Small, medium and large Kiwi organisations are turning to one-way recorded interviews as a way of increasing the talent pool and decreasing the time spent doing phone screens.

Once candidates pass pre-screening, which may be automated testing or CV checks, they are sent links to complete an interview in their own time from home or a location of their choice. They click on the link and answer pre-recorded questions using the video technology built into their smartphones or other devices.

One-way interviews can be daunting for first-time interviewees. Talking into your phone isn't everyone's cup of tea and can take a little practice. They must also learn how best to present themselves, where to look, and consider what's behind them in the background.

Employers choose how to use the platforms from providers such as VidRecruiter, HireVue and Spark Hire. The platforms allow employers to give the candidate as much or as little preparation time as they choose and decide if candidates get the chance to re-record answers. Once the interviews are completed, hiring staff can review them.

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Pros and cons

There are many pros for employers with one-way video interviews. They allow consideration of a greater number of candidates for each role. A telephone screen may take 15 to 30 minutes per candidate with the formality and chit-chat thrown in but each pre-recorded video interview can be reviewed by the hiring manager in two to five minutes.

The interviews can also be reviewed by more than one member of the hiring team, which means that candidates get two cracks at the whip.

For candidates, it's a chance to sell themselves without the added pressure and time needed to go to a full interview and it can give them a foot in the door at an organisation where they might have been ruled out because of their qualifications or CV.

There is a downside for those who don't present well on camera.

Better suited to certain roles

Video-screen interviews suit some roles more than others. Although they can be ideal for customer-facing jobs where the person must be able to communicate confidently, they may not be necessary for a back-room, numbers-driven role.

Fisher & Paykel Healthcare (FPH) needed a one-way video tool for its graduate recruitment that works with its Applicant Tracking System, SnapHire.

The company received more than 2100 applications in 2017 for its graduate roles. Of those applicants, about 250 were phone screened, which took about 10 minutes for each screen, or a total of 2500 minutes.

Debra Lumsden, vice-president human resources at FPH estimates that the one-way video interview technology the company is adopting will reduce the time involved in a phone screen by 80 per cent from 42 hours to about eight hours.

BNZ rolling it out

Bank of New Zealand's parent company National Australia Bank uses Spark Hire one-way interviews for all entry-level recruitment. In June 2017 the BNZ trialled HireVue one-way video interviews for its graduate programme interviews.

"We have had great feedback from candidates," says Kate Daly, BNZ director of people and communications. "They like the app and how easy it is to use.

"So we extended it to people applying for roles in our branches and contact centre roles. We're now rolling it out through our business for internal and external applicants."

Daly says applicants like the fact that they can take the time to focus and prepare and submit their application at a time that suits them.

Diversity: helping or hindering?

Diversity Works New Zealand Chief Executive Bev Cassidy-Mackenzie, however, says being able to apply for a job using an online video tool creates a bigger talent pool for organisations.

It could also be very valuable for motivating young people not in employment, education or training to apply for jobs, says Cassidy-Mackenzie.

In theory, one-way video interviews could trigger unconscious bias in the viewer's eye. Cassidy-Mackenzie says in order to mitigate the impact of bias, organisations should use a panel of trained recruiters to review the videos and short-list candidates, rather than relying on a single recruiter.

"It takes 50 milliseconds to register someone's gender when we first see them, and only twice that long to note their racial background," Cassidy-MacKenzie says.

"So if you have not learned individual strategies for mitigating unconscious bias, it will still exist, whether you are analysing a candidate's written application or looking at video they have uploaded."