it to attract the top talent?

Match-Click is an application designed for mobile devices that is an innovative avenue to access talent. Instead of text-only job descriptions, the platform provides three unscripted 20-second videos about the job posting: one from the hiring manager and two from colleagues that the candidate would be working with.

Match-Click is making recruiting different because we’re putting a human face
 back on recruiting,” says Maury Hanigan, president of Match-Click.

Attracting both active and passive candidates can be enhanced with the engagement provided by video. That engagement becomes much more possible with this technology as sharing videos through career pages and social networks brings sourcing to a new dimension. Passive candidates may be more inclined to press play on a video to learn more about a company or position, instead of reading through static job descriptions.

Heikkinen says that companies can link video from social networking platforms. This allows candidates to learn more about that opportunity from the hiring manger or from the team about a day in the life in the prospective position via video.

While the use of video for sourcing can provide organizations with additional avenues to talent, it needs to remain appealing to candidates. “Companies need to be careful not to ask too much of the candidates in the sourcing process,” says Christopher Young, CEO of video interviewing suite company Async Interview.

The road has been paved for video interviewing to no longer be a deviation. It is an exciting time for this industry, and in upcoming years, the possibilities for video technology usage in the hiring process will continue to unfold.

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Money and Time Saver

Traditional drivers of video interviewing have always been the ability to save time and money. It takes 30 minutes to screen a phone call, whereas in that 30 minutes, a hiring manager could be toggling through multiple video interviews. In fact, most recruiters are able to tell within the first 90 seconds whether or not candidates would be a good fit.

Oftentimes it becomes apparent that a candidate is not right for the position very quickly in a face-to-face interview, but if the screening process only consists of viewing their resume and a phone call, there is little way to predict this outcome. “It really accelerates the process that can’t be achieved without that face-to-face interaction,” says Kurt Heikkinen, president and CEO of video interviewing solution provider Montage.

Video interviewing can generally cater to any company’s needs, as there are options of how the interview is conducted: in real time or face-to-face with the interviewer, pre- recorded by the candidate, with or without time restrictions. Some providers allow for carrying out even more specific preferences, such as Montage’s technology, which allows for question configuration. Users can choose each question or response to be delivered by audio, video, or text, they can select how many times candidates can re-record their responses (if at all), and they can choose how much think time the candidate is allowed before they need to respond.

Employers can save as much as 67 percent in travel costs associated with the interview process. Prerecorded interviews can prevent interviewing clearly unqualified candidates, and live video interviews eliminate any travel fees.

Rodrigo Martinez, CEO and co-founder of global video and mobile interviewing provider WePow says, “It’s helping recruiters do more with less.”

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Generationally Friendly

In the past, it was uncertain whether all generations would be accepting of video interviewing, but now that video has become so deeply immersed into personal and professional lives, the concern is diminished. “The fit with millennials used to be a big driver about two years ago, but now employers better understand video interviewing and how it can be used for all generations,” says Christopher Young, CEO of Async Interview.

As head of talent acquisition, Lisa Corso Moyer shares that the millennial population was not the principal reason for Thomson Reuters invoking video interviewing. “As a seasoned recruitment leader, it was easy to find the value after seeing a demo,” she says.

Neil Cohen, vice president of organizational development and human resources at Affiliated Distributors, echoes the sentiment, as the millennial workforce was not a primary driver for his firm to begin using video interviewing. “For us it was more about video interviewing’s applicability to the type of positions we’re recruiting for and our expectation [regarding] candidate adoption.”

Tags: RPO & Staffing, Screening & Selection, Talent Acquisition

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