Video interviews of a search firm’s recommended candidates will save clients money.
These video interviews, which focus on issues relevant to the client’s search, are not the same thing as videoconference interviews, a technology that more and more recruiters are
using to reduce travel costs and improve their productivity. That said, in the field of executive search relying on videoconference interviews, which some recruiters use almost exclusively, is a very bad idea. You cannot get a good read on the candidate’s style or personality. Everything is filtered and this filtering leads to costly hiring mistakes in an industry with a less than stellar record of successfully selecting the best candidates for a particular job.
Clients who use search firms that provide DVD summaries of their recommended candidates say it dramatically reduces the risk of making a mistake. Without the videos
executives must rely exclusively on a recruiter’s judgment. They are making decisions
based on paper — resumes, background reviews, references, and an assessment
from the search partner who may, or may not, have personally interviewed the candidates.
How many times have you been impressed with a candidate’s resume, but then they walked in for the interview you knew it was all a big waste of time? Search consultants are not immune from that problem which is why we interview more people than we plan to submit.
With a video summary, the client can see the candidates answering questions they actually care about. They see how they perform. They get a sense of the candidates
personalities — whether they will fit in the organization.
If you make the wrong choices regarding whom to invite for an interview in the executive search process, you run the risk of starting over.
Video summaries are a relatively inexpensive value innovation that are key components of
transformational search.
Transformational recruiting is the way of the future.
© John G. Self, 2010