Thanks to rapidly improving technologies, the plunging costs of mobile devices and near-universal Internet access, the ability to chat face-to-face with practically anybody in the world via video is cheap, easy and fast.
Thanks to the built-in cameras found on most laptops and mobile devices, practically anybody can be interviewed online from anywhere. That means candidates don’t have to take the time to travel to and from the human resources office. And it gives hiring managers the ability to meet with more potential candidates in a shorter period of time.
Using video interviewing for new hires has become an effective way for many companies to identify the best candidates faster while reducing hiring costs at the same time.
Here are the top 9 benefits to using video conferencing during your next hiring process:
1. Provides Access to a Larger Pool of Candidates
With video conferencing, you can interview any potential candidate regardless of where they are. That means you are no longer limited to a relatively small geographic area when tapping into the talent pool for the position you are trying to fill. You can narrow your search down to the best two or three candidates before deciding to invest additional funds in the hiring process.
2. Prepares the Candidate’s Expectations
Even before you ever talk to a candidate, you can use the technologies provided by the Internet to provide information about your company, the position, and videos and links they can review before they answer any of your questions. Similarly, the candidates can use these tools to share more about themselves – such as their social media – than they could during the traditional interviewing process.
3. Saves Your Company Money
The cost of bringing candidates in from out of town can quickly add up. By using video interviewing, at least during the early stages of the hiring process, you can save on these expenses and still identify the top candidates for the position you are seeking to fill.
4. Improves the Efficiency of the Hiring Process – In some cases, a single open position can result in thousands or even tens of thousands of applications. Processing all of those candidates can take an enormous amount of time and expense. But you can quickly reduce this pool to only the most qualified candidates by using the faster, more efficient technology of video interviewing. In the time it would take you to talk to 100 people in person, you can chat with more than 1,000 online.
5. Standardizes the Interview Process – With video interviewing, you can ask the same questions of every candidate so that it is more fair and standardized. This provides you with the ability to compare apples to apples so that you can optimize the decision making process.
6. Positions Can Be Filled Faster
By eliminating many of the manual processes, video interviewing shortens the time and distance between the candidate and the hiring decision maker. Recruiters can share only those videos that best fit the needs of the position. This results in positions being filled faster with higher quality candidates.
7. Improves the Efficiency of the Interviewing Process – Under the traditional hiring model, a single candidate may meet with several people within the organization and be asked the same questions over and over again. Video interviewing eliminates this requirement because the single recorded interview can be sent to as many people within the organization as you want without any additional monetary or time expenditure.
8. It Can Enhance Your Company’s Brand– Candidates who apply to your company online already have pre-conceived notions about your organization. Video interviewing offers an opportunity for you to reinforce a positive company image and therefore help build brand loyalty within these candidates.
9. Reduces the Stress of Filling Open Positions
The entire process of interviewing and hiring new employees can be extremely stressful for both the hiring managers and the candidates themselves. Using online video streamlines the process by cutting down on pre-screening and eliminating the need to travel to the interview site. Candidates can feel more relaxed on their “home turf” and don’t need to deal with the stresses involved with leaving their homes and traveling to a corporate center or office building.
Video interviewing is more convenient for everybody involved. It saves the hiring company time and money and speeds up the process of identifying, interviewing and hiring the best candidates. Because video interviewing is so easy, it can improve the overall candidate experience.
Eventually, however, you are going to want to meet face to face with the person you plan to hire before you award them the job. This allows you to gather insight about the person before making the final hiring position.
While new technologies may never be able to fully replace the “human element” of the hiring process, they can make the overall process faster, cheaper and more efficient.
