By David Bradford
Jan. 26, 2012
The job interview has essentially remained unchanged over the last century despite being expensive, inefficient, unstructured and inconvenient. As competition for top talent grows more challenging, an efficient, effective interview grows increasingly important and elusive. With jobs numbers improving and companies gearing up for 2012 hiring, now is the time to reevaluate and transform interview practices to identify best-fit candidates before competitors do.
Now digital interviewing technology combines video- and Web-based solutions with interviewing best practices to redefine the experience for job seekers, hiring managers and HR professionals. This technology offers standardization, interview guides, comparative and collaborative review features, and on demand interviews. With digital interviewing, employers are empowered to deliver a better interview, improve productivity, and identify the best talent faster, easier and cheaper.
How Digital Interviewing Works
Most digital interview platforms are SaaS-based, and the most comprehensive solutions help manage interviews of all types, whether on demand, by video, in-person or by phone. Some offer a range of features - including drag-and-drop question libraries, online interview guides and probes, decision support tools and closed loop reporting - and allow interviewers to compare candidate responses, collaborate and share with other reviewers, and capture structured ratings and feedback electronically. Regardless of the interview type, digital interviewing guides employers through a step-by-step approach to providing a perfect interview experience. Since all feedback is captured electronically, recruiters and managers maintain a closed-loop feedback process, keeping everyone on the same page.
A few components of digital interviewing include live video and on demand interviews. Both connect employers and candidates anytime, anywhere via webcam and broadband Internet connection. Live video interviews support real-time meetings between employer and candidate, whereas on demand interviews provide question prompts to which candidates record their responses.
Digital interviewing adds more value than other video conferencing tools. While video conferencing helps companies save money by reducing the need for travel, digital interviewing is designed specifically to manage the entire experience. Employers can:
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record, review, compare, rate and share candidate responses
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standardize interviews for more objective evaluation
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enhance employment brand with customizable portals
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skip bad interviews, reducing the time spent with poor-fit candidates
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rely on 24/7 customer service and technical support
With these features, companies report improved quality of hire, reduced time to hire and better retention rates, along with significant cost savings.
Say Goodbye to Bad Interviews
Companies of all sizes realize the benefits of adding digital interviewing to their screening processes. In fact, many claim they save an average of $1,000 in travel costs alone for each poor-fit candidate eliminated earlier in the interview process. Others have gained roughly seven hours each week previously spent phone screening poor matches. With greater insight at the beginning of the process, recruiters can eliminate poor-fit candidates sooner and invest time, resources and travel dollars in only those candidates who match the position, company and culture.
For example, if a CEO searches for an executive assistant, they may consider 15 candidates’ resumes. While a resume is initially helpful, it doesn’t provide a complete view of the candidate as an interview can. A CEO’s time is extremely valuable, and reviewing and visiting with each candidate is time-consuming. Rather than bring five to seven individuals in for face-to-face interviews after lengthy phone screenings, the company can ask all 15 a set of questions to learn more about their skills and experience using an on demand digital interview. The interview link is emailed to candidates who record their responses using the SaaS-based service at their convenience. Once complete, the CEO can review the interviews anytime and from anywhere, compare responses, and skip those individuals who demonstrate they are not a right fit early on.
With a more complete picture, the company’s recruiter and CEO can narrow the talent pool without wasting time interviewing individuals who aren’t right for the position. Using the added screening layer, they can invest their time with the top three candidates instead.
Candidates Favor Digital Interviews
Candidates want to know the benefits of committing to your organization, and leading employment brands consider the interview a powerful brand touch-point. With the goal of wowing candidates, it’s important to sell them on the company’s value proposition and ensure a great experience. -¨-¨The most comprehensive digital interviewing technology provides employers with their own branded interview portal and the opportunity to record informational, welcome and closing videos. Leveraging these features, employers can help candidates feel at ease, and better understand the position, company culture and next steps.
According to a recent study, candidates view digital interviewing as fair, convenient and forward-thinking. With this technology, candidates can complete preliminary interviews without the hassles of travel, taking days off from work, or spending time away from their families. Regardless of interview method, unstructured interview practices can lead to poor results and an inconsistent candidate experience. Digital interviewing offers a standardized approach, and ensures each candidate has a similar experience and is fairly evaluated on the same criteria.
Delivering a Better Interview
In a market where talent shortages are abundant and skilled positions are among the most difficult to fill, employers must refresh their approach to engage top talent. Those that work toward improving the candidate experience will stand out as employers of choice. Digital interviewing provides a simplified, standardized, convenient process that maximizes impact and positions your company as pioneering. Companies can save countless productivity hours and dollars, gain better insight sooner and stand out to the right candidates for their organization.
As CEO of HireVue, David Bradford guides the company as it pioneers the digital interviewing market to bring faster, convenient, standardized interviews to businesses around the world. Known for accelerating the growth and performance of game-changing organizations, Bradford sourced and brought together an IPO ready management team - including Apple co-founder, Steve Wozniak - in his previous role as CEO of Fusion-io. He can be reached at [email protected].
