The Whites of Their Eyes - Video Interviewing
Posted on Wed, Feb 08, 2012
“We hired Skype Guy,” a colleague of mine proudly announced at our team meeting. Skype Guy, who had reached near-mythical status with our team the prior week, represented an interesting challenge for our recruitment team – a break into video interviewing. Skype Guy, a candidate that presumably had a real name, presented a not-unfamiliar challenge – he could not travel to an in-person interview, but the hiring manager insisted on “seeing the whites of his eyes” before making a hiring decision. It’s not an uncommon sentiment. Non-verbal cues that we get through in-person or video interaction help reduce ambiguity and uncertainty. For a hiring manager making an important decision, it’s not surprising that they’re looking for as rich of a media as possible. It would be easy for a recruiter to let this fall apart, simply blaming the circumstances and saying “it didn’t work out.” But in a technological world, top recruitment teams can do better.
With the proliferation of broadband, webcams and reliable software, video interviews are easier now than they’ve ever been. If you’re looking to connect with candidates via video interviews, you’ve got a wide range of options, each with its own pros and cons.
- Skype – Skype is the most widely used video calling software in the world. It’s free to make a Skype-to-Skype call which you would most likely do for a video interview. The downside is that it requires the installation of software, which in many corporate environments can involve contacting the IT department and cutting some red tape.
- Google Hangouts – A recent solution to video interviewing is a Google Hangout. A feature of Google’s social network, Google+, Hangouts don’t require software and can be private. For the culture of some companies, Hangouts may be a bit too informal, but it can be a quick, easy solution to getting some face time.
- Montage – If you’re looking to use video interviewing on a larger level, you may decide to go pro and contract with a paid service like Montage. Montage and similar paid services offer a full suite of features – live tech support that logs in to each call, no software to install, recording and playback, and a scheduling system. If it’s something your company gets excited about, a pro service can add a lot of depth to your interviewing experience.
Video interviewing doesn’t suit every organization or every purpose, but all signs point to increased use of video interviewing each year. It will come up in your organization if it hasn’t already. A perked up hiring manager will visit your office with a bright-eyed exclamation – “I just thought of the coolest idea…what if we did interviews through Skype?!?!” As you acknowledge the idea, you can tell him all about the options available to make it happen and volunteer him to help with the pilot run. That way, your next team meeting can begin with “We hired Skype Guy/Gal” instead of “we couldn’t make it work.”
Post contributed by Adam Godson
Follow me on Twitter @adamgodson or connect with me on LinkedIn
