Michael, a recruiter asks: What is your view on video resumes? We might implement this on our site in the near future. Seems to be a nifty way to get a feel for a candidate. Also a way for candidates to showcase their people skills in a relaxed environment.
In answer:
Putting aside the legal exclusion issues, I think a simple focus on the human and process element is a better focus to answer this question. For instance:
- Do all your candidates look like super models, or Brad Pitt replica's?
- Do they all look good on a camera lens? There is a difference....
- Do they know how to perform on video, which picks up and magnifies the smallest issues? You may not have noticed that twitch until now...
- Are they being interviewed by Katie Curic/David Frost, and can your chosen interviewer build up on screen rapport with all candidates? Even Sir David can't do that...
- Are they being shot by "the next Steven Speilberg?"
- Are you using edited or unedited versions?
All of this, even if the boxes are ticked, means that the candidates generally become more nervous (what "relaxed environment" - ?), and doing a video resume takes some pre-planning: its not just turn up and go.
If you also think about the process, then I think the video resume as the first stop/replacement of the traditional piece of paper falls down in non-entertainment/arts based vocations. The first question any client has is: does the candidate have the basic skills? That can be answered in less than a page of A4 and hence read twice in 1min or less; where as dragging through a 20min video resume multiplies the process by at least 20fold - time is money.
Is there a role for the video resume? Yes, in entertainment and arts fields, as it has always been. Is there a role for the video resume in the wider recruitment world? Possibly in some fields, where the pre-planning costs and training of the candidate can be consumed in the eventual recruitment fee's generated. It can become a second-check savings tool where the basic skills check on paper can be further developed into a character-fit check on video, before the candidate is physically met and interviewed.
But as a generic recruitment tool? I have always thought of YouTube as an alternate entertainment channel, not really a recruiting world benchmark - as this example by Aleksey Vayner shows. If you watch most of the so called video resumes over there, I am not sure much as though there are some great candidates that you would because of their performances employ many of them.
Good Luck!
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2 comments:
Video is being used in Employment Applications in basically two categories:
1. Employer Branding Videos, wherein the employer company and its hiring managers are video taped evangelizing the company and/or the job and those videos are either placed on the company’s home page, or their career page (where their job listings appear) or are sent out in email campaigns or pushed out to YouTube and that YouTube link is used in email campaigns for hiring purposes.
2. Candidate Videos, which actually fall into two sub-categories:
a. VIDEO RESUMES which are canned, pre-taped videos of the job seeker basically speaking their resume… talking through the chronology of what they have done and why they are a good employee. Examples are InterviewClips and VideoResume.
b. VIDEO INTERVIEWS which are either canned or live/interactive, but include one or more formal interview questions chosen by the employer, and answered on video tape (either via webcam or family video camera or by a professional videographer). Examples are HireVue and InterviewStudio.
Video technology for the employment market is in its “first phase”, just as the written resume had a first phase and evolved to a digitized form. In the very near future, video will become just a part of a total “candidate profile” that will be submitted for employment purposes rather than just a resume. These profiles will include readily available due diligence (data and media) about job candidates that can be grabbed from the web or input directly by the candidate themselves. For instance, InterviewStudio allows a job candidate to build a total online profile of himself that combines the traditional resume, his endorsements by former managers or co-workers, the results of a professional assessment test he has taken online, his LinkedIn or other social network links, his portfolio documents, and links to whatever Google or Yahoo or Zoominfo might present about him.
Gartner and other analysts call these new profiling software tools “mashups” since they mash together a lot of leading edge technology in one product or tool so that huge strides in time-and-dollar savings can be made with these combinations.
These online profiles will become the standard in hiring and recruiting since they provide the employer or recruiting agency much more due diligence about a job candidate upfront, without the long drawn out iterative process that usually takes up to 90 days to seek this information online or schedule the job seeker to provide. In fact, a professional profile can save recruiting departments from 2 to 6 weeks in the hiring process since they actually change the process that needs to happen: you may no longer need a phone screen or even a first face-to-face interview by a recruiter.
Thanks for the peek behind the curtain. I wonder if the video "interview" is different from the face to face in content or form?
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