How are candidates experiencing your organization’s recruitment practices? Based on your most recent recruitment or selection event, would you say that candidates, whether successful or not, are likely to describe your company as best-of-class, desirable, efficient, and innovative?
If you have doubts, you are not alone.
Increasingly, improving candidate experience is one of the top priorities of recruiters and talent acquisition professionals throughout the world.
In today’s article, we discuss how improving candidate experience with video interviews can benefit recruitment functions as well as employer value propositions. For a discussion of how video interviews can improve the recruiter experience, see our previous article.
Why the emphasis on candidate experience?
It may seem that the candidate experience drum is beaten too often, but surveys of job-seekers and talented employees point to a basic truth: candidates are customers too. And if candidates have poor experiences of your brand during recruitment, they are likely to stop being supporters of your brand.
To compound the problem, such candidates are likely to encourage their social networks to follow suit.
Also, in a competitive talent market, talented individuals are likley in high demand, which means that companies with less-than-stellar recruitment practices will be at a distinct disadvantage compared to companies that hit the candidate experience mark more consistently.
As a result, competitors who can convince candidates that they are desirable and effective employers will consistently garner the cream of the talent crop.
So how can recruiters and talent professionals improve candidate experience?
In today’s article, we review one powerful recruitment and selection tool that can dramatically boost candidates’ experience of your value proposition: video interviewing.
Reducing recruitment time spend = Better candidate experience
When candidates spend less time in an organization’s recruitment pipeline, they tend to have better experiences of that organization’s assessment processes.
However, a recent study of US companies by the Talent Board reveals that only 26% of candidates applying for jobs experience efficient and fast application processes.
To change that, quicker and more automated screening methods are needed. And video interviewing, especially platforms like HireVue that incorporate AI-assisted scoring, are ideal tools to reduce time spent in the application / recruitment pipeline.
Apart from AI efficiency, video interviewing platforms can seamlessly integrate with existing Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS). This feature further reduces time wastage, a common problem with off-line or non-integrated interview methods.
Using video interviewing also help organizations to move high potential talent to the next stage of the selection process quickly and efficiently.
Remember that the longer high potential candidates spend in recruitment limbo, the more likely it is that they will accept alternative job offers.
Perceived fairness and standardization of interviewing = Better candidate experience
Traditional face-to-face interviewing varies widely in quality and application across teams and business units, even within the same organization. Although some managers and talent professionals are skilled interviewers, the reality is that most traditional interviews are not standardized across candidates.
The issue of variability speaks directly to candidate experience. If candidates suspect that interviews are not consistently applied, the fairness and legitimacy of the process are likely to be questioned as well.
By using video interviewing, recruiters can immediately introduce standardization across their selection procedures.
Because all candidates answer the same questions using the same interface, poor experiences due to unskilled or inconsistent interviewing are largely avoided.
To that point, a recent survey of more than 1.5 million candidates’ experience using video interviewing showed that 83% appreciated the fairness and consistency of the technology.
Quick and honest feedback = Better candidate experience
A vital component of positive candidate experiences is a professional close-out process: with both successful and unsuccessful candidates alike.
Don’t forget that even when not successful, candidates appreciate the chance to improve their prospects should they apply for a new position (or re-apply for the same opening later).
Most video interviewing platforms allow for immediate feedback to candidates, even if just in the form of a well-produced corporate video message.
By using post-recruitment satisfaction surveys, systems such as HireVue also allow the client organization to gather feedback on its own recruitment processes.
Final thoughts
Here at TTS, we foresee that the candidate’s wellbeing and engagement during recruitment and selection will increasingly become an agenda point in talent management discussions. As such, improving candidate experience with video interviews could be a useful tool for talent professionals to have in their armament.
This is not only due to talent shortages and increased competition between potential employers. Candidates, used to a world that offers constant and instant feedback, slick online interfaces and well-produced content might be skeptical of organizations who don’t offer similar experiences in their attraction and recruitment practices.
In addition, employers who do not enhance their recruitment and selection processes with tools such as video interviewing might experience lower rates of successful job offers. A recent cross-company survey by HireVue suggested that 30% of candidates who have a poor selection experience are unlikely to accept that organization’s job offer.
We believe that video interviewing, enhanced by AI-assisted automation, can go a long way toward making organizations’ recruitment processes not only more efficient, but also far more engaging for candidates.
If you are interested in how TTS can enhance your recruitment and selection processes, why not drop us a line at: info@tts-talent.com? We’d be happy to discuss different options with you!
Sources:
Talent Board, 2019. North American Candidate Experience Research Report.
HireVue, 2019. The 2019 Candidate Experience Playbook.