Will Video Kill In-Person Interviews?

Technology has changed the hiring process forever. Today, job candidates can walk into a store and sit down at a kiosk or go online at home to fill out an application or submit a resume to a prospective employer. Gone are the days, for the most part, when someone would fill out a job application and go to the conference room to be interviewed on the spot for the job.

pgi infographic thumbIn recent years, as an infographic by PGi on Mashable illustrates, should potential employees get to the interview stage, they are increasingly likely to do so via video. According to the document, video interviewing has picked up as companies have cut budgets for human resources (HR). Since 2011, video interviewing has increased 49 percent, and today 60 percent of HR managers make use of the technology to speak with and assess candidates.

Hiring managers say video interviews save money, make their jobs easier and reduce the time needed to fill open positions.

Interestingly, 66 percent of job candidates report preferring to interview via video. It provides them with a number of advantages including choosing a time to interview that suits them and not having to travel.

BrainTrust

Discussion Questions

What do you see as the advantages and disadvantages of using video to interview prospective employees vs. face-to-face meetings?

Poll

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Tom Redd
Tom Redd
10 years ago

Video will provide a strong benefit in reducing the overall costs of hiring by being a good tool to use for the first rounds of interviewing. The time and related costs of pulling in candidates for their very first chats is expensive. Hiring costs include recruiter resume review, performing other recruitment-related tasks, interview time, and much more. Video can help trim these costs and also help to get an idea of how the candidate operates in the new world of communications.

Dr. Stephen Needel
Dr. Stephen Needel
10 years ago

I think this is a great idea—although you always miss a little bit from video vs in-person. No reason I can see why this isn’t your screening device, after which you perhaps bring in the final candidate or two to see how they handle themselves.

Tony Orlando
Tony Orlando
10 years ago

Video can be fine for techies who need work in San Fran and are still in school in Ohio. Sooner or later the one on one will happen if needed, but hey, why not take advantage of the situation of Skype, and other tech available.

A note to the potential employees, yes you still need to take a shower, and dress up, LOL. This could also help interns practicing interviews with future employers to help build their confidence, kind of like an actual class in school.

Mock interviewing could also really help build the skills for the real deal someday.

David Livingston
David Livingston
10 years ago

Of course video interviewing saves time. However, a business misses out on important factors. Some of my clients like to watch what a person does when they are waiting alone in a room through hidden camera. One always sends someone out to look at their car, checking for cigarettes, car seats, or baby toys. And of course the best research analyst in the country always interviews any new employee in a bar and has one of his friends start a fight or other controversial approach to see how the person reacts.

Video interviewing is fine if you are simply looking for warm bodies. However, if you are going to be spending some serious time, money, and benefits on someone, you need to spend quality time with them.

David Zahn
David Zahn
10 years ago

To David Livingston’s client checking for baby toys and car seats—cease and desist. Any information you glean from that can place you in a very awkward position should you be asked to justify why one prospective employee was hired over another. As clever as it may seem to you, that practice is ethically questionable and may open you up for litigation and having to defend yourself in court.

Brady Willhite
Brady Willhite
10 years ago

Advantage – you don’t have to wear pants for the interview.

Disadvantage- you might be interviewing someone who doesn’t like to wear pants on a regular basis.

Seriously, though, I don’t even understand how cuts in HR budgets really affects this that much. I would say the majority of people are not interviewing for jobs where the potential employer pays travel expenses. A meal, maybe. I haven’t ever had either paid for and I have done a handful of interviews and am in my third job since college. Maybe I’m just too far from “corporate America”….

Mel Kleiman
Mel Kleiman
10 years ago

The advantage of video interviewing is that you save money. The disadvantage of video interviewing is you reduce the amount of information you can gather.

Most managers and HR people are bad at interviewing in the first place. Now if you take away even more real exposure to the candidate, you are going to make the situation even worse.

Craig Sundstrom
Craig Sundstrom
10 years ago

Maybe I’m missing something here, but the only way I can see that video saves time and/or money is if the person doing the hiring isn’t actually at the job location…which is another way of saying the hiring decisions are becoming more centralized. That sounds to me like a bad thing (or at least a “not necessarily good” thing). But is the 60% figure cited really true, or is it perhaps “60% make SOME use of video”? I find it hard to believe a typical mall store or restaurant runs its individual hiring decisions through HQ.

Ralph Jacobson
Ralph Jacobson
10 years ago

The advantage is the screening ability of videos. They will never (can I ever say, “never”?) replace face-to-face final interviews, though. You do have to see the person you are hiring… or at least you should.

J. Peter Deeb
J. Peter Deeb
10 years ago

I am really “old school” on this one. Having hired hundreds of people over my career I am having a hard time figuring out how you can truly evaluate a candidate that you are not seeing in person. Mannerisms, stress levels, eye contact etc. would be much more difficult to properly evaluate on a video or through Skype or Web interviews. I want to shake a candidate’s hand and look the person in the eyes while we discuss the job, past training etc.

Warren Thayer
Warren Thayer
10 years ago

Depends on the level of the job, and how many candidates you have. I suspect the 49% growth number is off a small base. And that makes me suspect that the 60% number (usage by HR) is nonsense boiled in vegetable oil. I can see the benefits to using video if you want to narrow it down to 3 candidates, say. I’ve spent days interviewing a dozen candidates and knew in 15 seconds that some were not up to the job. Out of ancient Baptist guilt, and the fear or hurting feelings (yeah, I’m a softie), I let these “loser” interviews go on for a perfunctory 10 or 15 minutes before showing them the door. Would have loved to have screened them via video. But that’s as far as I see this going.

Mark Burr
Mark Burr
10 years ago

Curiosity makes me ask, how many respondents have actually been interviewed lately?

The changes in technology make this option an advantage for both the interviewer and the interviewee. It is far better than a “Phone” screening interview—by far!

The comments on convenience for both the hiring party and the candidate just make sense. It is far different from anything that can be accomplished on the phone. Minus the handshake, all of the other characteristics of a face to face interview are there. Appearance, presentation, reaction, and comfort are all there.

I believe that the number of 60% will grow exponentially and quickly. The mobility of the workforce will push its usage. Candidates that don’t have the option with a prospective employer can read immediately into it a lot about the employer. That would be that they are completely out of touch!

Employers not taking advantage of this capability are losing the capability to broaden their choices, have even more candidates, and review them much better and faster. Skype and FaceTime and other similar capabilities continue to create options beyond the imagination.

It is simply a must for a successful employer.

David Livingston
David Livingston
10 years ago

The “car check” should always be done when hiring someone for an important position. My advice to job applicants is to always arrive in a newer model, clean, conservative car, unless you have rainmaker skills like Columbo.

Shilpa Rao
Shilpa Rao
10 years ago

Saves time, saves travel costs and is almost as effective as an in-person interview. Bandwidth challenges and quality of camera and audio could be hindrances. Candidates need to practice though on how to present themselves in a video interview.