What is now viewed as a necessity due to the Covid-19 pandemic, has been a long time coming digital transformation in recruitment. Digital interviews didn’t start in 2020, they were already trending.
In this article, we will give you an overview of Digital Interviewing, its benefits, how and when to use it.
Digital Interviewing: What is it?
If we start from the basics, Digital Interviewing is simply a way to assess and talk to a candidate over a device connected to the internet as an interviewing platform, rather than having to meet candidates in person.
It still seems less personal to a lot of recruiters, but it was becoming increasingly popular even pre-pandemic, especially as an initial screening tool. And you can see this trending with the surging of new tools for it like Microsoft Teams, Zoom or Google Meet.
Digital Interviewing: Why?
Let’s go over a practical example of a “traditional” recruitment process, shall we?
As a recruiter, to hire for one position, you start from a pool of 100 people (take this as an average example). From those, you need to go through their CVs and select around 25 that could fit your open position. Then, you need to give them a call or send an email/message to assess if they’re still interested. Finally, you end up with 15 people that are willing to move on and could be a good fit. Now you need to invest 30-45 minutes in an interview with each one of them.
Tired already? Well, please don’t forget to align schedules with hiring managers and book rooms in advance!
This is obviously a huge and time-consuming process that digital tools came to simplify. That’s why we said above that the pandemic didn’t start the transformation. It just accelerated a must needed change to help recruiters’ lives.
Now, how can you benefit from it?
Digital Interviewing: The benefits
Ability to conduct interviews with anyone from anywhere
Sometimes, the best talent available doesn’t live next door. With Digital Interviewing you can conduct interviews with anyone, even if the candidate lives too far away. See this as an opportunity to expand your company’s cultural diversity, for example.
Better recruitment experience for all involved
Digital interviewing helps reducing the tension that some candidates go through before the interview. Additionally, it does not stress out the candidates about traveling to the site nor adds those expenses.
Sometimes, potential candidates do not make it through an interview because of anxiety. A digital interview acts as an initial contact icebreaker and helps to overcome anxiety. So, as a recruiter, you’ll be able to focus more on the skills than on identifying if the poor performance of a candidate is due to anxiety or lack ok skills.
Scheduling flexibility
Digital interview makes scheduling a lot easier. Besides not having to prepare and book a place, there are certain tools now that can also take care of the scheduling. No more long chain of emails exchanges to set up a date or place. Moreover, it allows you to attend the session at a suitable time and minimizes the time spent.
Final thoughts
Unless your internet connection is poor, there’s no reason to not adopt this tool. Don’t get us wrong, in person interviews are still important and there’s nothing like it for the final interview stage. (Especially when this pandemic leaves us!) But for prescreening, technical assessments and first rounders, digital interviewing is incredibly helpful.
A phone interview or a CV does not speak about the communication skills or personality of a candidate. A video interview offers you a better chance for that, saving time and money in the process.
As a final thought, keep an eye out for the industry signals. At times we don’t realize, but all new HR software/products that we see surging are just echoes of what the market is demanding.
Digital Interviewing’s been a long time coming. It is the present and the future.
Are you interested in Recruitment and how FourVision can help your organization with Recruitment challenges? Feel free to visit our Recruitment Solutions page.
Feel free to read our other blogs about Recruitment:
