Some of the silk slipper (high-end) executive search firms still get the majority of “C-Level” search assignments (and the big bucks too!) – I get that. What I question is when they use “face-to-face” interviews as a sustainable competitive advantage. That is what I heard when I attended a shoot-out last month for a senior level assignment. How does that work? When I asked the hiring manager to walk me through that, he sort of looked at me and said “what do you mean”?
I agree that to really get to know a candidate, do a deep dive to know more about them - meeting them in person is ideal. We still do face to face interviews – just not as many as we used to. Why? Well… the market conditions changed that behavior over two years ago. Many of our clients, when given other options, are making another choice.
Fast Forward. Many (ok MOST) of our clients (like all business owners) are watching their dollars and cents in this economic climate and today, with ubiquitous high speed Internet, all things are possible. Video has come a long way. We have been doing video interviews for years - so it’s not a new concept. What is new is the ability to conduct a high quality interview from our offices that meet and exceed everyone’s expectations! We visually meet candidates (and clients) on a video call and it works very well (thank you). We’ve used Skype and while it works pretty well – a couple of months ago we were introduced to ooVoo http://www.oovoo.com/ and we’ve never looked back. We still offer Skype AND a local video service – we like to provide choices to our clients and candidates. The local video service we use here in Charleston, connects us to hundreds of video locations across the United States. Problem: The video service is very expensive and candidates often have to drive 15-20 miles (or more) to get to a wired location. Plus – our clients react (very) negatively to the $300 – $500 fees they charge per interview.
In the new world, we conduct multiple ooVoo video interviews every week in our Charleston and Chicago offices. It’s easy. Log on, enter a virtual room, with our logo on the screen, and each person is shown in a nice frame displaying their name - and the quality is unreal. We have the ability to record the interviews and send links to clients. We can display the candidate’s resume on the screen or show them a presentation on the company or other documents related to the search while we talk. In theory we can have up to 6 people on a call simultaneously – but we never do. This enhanced way of conducting interviews has moved the needle in my practice allowing us to do more and increase our productivity. We can also send messages in a mini-chat room while we are on the interview if needed. That’s pretty cool!
So, face-to-face interviews, while preferred, are NOT a sustainable competitive advantage for the high-end search firms (or for anybody). There are multiple steps in the recruiting and vetting process, and the reality is there is no secret sauce. If meeting candidates face-to-face is all you have in your one-up bag - let’s meet at the next beauty contest or shoot-out and talk about competitive advantage. Ready? Let’s dance!
And…For my HR and recruiter brethren – give this a trial run. You will absolutely love it - I’m hooked!
This is so true! Gone are the days of big budgets just to bring candidates in for face-to-face interviews. It is vital to only spend that money on the people that are ready to come in. This is a great service to offer!!
Good point Kathy. I have found that companies large and small (public and private) are watching every dollar in this environment for lots of reasons. High-end hotels, fancy dinners – all adding up to thousands of dollars to meet someone for an hour or two may not be in play. I’m just saying!
this post is absolutely, positively, 100% spot on. bullseye!
We just started using ooVoo. Great tool!! The cost savings is just one benefit. We are finding being able to record, index and review and critique (with candidate’s prior approval) is very powerful. We are now finding that functionality and technology is trumping the benefits of the first in person interview.
Using ooVoo has been a great savings tool in both time and money when interviewing candidates. Some key things I have found that make the quality better: make sure the candidate has a high quality web camera like a Logitech Pro 9000 or another similar model, has a high speed Internet connection and has turned off all other programs.
It’s awesome! Thanks to everyone for your comments. For those of us in search(internally or externally), this type of productivity tool is exactly what we need to be looking for on a regular basis to improve service levels. In the end, (to me) it’s all about serving our clients in the best way possible and delivering real meaningful value.
Great article. I completely understand where you are coming from. My company created OVIA – our online video interviewing platform to solve the exact same problem you mention in this article.
I would love to get your thoughts on our approach.
With OVIA we take things a little further by allowing you to create automated video interviews (not live). You create questions relevant to your position or organizations, then invite candidates to take the “virtual interview”. They get a link to your automated interview and complete it on their own time using their webcam. You and your team can then come into the system and evaluate their responses at your convenience.
What do you think?
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I have an account on oovoo but i seldom use it because I don’t know many people with oovoo accounts. The video and voice quality was great though. It will be a bit of trouble for clients though to have them open an account on oovoo when almost everybody has Skype. So we use Skype.
I have used Oovoo and another provider in the past which I believe was called Sightspeed for just your reasons above. We video interviewed candidates and would record their interviews. I would then edit the interview and send an abbreviated clip to the hiring manager for review. Because of scheduling hassles, especially when interviewing candidates abroad, we created a solution (iCandidatescreener) that allowed the candidate to interview themselves on their time and the hiring manager could quickly screen through the candidates’ recorded interviews on their time. Because we let the hiring manager upload custom questions, the interview is much like a two-way but the hiring manager does not have to get involved right from the get go. Plus if the candidate’s internet connection dropped which has happened during a two-way, there is not a lot of time wasted as we wait for them to get back online.
I have used Oovoo and another provider in the past which I believe was called Sightspeed for just your reasons above. We video interviewed candidates and would record their interviews. I would then edit the interview and send an abbreviated clip to the hiring manager for review. Because of scheduling hassles, especially when interviewing candidates abroad, we created a solution (iCandidatescreener) that allowed the candidate to interview themselves on their time and the hiring manager could quickly screen through the candidates’ recorded interviews on their time. Because we let the hiring manager upload custom questions, the interview is much like a two-way but the hiring manager does not have to get involved right from the get go. Plus if the candidate’s internet connection dropped which has happened during a two-way, there is not a lot of time wasted as we wait for them to get back online.