Working in video recruitment, I am often confronted with the concern “doesn’t video interviewing increase the likelihood of bias and discrimination?”. My answer to this is- if you have a prejudice person on your recruitment team, they will ‘touch’ the candidate at some point in the recruitment process. Subsequently, their bias can impact hiring decisions, regardless if it’s at the initial video interview or during a face-to-face interview.
There are a couple of ways to circumvent this issue:
1. Implement mandates of a diverse workforce. Make it part of your company’s mission that candidates of different colours, creed, gender and religious beliefs make up the company. Recruiters and hiring managers will have accountability for who they agree to hire and those that they don’t.
2. Checks and Balances- making sure that candidates are reviewed by more than one person in order to eliminate any one individual controlling the recruitment process. With traditional phone pre-screenings, this isn’t an option. However, with video interviewing, this is one of the key benefits. Not only does every candidate have the opportunity to answer the exact same questions, but also, their responses are visible to the recruitment team and hiring managers for review. A great candidate would be easy to recognize and hard to eliminate from the recruitment process.
So when I am presented with the misconception that video interviewing encourages bias and an unfair process for candidates, my response is that it is the fairest process a candidate can be offered.
