For a long time phone screening has been an essential filtering tool for HR professionals. Recruiters and HR professionals have had to learn to live with the many limitations of phone screening, not least the fact that they cannot assess a candidate’s body language and non-verbal cues from a telephone call. Telephone screening has forced HR professionals to work somewhat in the dark.
Telephone screening has also failed to keep pace with other social and technological changes in the business world. Advances in technology make it easier for the best candidates to apply for a greater number of positions than ever before. This places more pressure on HR professionals who are required to filter through larger numbers of applicants, in shorter timeframes in order to secure the best talent. Candidates have become impatient with delays in this process, and it is common for them to accept other positions prior to most phone screening processes being completed. This is why time-to-hire is high on the list of Key Performance Indicators for most HR departments.
Along comes Video Interviewing
Like many technological and social advances that change our lives, only those who have already used video interviewing can truly comprehend how much of a game changer it is in recruitment. Those early adopters who have already replaced phone screening with asynchronous video interviewing have an almost evangelical belief on how it has changed the way they work forever.
What is asynchronous Video Interviewing?
Unlike live (synchronous) video interviewing, asynchronous video interviewing does not tether HR professionals to one interview at a time. Asynchronous video interviewing allows HR professionals to ask the same questions of multiple candidates at the same time and record those responses for later review and assessment. This means that interviewing becomes infinitely scalable, with a single recruiter having the option to interview one or hundreds of candidates simultaneously.
Asynchronous video interviewing also allows recruiters and HR professionals much greater flexibility to review and rank candidates, at a time that is better suited to their workload. Video interviews can even be reviewed remotely, at any time of the day. The best video interviewing systems provide HR professionals with the ability to review and rank candidates with input from other stakeholders. Like the interviews themselves, this is not limited to a scheduled time or location.
What does the future hold for phone screening?
Like the telex and the fax machine, phone screening has had its day. The increasing time pressure on candidates and HR professionals demands a more efficient, scalable and collaborative solution than the one that can be provided by phone screening. Due to the fact that it suffers from the same time and scalability constraints as phone screening, even live (synchronous) video interviewing is no longer a practical solution. Some HR professionals may continue to cling to phone screening longer than they should, but the majority of HR professionals will soon (if they haven’t already) be wondering ‘how I ever did this job effectively without the aid of asynchronous video interviewing.’
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