HR

How Hiring Managers Can Maximize Their Time with Video Screening

By Sean Gordon

According to Forbes, the average number of candidates for any given job is 118, and 22% of applicants are able to secure an interview. That’s approximately 25 interviews per job.

If you’re a hiring manager, these numbers probably don’t surprise you, but they do reinforce the frustration you feel with a process that seems hopelessly outdated and ineffective. What’s even more frustrating is discovering in the first 2 or 3 minutes of a given interview that the candidate is completely wrong for the job—maybe he comes off as arrogant, or unable to go off script and think on his feet. You ask yourself, “Why didn’t I see this in his resume?” And you wonder if there isn’t some way to more effectively screen applicants before they walk through your door.

Enter Video Screening

The use of video to expedite processes in hiring, training, coaching and other areas isn’t new—what’s changed is the technology. Whereas videotaping job candidates, for example, once involved the use of expensive equipment—and the need for interviewees to travel to a video conferencing facility, today new technologies enable candidates to quickly and easily create a video which answers the key questions posed by interviewers. This has made video screening more convenient, effective and inexpensive than ever before.

The Benefits of Video Screening

Among the several benefits of video screening are the following 5:

  1. You’re not tied to your desk: you can evaluate and share video interviews anytime, anywhere. You no longer need to carefully coordinate your schedule and those of others involved in the interview process.
  2. You’ll save time: the average in-person interview takes 48 minutes, and phone interviews generally last almost 30 minutes—even though most recruiters know in the first 2 minutes if a candidate is suitable. Screening candidates through a short video clip vastly reduces time spent on unnecessary interviews.
  3. You can screen more candidates: because you can view each candidate in a few minutes, you’ll be able to review a wider pool of talent, increasing the chances you identify the best candidate for the job.
  4. You can hit “rewind:” in an in-person interview, if you didn’t quite catch what a candidate said, you have no option to review their response a second time. With video screening, you can simply rewind and re-watch.
  5. You’ll gain an edge over your competition for top talent: video screening boosts a company’s brand. In a time when unemployment is low and job candidates often have multiple offers, offering a contemporary and convenient means for job seekers to conveniently engage and showcase their capabilities enhances a brand’s attractiveness and increases the odds of attracting top talent.

What Do Employers Think of Video Screening?

The utility of video screening for job recruiters extends well beyond time savings and convenience. Because screening enables recruiters and hiring managers to see more candidates, and to see them before investing resources in travel and related expenses, video screening creates better hires.

Those benefits aren’t lost on human resource managers—and CEOs. Dan Finnegan, for example, President and CEO of a social recruiting platform, believes technologies like video screening empower recruiters and give them increased control over the hiring process:

“Advances in social, mobile and cloud technologies have changed recruiting tremendously. Recruitment is now marketing, and companies need to market their job opportunities like they do their products to consumers. This has spurred a growing demand for video interviewing from both recruiters and hiring managers.”

Conclusion

Video screening lets hiring managers maximize their time by effectively screening candidates in advance, easily sift through a larger number of submissions and increase the odds of attracting and hiring the best candidate for the job. To learn more about vidREACH’s Hire™ platform, including our predictive analytics system, contact us today.

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