Crimson & Co are pleased to announce Senior Consultant, Helen Chiswell’s comments on video interviewing in the London Evening Standard.
When even a 141-year-old clothing brand, based in London’s Carnaby Street, decides that prospective CEOs should feature in videos for its first stage selection process, it’s a sure-fire sign the traditional face-to-face job interview is starting to change.
Lyle & Scott sought tech-savvy leaders, so rather than meet them in person, it requested Vine videos and Pinterest boards instead of CVs. The winning candidate, Phillip Oldham, went one better, sending a three minute film of himself.
If such tactics sound extreme, the evidence suggests it wont be for too much longer.
With firms spending an average of 10 working days per year interviewing, 16 per cent of their time travelling to meet candidates and £3,286 reimbursing candidates travel expenses (according to video recruitment software firm Cammio), more and more firms are using video and, more commonly, video interviews.
Research by Office Team finds 49 per cent of HR departments will upgrade to video interviews by the end of this year (up from 15 per cent in 2010), and that means the rules about how to perform well in a virtual face-face needs updating, too.
Helen Chiswell, Senior Consultant at supply chain consultancy, Crimson & Co, has previously been video interviewed. Helen says: ‘It is a step up from a normal face-to-face interview. I was definitely more conscious of having to make my facial expressions a little more exaggerated. My backdrop was my bedroom wall, but it was my home office too, so luckily there weren’t too many distractions. Sitting where I did, I also felt like I was in more of a ‘work’ environment, which focused me more. I wouldn’t have got this being in my kitchen or living room’.
Accepted wisdom is that video interviews don’t negatively impact naturally nervy candidates any more than face-to-face ones do, but there is a view that nervous job seekers can calm their anxiety be removing the interviewer can’t see any aide memoir Post-it notes that interviewees can stick around their screen at eye-level, to remind them of key messages they want to say.
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