Kris Wood, Vice President EMEA at Fuze
In the age of video chat, meeting face-to-face doesn’t have to mean meeting in person. Through the use of business communications platforms, UC tools and chat apps, businesses are now able to recruit staff from opposite ends of the planet – including people they may never physically meet.
According to one survey from HRO today, almost a third (31%) of hiring managers conduct at least part of their interview process remotely via video chat. With many businesses now recruiting from an increasingly global talent pool, this number is only set to increase.
Given this trend for “remote recruiting”, here are three reasons why video chat is set to replace the traditional job interview:
- It’s how employees will communicate in the job
When employers used to insist on face-to-face meetings, it was so that they could see and assess how well candidates perform in “real life”. Now, real life is just as much about how you come across on camera as it is how you perform in person.
With 70% of UK businesses set to adopt remote working by 2020, the majority of employees will spend a significant amount of time communicating via live video, email and chat apps. As such, interviewing remotely provides a valuable insight into how workers will perform in “real world” situations.
- The new generation expects it
According to research from the Social Science Research Network, 65% of today’s workforce are “visual learners”, preferring to absorb information via images and video rather than email or text. This is backed up by research from Fuze, which found that 57% of teenagers use video calling as a key form of communication, compared to only 47% of the existing workforce. By contrast only 2% of young people use a landline phone in order to make calls. As this new “app generation” enters the workforce, communicating via video is set to rapidly become the new normal, with many employees expected to treat it as second nature.
- It saves money in the short and long term
Arranging face-to-face interviews is never easy, particularly if you want to tap into the global talent pool. Companies are growing increasingly accustomed to the notion of long-distance communication and running a global workforce. As such, recruiting needs to emulate this approach, removing the barriers of flights, fees and face-to-face meetings to engage with candidates in any location.
As the app generation enters the workforce and the average business grows increasingly international in its approach, remote recruiting will soon move from a rarity to the ‘new normal’ for recruiters and HR departments. If businesses fail to adapt to this trend, they will quickly find themselves struggling to attract the latest talent.
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