The recruitment landscape has recently undergone a massive change. Gone are the days when recruiters would have to go through the whole rigmarole of first scanning piles of resumes, making a series of calls to schedule face-to-face interviews, and then struggling to get the logistical needs in order.

Recruiters today are facing a different breed of candidates altogether. Modern candidates are highly aware, choosy, and well, impatient! Put these qualities together and you realize that your average candidate, wanting to quickly consume large amounts of information, by the most convenient means possible, is reasonably difficult to please.

With the growing realization that today’s recruitment strategies need to be largely candidate-centric, recruiters are scrambling to curate experiences that are tailored to the needs of the modern candidate.

The attempt to understand what it is that candidates prefer has revealed, among other things, the staggering potential of video content in stimulating their interest. This should come as no surprise. The digital breakthrough has considerably transformed lifestyle patterns, attitudes and preferences across the board.

Here are some statistics that paint a clearer picture of how transformative video content can be for companies:

• Video traffic accounts for 80% of all consumer internet traffic. (Source: smallbiztrends)
• Companies using video draw in 41% more web traffic (Source: smallbiztrends).
• Video secures 1200% more shares than text and images combined (Source: responsiveinboundmarketing).
• Viewers retain 95% of a message displayed with a video compared to just 10% when reading a text (Source: popvideo).
• Employers attain 34% greater candidate application rate when they add video to their job postings (Source: interact ). Naturally, the priority for companies now is not just to produce winning content that cuts through the clutter, but content that especially leverages the potential of video.

Opportunities for Employer Branding

More than the position itself, candidates are interested in knowing about the company, its culture, and its people. Video content can offer much richer insights into the different and dynamic elements that make up your brand.

Videos depicting your office environment and employee experiences, live-streaming of the company’s events, or simply an interactive Facebook Q&A session are some of the ways  companies employ videos to deliver content that is more meaningful, immersive and allows the candidate to truly imbibe the spirit of your brand.

Video-centric content is also an effective exercise in relationship building, for the level of impact and transparency that video allows naturally enables candidates to warm up to your brand and place their trust in it. The value proposition of your brand is therefore much easier to establish and convey through this channel.

The Era of Video Recruitment

Recruiters have been particularly receptive to the multiple opportunities that video content promises. Their efforts to integrate video into recruitment strategies have set the scene for what has come to be known as  video or virtual recruitment.

A daunting idea, but one that’s taken the recruitment scene by storm, what is video recruitment?

Video recruitment encompasses the broad spectrum of video job applications, video job interviews, and online interviews enabled by cloud based softwares. As company after company makes the transition to video recruitment, it might be wise to examine the reason for its popularity and the value inherent in such a method.

Here are some key benefits that video recruitment offers:

• It shows that your brand is progressive, up-to-date with the latest trends and not afraid to adapt to change.
• It’s a smart solution for interviewing candidates based in remote or far-off locations.
• It minimizes the cost, time and other logistical burdens associated with physically screening candidates.
• Your message is able to reach and ultimately pull in a larger audience, from different fields and different geographical locations, thereby ensuring diversity in your workforce.
• You get to go where your audience is. Young talent belongs to the generation of digital natives. They are not only exceptionally comfortable with the digital medium but prefer it as a means of communication.
• Video recruitment ensures well-rounded candidate assessments. In fact, a 5 minute live video interview is equal to 200 questions in a written assessment (Source: talentnow). Cues on body language, communication proficiency and other soft skills can contribute significantly to the overall evaluation of a candidate.

Virtual Assessment Softwares

As companies one after the other declare their loyalty to video recruitment, various video recruiting platforms have entered the market to accommodate this growing need.

Evalufy, a powerful multi feature video recruitment software is a case in point. The platform allows you to create customized, time boxed tests that can be sent in bulk and the progress of each applicant be tracked.

There are various customization options that come along with it. For example, you can dispatch timed or regular assessments, set deadlines, specify the language of your choice and include multiple evaluators for a more collaborative style of assessment. Additionally, you can take the candidate experience further up a notch by drafting personalized emails to direct the applicants to the assessment platform.

The benefits of such assessment softwares are two-pronged; not only have they compressed the diverse tasks of the recruiter into one centralized system, but they also prioritize the preferences of the modern candidate, thereby providing an outstanding experience for both parties.

A Word of Caution.

Not every candidate is adept at digital technology. The older generation especially displays a greater level of resistance to tech-savvy methodologies. To make the transition easy for them, it’s important to guide them through the process, convincing them that it’s one they can easily get a hang of. To allay their apprehensions, you could perhaps combine tutorials and include detailed instructions as to how they should go about it.

Take the Plunge!

With the glowing feedback that video recruitment has received from companies and candidates alike, this method is surely here to stay. A good value addition to the recruitment arsenal, video recruitment’s benefits are immense and transformative.

Given the pace at which it’s gaining popularity, traditional physical interviews will soon be a thing of the past.

Remember, in today’s competitive business milieu, it’s crucial to swiftly adapt to ever-changing trends and patterns. As more and more companies make the switch, there’s no reason for you to be left behind either! Jump the video recruitment bandwagon and reap its benefits!