News »Browse Articles »
Short videos can speed up hiring decisions
0
Short videos can speed up hiring decisions
The video-resume concept is dead, but the visual cues from a short video can engage clients and give your candidates an advantage over others in today`s competitive environment, according to an expert in the field.
Tom Culver, a former recruiter, SEEK manager and currently the national sales manager of Vipepower in Australia, has been researching potential uses of video as a sales and recruitment tool for the past two years.
Video resumes will never replace paper ones, he says, because no client wants to watch lengthy videos.
But the fact remains that video adds two important elements to communication that an email or a resume can`t deliver - tone of voice and body language, he says.
In face-to-face communication, he points out, scientific research shows that the opinions people form about one another are 55 per cent due to body language and 38 per cent based on tone of voice.
According to Culver, that means that in today`s email-driven world, a client only has seven per cent of the normal amount of cues to help them make decisions - you`re missing 93 per cent of the opportunity to win someone over.
"Everybody`s trying to put together the perfect cover letter and resume, when the science says that`s only seven per cent of the thing. In this day and age the critical thing is to get in front of the person somehow, and [video] is an easy way to put yourself in front of more opportunities."
The more cues clients have about a candidate`s personality, the more likely they are to believe and like them, he says.
Culver suggests that recruiters should use short videos (20-30 seconds long) that allow clients to gauge a candidate`s personality and their potential fit with the organisation. (He points out that in a US study, managers who interviewed a candidate for 20 minutes made almost identical decisions about the candidate`s ambition, intelligence and competence as did observers of just the first 15 seconds of the interviews.)
Recruiters can also speed up decision-making in the recruitment process and shortlist more quickly by having candidates answer on video specific questions that the client sees as important.
A resume will still confirm that the person has the requisite skills and experience for the job, he says, but the candidate`s video can let them speak for themselves about why they`re suited to the role or the company.
A video "levels the playing field" instead of favouring people who present particularly well, he adds.
"Even if you`re not a great communicator, [you`re] able to say `the reason I`m a top-notch accountant is this, this and this`." The client is then in a better position to judge - from the candidate`s tone of voice and body language - if the candidate is telling the truth.
"If the accountant is a great accountant but he can`t get along with people, and that gets across immediately, then you probably don`t want to put him forward anyway - he`s not going to get the job," Culver says.
"[But] even people you think are not going to do well with a video, they can really surprise you."
Source:
http://www.recruiterdaily.com.au/nl06_news_selected.php?act=2&stream=All&selkey=
Tom Culver, a former recruiter, SEEK manager and currently the national sales manager of Vipepower in Australia, has been researching potential uses of video as a sales and recruitment tool for the past two years.
Video resumes will never replace paper ones, he says, because no client wants to watch lengthy videos.
But the fact remains that video adds two important elements to communication that an email or a resume can`t deliver - tone of voice and body language, he says.
In face-to-face communication, he points out, scientific research shows that the opinions people form about one another are 55 per cent due to body language and 38 per cent based on tone of voice.
According to Culver, that means that in today`s email-driven world, a client only has seven per cent of the normal amount of cues to help them make decisions - you`re missing 93 per cent of the opportunity to win someone over.
"Everybody`s trying to put together the perfect cover letter and resume, when the science says that`s only seven per cent of the thing. In this day and age the critical thing is to get in front of the person somehow, and [video] is an easy way to put yourself in front of more opportunities."
The more cues clients have about a candidate`s personality, the more likely they are to believe and like them, he says.
Culver suggests that recruiters should use short videos (20-30 seconds long) that allow clients to gauge a candidate`s personality and their potential fit with the organisation. (He points out that in a US study, managers who interviewed a candidate for 20 minutes made almost identical decisions about the candidate`s ambition, intelligence and competence as did observers of just the first 15 seconds of the interviews.)
Recruiters can also speed up decision-making in the recruitment process and shortlist more quickly by having candidates answer on video specific questions that the client sees as important.
A resume will still confirm that the person has the requisite skills and experience for the job, he says, but the candidate`s video can let them speak for themselves about why they`re suited to the role or the company.
A video "levels the playing field" instead of favouring people who present particularly well, he adds.
"Even if you`re not a great communicator, [you`re] able to say `the reason I`m a top-notch accountant is this, this and this`." The client is then in a better position to judge - from the candidate`s tone of voice and body language - if the candidate is telling the truth.
"If the accountant is a great accountant but he can`t get along with people, and that gets across immediately, then you probably don`t want to put him forward anyway - he`s not going to get the job," Culver says.
"[But] even people you think are not going to do well with a video, they can really surprise you."
Source:
http://www.recruiterdaily.com.au/nl06_news_selected.php?act=2&stream=All&selkey=
