Use of recorded video interviews for recruitment

Hi Marc

I'm not sure how useful my feedback will be - I'm not a fan at all of the use of too much tech during the recruitment process!

I suppose for certain roles (tech, social media, marketing and such) it might be useful or large scale recruitment but I must admit if I was job seeking and come across a recruitment process requiring me to record a video I'd probably bow out. Something about it just feels quite impersonal and I hate being videoed, I get incredibly uncomfortable and 'false'.

Personally I can imagine it being quite a daunting task for some people, there's no 'flow' with it, no bouncing off each others facial expressions or body language, no opportunity to clarify the question etc. But my overall feeling is as I say it would feel incredibly impersonal to me, almost like the company feels the recruitment process is too much hard work and I'm a big fan of saying to candidates that they are interviewing us too!

Another thought is would it be fair to people with autism for example? I have a friend with autism who becomes a different person when being recorded. And my son who has a severe stammer seems to speak better face to face or telephone (and he can explain very factually that he has a stammer so sometimes he takes a while to get his words out so please bear with him) but when being recorded his facial ticks kick in and he falls apart.

For me, unless I was recruiting hundreds of people into 10 a penny roles I think I'd rather just book a day out of my diary to do some quick telephone chats with people and do the initial sift that way rather than go down this road. Seems odd to me to introduce all this tech into what is, in my opinion, a process which relies every step of the way on 2 way communication and verbal and visual clues and signs in real time. I suppose I might have to one day but it will be kicking and screaming!

Hi Marc

I'm not sure how useful my feedback will be - I'm not a fan at all of the use of too much tech during the recruitment process!

I suppose for certain roles (tech, social media, marketing and such) it might be useful or large scale recruitment but I must admit if I was job seeking and come across a recruitment process requiring me to record a video I'd probably bow out. Something about it just feels quite impersonal and I hate being videoed, I get incredibly uncomfortable and 'false'.

Personally I can imagine it being quite a daunting task for some people, there's no 'flow' with it, no bouncing off each others facial expressions or body language, no opportunity to clarify the question etc. But my overall feeling is as I say it would feel incredibly impersonal to me, almost like the company feels the recruitment process is too much hard work and I'm a big fan of saying to candidates that they are interviewing us too!

Another thought is would it be fair to people with autism for example? I have a friend with autism who becomes a different person when being recorded. And my son who has a severe stammer seems to speak better face to face or telephone (and he can explain very factually that he has a stammer so sometimes he takes a while to get his words out so please bear with him) but when being recorded his facial ticks kick in and he falls apart.

For me, unless I was recruiting hundreds of people into 10 a penny roles I think I'd rather just book a day out of my diary to do some quick telephone chats with people and do the initial sift that way rather than go down this road. Seems odd to me to introduce all this tech into what is, in my opinion, a process which relies every step of the way on 2 way communication and verbal and visual clues and signs in real time. I suppose I might have to one day but it will be kicking and screaming!

Hi Samantha,

An interesting point you have made - coincidentally I actually withdrew myself from a recruitment process for a local government authority because they were using such a tool. I got in touch with the provider to reach out about my concerns and if a face-to-face was optional but did not get a response. My concern is that companies are missing out on experienced, viable candidates literally at the first hurdle.

I agree that for tech/marketing businesses this would be a cutting edge approach but for me, it completely killed IMO, the important initial human interaction which starts that bond between employer and employee.

It's interesting how negatively video interviews seem to be viewed by HR colleauges. Our University Careers Service, in common with many others, trains students on how to present themselves effectively in these interviews. I wondered if there are generational differences in attitudes to video interviews?

Could be. Just watched a Ted talk stating that in the last 30 years, the proportion of US students showing narcissistic and empathic traits has reversed (in the 80s, 70% of students showed empathy, 30% showed narcissism, now it's apparently the other way around). Not entirely possible to extrapolate from the US to the UK of course but I believe there is some evidence here of similar developments.
I found it unnerving to be interacting purely with software because getting no feedback at all feels made me feel self concious and uncomfortable (like being caught "preening" in a mirror or talking to a brick wall!). Maybe not so much of a problem for someone with narcissitic traits?

The question for me Simon is if these really are "interviews" at all