7 Reasons Your Company Needs to Adopt Video Interviewing Software in 2019

Video interviewing software has been available for a decade now, but only 60 percent  of recruiters and hiring managers use the technology. If your company hasn’t tried the software yet, you’re missing out on a great opportunity to find better candidates and make your recruiting process more efficient.

Here are seven reasons why 2019 is the year you should give video interviewing a shot:

1. Younger Talent Expects a Digital Experience

You’ve learned how to attract and hire millennials just in time to start worrying about Generation Z. Also known as “centennials,” this generation includes people born after 1996 but before 2010, and many of them will be joining the workforce in 2019.

A common misconception many recruiters have is that the same tactics they use to attract millennials will work to attract Gen. Z. This is not the case.

One of the major differences between the two generations is how each interacts with technology. Millennials witnessed the rise of the internet and cellphones, but they still remember what it was like to take notes on paper and use a payphone. In contrast, most Gen. Z-ers never experienced the world before smartphones and social media.

These generational differences have major implications for how you should try to attract Gen. Z. Because Gen. Z-ers are used to technology that’s simple and mobile, it is essential your recruitment technology meet these same standards. Video interviewing software does just that, allowing your candidates to apply for jobs and perform interviews from their smartphones and tablets.

2. Video Interviewing Provides a Better Candidate Experience

While we’re on the topic of Gen. Z, let’s take a moment to talk about what they expect from the candidate experience.

Ryan Jenkins, an expert on the generation, spoke to Forbes about how companies can attract and keep these employees. Jenkins stressed the importance of a positive candidate experience to Gen. Z-ers, noting they are “much less likely to do business with a company where they have had a poor experience as a job applicant.”

Of course, positive candidate experiences are important to job seekers of all generations, not just Gen. Z-ers. Many candidates see the recruitment process as a reflection of the employment experience. If the employer treats them poorly before they are hired, they assume the employer will treat them just as poorly if they join the staff.

According to a study  from Lighthouse Research, video interviewing is one way a company can provide a more positive candidate experience. While many respondents found video interviews stressful, 49 percent still thought video interviews helped them stand out in the recruitment process, and 25 percent more candidates preferred video interviews to in-person interviews.

“For companies, this represents an opportunity to target the candidate experience in a new way, delivering a flexible, convenient opportunity for candidates to interview with your organization,” the study reads. “The bottom line here is that candidates crave video interviews, and they also believe they are important elements in the hiring process, despite the level of stress that is tied to the practice.”

3. Most People Communicate Digitally

According to a LivePerson, Inc., report, 65 percent of millennials and Gen. Z-ers around the world communicate digitally more often than in person. The number is even higher among young people in the US (73.7 percent) and the UK (74.4 percent).

It makes sense for recruiters to change their methods of communicating with candidates as technology changes, but unfortunately, many have failed to do so. Plenty of recruiters still rely on phone calls, despite 61 percent of Americans regularly choosing not to answer their phones.

Recruiters who want to connect more effectively with talent should use video interviewing. Not only can video interviews completely replace phone interviews, but most video interviewing platforms can be used to update candidates on their status in the process as well, eliminating even the need for phone calls between interview rounds.

4. Video Interviews Can Speed Up Your Recruitment Process

If your recruitment process is slow, your best candidates may end up taking offers from other companies before you’ve even made a decision. Luckily, video interviewing has been proven to help companies speed up their processes.

Both prerecorded and live video interviews can be utilized toward this end. Prerecorded video interviews can be done without the recruiter actually participating; candidates simply record themselves answering predetermined questions, and recruiters can review the answers when they have time. This system makes it possible for both the recruiter and the candidate to conduct interviews on their own schedules. A recruiter could send out requests on a Friday, and come back on Monday to find all the interviews completed.

With live video interviews, recruiters still perform the interviews, but they do so from the comfort of their own desks. They can also skip low-benefit, time-consuming tasks like setting up a conference room or printing and organizing the candidate’s documents.

5. Video Interviewing Is the Most Cost-Effective Way to Interview

Generally speaking, recruiting costs increase over time. As a business grows, it needs to hire more people to keep the operation running. That not only means the recruitment team itself needs to grow, but also that the team needs to spend more time and resources on attracting and interviewing candidates.

Travel costs can be a major expense during the recruiting process, but you can cut down  on flights and hotels for out-of-town candidates by switching to video interviews. That way, there’s no need to fly people out for a single meeting that may not even result in a hire. Plus, video interviews still provide the same experience as an in-person interview, so nothing is lost in the way of interview efficacy.

Of course, if an out-of-town candidate makes it to the final round, you should fly them in, but spending the money before that point is unnecessary.

6. Become More Energy Efficient

Protecting the environment is a major concern for many. As a result, more businesses are looking to become more energy efficient. Not only do green practices make your company’s brand look better, but they can also  cut costs and lead to more business.

Your recruitment process may have more of a negative impact on the environment than you think. Many recruiters print a number of documents just to shred them eventually. After making the switch to video interviews, you may be surprised to see just how much paper you save! With video interviewing software, you can keep resumes, interview guides, and other documents digitally, which means fewer wasted resources — and less time fishing for documents in your filing cabinets.

7. Keep Up With Contemporary Trends

The last thing an organization wants is to fall behind the competition. Even something as seemingly small as switching to video interviews can help your competitors get an edge on you. The best way to ensure this doesn’t happen is make the change first.

Many people already see video interviewing as a powerful tool to fix broken recruiting processes, and it’s extremely likely almost all businesses will use video for recruiting purposes to some degree in the future. Don’t lose applicants to companies that have already adopted video software. Put yourself on the cutting edge today.

Tamara Gravelle is the senior content writer with VidCruiter.