The most powerful feature a video interview gives you is certainly the ability to get a glimpse of a candidates’ personality. Despite its wildest efforts, the combo cover letter and CV has always failed at conveying what makes someone truly special. This has a lot to do with a concept I like to call “the dictatorship of Keywords“.
For a candidate to feel relevant nowadays, there is a need to fill out applications with must-have qualities. Data-driven, solution-oriented, out-of-the-box thinking, fast-learner, and so forth.
Any adjectives proving someone’s capabilities to perform in an agile, 3.0 world.
By over-filling resumes and cover letters with generic wording, candidates lack the space to truly shine by sharing stories that makes them unique. The task even gets tougher when you know that recruiters spend on average 5-7 seconds to scan a resume (according to a study by the undercover recruiter), and less than 60% of recruiters will read a cover letter all the way through. Without keywords to catch the eye, candidates fear to be parsed through.
The best part about video recruitment is that it grants applicant with more power. Because video interviews are fair by design, all candidates will answer the same set of questions. A candidate can differentiate themselves by HOW they answer those questions.
What are the stories and experiences they use to build their case? What do the words they use have to say about their personalities? Are they Funny? Focused? Driven? Surgical? Exuberant? More importantly, do you think their personality fits your company culture?
Every work environment is different, and every worker thrives in a different way. Video interviews can help you truly assess if a candidate has that sparkle you’re looking for. This tiny glimpse that they would be the perfect fit in your specific work environment.
Taking a video of oneself is not always fun and games. Even us, video recruitment experts, sometimes struggle to record a nice introduction video for our candidates. That is also part of the point. A video interview is not an audition for a big Hollywood movie. It is a tiny session where a recruiter gets to know another human being in their own context. No need to be perfect, just to be yourself.
Videos will never replace face-to-face interviews, because human contact is the essence of any tangible exchange. But video recruitment will help you better grasp what a person has to say instead of simply imagining what that person could be, according to the few lines written on his CVs. That already is, in my opinion, a leap forward.
HAPPY HIRING!
