Companies need to become ever more tech savvy when it comes to hiring the best talent.

The market offers plenty of software programs for candidate screening, video interviews and candidate’s skills assessment. I was surprised to find at least 70 companies who offer software programs for video interviewing.

All these technology supported tools will allow companies to hire better and faster, and finding the most suitable one for your own corporate needs would be a challenge in itself.

I would like to focus on the benefits that video interview software programs can offer. Bear in mind that there are different types of video interviews: one-way, two-way, live, and pre-recorded. The benefits may vary depending on the type of video interview you choose, and whether there is a chance to pre-record questions and answers or not.

1. Better insights into a candidate’s personality

   A CV does not give you any hints regarding a candidate’s personality, way of communicating or presenting. A video can help you to take a quicker decision in finding out if the person might be a good fit or not.

2. Cost cutting

   Your company can reduce travel costs: there is no need to reimburse travel expenses for candidates since the conversation is being held via screen.

3. Time saving and therefore increased productivity

   Hiring managers can record their questions once and don’t need to repeat them for each candidate.

   Candidates don’t necessarily need to take time off from work to record and submit their answers. They can do it from the comfort of their home and therefore eliminate any travel time.

   This approach might also mean an increase in the speed of hiring.

4. Re-evaluation is possible

   It gives a Hiring Manager the opportunity to listen to a candidate’s questions and answers over and over again. No detail can get lost. This facilitates panel feedback early in the hiring process, and means that discussions among HR professionals or clients are also possible.

5. Candidate attraction and search

   Potentially, more candidates can be attracted, quicker, and on an international scale, not just locally.

6. Live multimedia enriched interview experience

   Some programs allow you to review and discuss interviewees’ social media profile, online portfolio, live work samples, presentations on Slideshare alongside the interview discussion.

7. Increased flexibility

   Having the opportunity to pre-record your interview questions and looking at the candidates’ answers at your own time gives you a certain level of flexibility.

8. Better Employer Branding

   It would showcase your company as an enterprise which is forward-looking and tech savvy.

9. Affordable

   You can invest in paid software solutions or give it a try with free alternatives, such as Skype or Google Hangouts (in which case the interview would have to take place in real time at a specific time).

10. Convenient

    Interviewer and applicant don’t have to be in the same room.

11. More passive candidates

    A company would also be able to attract a higher number of passive candidates due to the fact that they would not have to take time off from their work to get to the interview location. They would feel more encouraged to apply.

12. Easier to organise

    It would be considerably easier and quicker to organise video interviews than to invite many candidates for face to face interviews.

Technology has changed our life dramatically in the last years and life without it is almost unimaginable. However, as great as technology has proved to be, we cannot ignore the fact that potential drawbacks also need to be looked at particularly in terms of technical and security problems. However, I do strongly believe that “video interviewing” will become standard in the foreseeable future. Some companies have already embraced this strategy while for others it will still take some time to get familiar with it and adjust to the new digital challenge.

Being rejected in life is a normal thing that happens to everyone once in a while.

It’s not much different in the corporate world. I remember when I received rejection letters in the past. Somehow the content was always very similar, they included words such as “unsuccessful”, “unfortunately”, “unable to consider you for this position”, “regret to inform you” etc. That’s surely something that nobody enjoys reading. Therefore, I would like to provide you with some tips on proper etiquette when dealing with job candidates who have not been chosen for an interview.

Do’s:

• DO reply to every candidate who expressed their interest in a position including those who seem not to fit, for whatever reason.
• You could write it by following these steps:
  • Acknowledge and appreciate the person’s time and interest in applying for a certain job at your company.
  • Explain that the company decided on someone else, in a respectful and considerate way.
  • Finish on a positive note (for example by adding “Never give up!) and wish the person success.

Now here is the dilemma: There are companies who receive hundreds or even thousands of applications a year. Google, for example, gets well over 2 million job applications a year and can only hire a tiny percentage of those great talents. Thus, writing to each of them would surely be a time consuming task. One might therefore wonder what the best approach would be to deal with a high volume of applications without damaging a corporate brand.

The answer is to try to reduce the number of inappropriate applications, and to use automation wherever possible.

Consider:

• Trying to reduce the number of inappropriate applications by:
  • Making the pre-screening criteria visible and clear.

  If people fail these, but still apply, send an automated reply

• Making the culture clear, perhaps including self-test tools and employee interviews, to discourage applications from those who wouldn’t fit.

  See, for example KMPG, whose self-test tool makes the culture clear.

• Use automated assessment (CV filters and/or psychometric tests)
  
  Again, if people are deselected at this stage, send an automated response to explain why
• Use automated responses wherever possible at the various stages of application, including after interview
• Resourcing appropriately
  
  With careful planning, the number of remaining applicants should have been sufficiently reduced through the filtering process that the number of personalised communications becomes far smaller.

Don’ts:

• Don’t be brutally honest by telling them what the real reason for your rejection was (even though every job applicant would be interested in knowing it!). Bear in mind that you could be sued for your personal statements. Therefore, do it in a polite, diplomatic, thoughtful and professional way.
• Don’t let candidates wait too long for a reply. As mentioned earlier, explain the timescales for responding, and write a letter/email within a reasonable timeframe. Don’t make them think that they have to chase you in order to find out if there is a chance for a job interview.
• If you think that writing rejection letters to unsuccessful job candidates is a waste of time and doesn’t make any difference, I would like to highlight the benefits that your HR Department can receive in taking the extra time to respond to candidates. Your company will be perceived as an enterprise that:
  • takes their job applicants seriously and respects their valuable time
  • works in a professional and efficient way and
  • cares about their reputation and image (offline and online).

Some companies might not realise that by ignoring job applications they can severely damage their company’s reputation. It leaves an impression about the way a company operates and cares about other people. The question is: Can a company nowadays in such a competitive world really afford an approach like this?

Unfortunately many companies do not take the time and make the effort to reply to potential employees. In today’s technology driven world we need to remember that social media can be very powerful. Every upset candidate who might feel disappointed about not hearing back from any company (after investing time in writing tailor-made CVs and cover letters) might be tempted to vent their anger online. This can happen with a comment, an email or a video going viral. Just imagine…. A candidate can easily do it within seconds, from any device, from all over the world and most importantly at no cost!

Companies need to think about what impression they want to leave behind. Here I’m not just thinking about the job applicants themselves but also all those people that they are going to share their negative experience with, such as friends, relatives, acquaintances and strangers online. And by the way, it is a fact that negative comments are being spread more often than positive ones. It would be advisable to not underestimate the power of “many ordinary people” because it can have a dramatic impact on your bottom line.